1. Preparing Home Fruit Plantings for Spring
John Strang
Department of Horticulture

2. Ordering Fruit Plants (It’s getting a little late)
Recommend disease resistant varieties for home growers
Apples
Fire blight,
Scab
Cedar apple rust
Powdery mildew
Pears
Fire blight
Peaches
Bacterial canker
Hardier cv.
Grapes
Black rot
Downy & Powdery mildew
Anthracnose
Botrytis
Phomopsis
Blackberries & Black raspberries
Orange rust
Blueberries
Phytophthora
Strawberries
Red stele
Leaf diseases

3. Assess Tree Damage
Vole
Rabbit

4. Collection of Scion Wood
Collect when wood is completely dormant, Feb. -Mar.
Previous seasons growth
Disease free wood
Bundle up wood and label
Wrap in moist towel, sawdust etc. and place in a plastic bag
Store in refrigerator

5. Bridge Graft

6. Inarching

7. Cleft Graft

8. Prune All Fruit Plants

9. Types of Cuts

10. Pruning Fruit Trees Remove dead wood
Put in branch spreaders (apples & pears)
Remove narrow angled or weak scaffold limbs
Remove a few larger limbs if needed back to another outwardly growing limb
Thin out branches and shoots leaving plenty of flower buds
20% max.
Know the growth characteristics and where the flower buds are.

11. Pruning Videos Fruit Tree Pruning
Pruning Apple Trees to a Central Leader
Grapevine Pruning Demonstration
Blackberry Pruning Demonstration
Blueberry Pruning Demonstration

12. Extension Pruning Publications
Training and Culture of Dwarf Apples Using the Vertical Axis System (HortFact-3501)
Kentucky Backyard Apple Integrated Pest Management (IPM-9)

13. Grower Questions Mushrooms – trees life is limited
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker injury on apple
Burr knot or adventitious roots on apple

14. Fire Blight on Apples & Pears
Prune out as much as possible
Prune out slightly before canker
Not transferred on pruners while dormant

15. Remove Black Knot on Plums

16. Avoid Leaving Branch Stubs

17. Removal of Larger Limbs

18. Remove Narrow Branch Angles
Strong
Weak

19. Branch Spreading Opens tree up for sunlight and spray penetration
Not enough
Opens tree up for sunlight and spray penetration
Reduces shoot and limb vigor
Encourages flowering
Excessive

20. Apple Tree Training Central Leader System Second Growing Season
Photos courtesy: Ohio State University

21. Central Leader Apple Tree

22. Multiple Leader or Modified Central Leader
Apple
Plum
Cherry
Pear

23. Vase Peach & Some Plums Peach tree after 2 years growth
Photo courtesy: Ohio State University
Peach tree after 2 years growth
before & after pruning

24. Peach Pruning

25. Grape – High Cordon Rough prune to 3 – bud spurs
Prune to 4-5 buds/ft cordon on each side of high wire cordon
Must have at least 1 lb of prunings to do this!
Before
After

26. Dormant Oil Spray Tree Fruit
When temperatures are 45°F or higher for 2 days
Complete thorough coverage
San Jose Scale

27. Dormant Oil Spray Rosy apple aphid Two spot and European red mites
Thorough complete coverage

28. Fixed Copper Spray Apples & Pears for Fire Blight
Combine in dormant oil spray up to ¼ “ green stage
Kills fire blight bacteria on surface of trees * *

29. Fruit Insect & Disease Predictive Models

30. Fire Blight Model

31. Fire Blight Model - 4/10/12

32. Fire Blight Model 4/15/12
Spray Streptomycin
Protected for 4 days

33. Winter Injury All fruit crops still have the potential for a full crop
Peaches have some injury
Min. temp. Feb. 1
UKREC 12.3 °F
77% survival Contender
Lexington 6.6 °F
65% survival Coral Star

34. Fruit Crop Fertilization
Fertilize with N based on plant growth
May not be needed on very fertile sites
Once the pre plant fertilizer is applied usually only annual applications of N are needed.

