Orchara Experiments in Ohio 



A recent report ol progress frora the Ohio i^xperiment 

 station contains a large amount of information of interest to farm- 

 ers, i'ollowing are a fev/ oi the items that shoula be of special 

 interest to Liassachusetts grov/ers . 



1. Apple foliage sprayea with lime sulfur showea a 2b% reauc- 

 tion in leaf area as comparea to the b% reduction in foliage spray- 

 ea v.'ith flotation Sulfur. 



£. uamage from the round heaaed a^^ple tree oorer was best pre- 

 sented by covering the entire trunk witn newspapers folaed once and 

 wrapped twice arouna the trunk. Oare shoula he taken that the cov- 

 ering e]ctena3 clear to the grouna. This insect lays its eggs on 

 the bark at the base of the tree from June to August. (The rouna 

 heaaea apple tree borer is a serious pest on young trees in some 

 orcharas in western Massachusetts.) 



b. When the grouna under i::'tdyman Vvinesap trees was coverea with 

 canvas over an area 40 feet in aiameter from May 1 to harvest time, 

 ■with means of preventing lateral transfer arouna the circumference, 

 thus excluaing all rainfall over this area, the trees continuea to 

 crop for three years in a satisfactory manner. This supports the 

 contention that water deiicioncies ao not seriovly affect trees un- 

 til the wilting point is approachea. It shoula not encourage us to 

 believe, however, that v/ater is not essential to fruit oroauction. 



4. Comparison of harvesting aates for rea strains, as comparea 

 Y/ith the parent varieties, inaicatea that the picking date shoula 

 be the same. This suggests caution Iti Licking rea oua sports too 

 soon, even though they have reachea a satisfactory coloi' uevelop^ioit, 



J . K . S haw 



A Reminaer of the 1958 Hurricane 



Many grov/ers have remarKea that certain hurricane aara- 

 agea apple trees look worse than they ala in tne summer of 1959. 

 Dr. J'. K. chaw expresses the situation as follows: "Many apple 

 trees are showing more eviaence of hurricane injury than they ala 

 last year. This injury is eviaencea by sparse foliage v/ith a 

 yellowisa tinge, suggesting the possibility of nitrogen aeficiency. 

 Not only may the restricted root system be unable to secure suffi- 

 cient nitrogen, for the tree, but the rainy weather may have leachea 

 out available nitrates ana interferea witn nitrification. If hurri- 

 cane aamagea trees show symptoms of nitrogen aeficiency, it may be 

 ■well to give them a moaerate aose at this season perhaps half the 

 usual appliciition of some reaaily available nitrogen carrying fer- 

 tilizer. Tne sooner this is appliea the betteT-." 



Some of these daaagea trees sufferea more root breakage 

 than v/as apparent at firsu, and have probably aone very little in 

 the way of ueveloping replacement roots. Pernaps they pullea 

 through the dry season of 1959 "on bcrrov/ea time" using materials 

 stored in the tree. Tnen too, more nitrates may have been taken in 

 last suianier. Vvhatever the reason for their sickly appearance, trees 

 worth salvaging might well receive this aaaitional attention, (1) 

 Make sure that the anchorage is secure ana that the tree is not al- 

 lowed to sway in the v.ina, {n) Apply a quickly available form of 

 nitrogen as suggestea above, (o) Kemove the apples, if any, in orcer 

 that the manufactured food materials may be usea where most neeaed, 

 ana (4) Use more mulch material. 