35. Tree Fruit Fertilization
Desired New Terminal Growth (mature trees)*
Rate (Applied in Feb.)
Apples
12-15”
¼ lb ammonium nitrate/yr of age
Peaches & Plums
14-20”
1/6 lb ammonium nitrate/yr of age
Tart Cherries 8”
Pears
Less than 12”
1/8 lb ammonium nitrate/yr of age
*1-3 year-old trees may double this amount of growth May substitute SS Superkicker 33% N fertilizer for ammonium nitrate (Ammonium sulfate + Urea)
(½ lb granular fertilizer is equal to approximately 1 cup)

36. Small Fruit Fertilization
Desired
Growth
Rate
Strawberries
Dark green, avoid leggy growth
5 lb /100’ row,
L. Jun. after renovation
Blackberries & Raspberries
Dark green
lb ammonium nitrate/ 100 ft. row, Feb.
Grapes
Dark brown, 3/8” diam. current seasons canes
0.2 lb /vine, Apr 1
0.2 lb /vine, Fruit set

37. Check for Borers
Peach & Plum
Peachtree borers
Apple
Dogwood borers

38. Tree Planting Soil test and adjust P, K, Mg & pH Soil not too wet
Large hole
Soak roots overnight
Do not put fertilizer in the hole!
Put top soil back in bottom of hole

39. Tree Planting Cut off broken roots
Set tree with graft union 2-4 inches above soil line
Spread roots out well
Place top soil in around roots…Do not bring in good soil to fill hole
Firm soil around tree
May make an above ground basin – don’t leave over winter
Water in well to settle soil around roots immediately after planting

40. Planting Prune fruit crops in the spring, not fall Rodent guard
Gravel to reduce wallowing
Weed control
Planted on raised ridge with rodent guards
Figure courtesy: T. Roper & G. Frank, Univ. WI

41. Weed Control Increases tree growth & fruit size Mulching Glyphosate
Keep off of tree
Peaches particularly sensitive
Use generics
Weed eater

42. Fruit Thinning Apple & Pear Thin early
Larger fruit higher sugar content
Slightly lower yield
~ every 6-7”
Sevin at insecticide rate from bloom to 30 days after bloom

43. Bagging Apples Manage early season diseases and insects
Thin fruit to one/cluster
Apply bags at ” fruit diam.
Japanese bags
3-lb paper bags, 6” in length, with 1.5” slit cut at opening
Bags must cover fruit and be tied shut over branch

44. Bagging Apples Improves fruit finish
Pesticide sprays not needed after bagging
Controls
Codling moth
Plum curculio
San Jose scale
Rosy apple aphid
Sooty blotch & flyspeck
Apple scab
Cork spot

45. Grapes Rough prune when dormant Finish prune at 4” new growth
Delays growth
Frost protection
Anthracnose
Dormant period on susceptible varieties
Sulforix
Flea beetle
Bud break if found
Sevin
Black rot
4” new growth
Mancozeb, Captan or Fixed copper
10” new growth
Mancozeb, Captan or Fixed copper + myclolbutanil
Bagging when grapes are pea size

46. Blackberries & Raspberries
Prune out dead canes
Remove Rednecked cane borer
Look for Raspberry crown borer at cane bases - Blackberries
Spray with liquid-lime sulfur or Sulforix at ½ inch new growth
Rednecked cane borer
Raspberry crown borer

47. Blueberries Mulch with sawdust or wood chips
Leafroller & Plum curculio
Petal fall
Malathion or Permethrin

48. Strawberries
Remove straw mulch when new growth becomes a little yellow
Cover with straw or cloth when freeze predicted
Botrytis fruit rot
Bloom
Captan weekly

49. Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
17 counties
Boyd, Lewis, Greenup, Carter, Rowan, Lawrence
Pike, Floyd, Magoffin, Johnson
Letcher, Bell, Whitley
Jefferson, Henry, Oldham
Fayette
Feeds on a very wide range of fruit vegetable & ornamental crops
Takes 2-3 years to become a production problem
Overwinters in houses
Difficult to control
Malathion
Photo courtesy: Bugwood UGA

50. Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) Drosophila suzukii
Found all across IL this summer
Captured in KY traps in late summer
Bowling Green
Owensboro
Female can puncture fruit and lay eggs
Serious problem in soft fruit particularly later in season
Photo courtesy Patty Lucas
Photo courtesy G. Arakelian
Los Angelis county Ag. Commissioner
Photo courtesy
Martin Hauser, UC IPM

51. Spotted winged Drosophila
Attack as fruits turn color
Raspberry
Blackberry
Blueberry
Cherry
Strawberry
Grape
Peach
Plum
Tomato (GH, Heirloom)
Control with Entrust on some crops

52. Meetings Specifics - Fruit Facts Newsletter Fruit Tree Grafting
Fruit Tree Pruning
Blueberry Production
Fruit Grower Orchard Tour
Apr. 11, Shelbyville
Small Fruit Production & IPM Short Course
Apr. 24, Ashland
Agent Training & Pesticide CEU credit
KY Nut Growers Assoc. Meeting
Apr. 27, Elizabethtown