Apply Tanglefoot to Fruit Tree Trunks for Ant and Crawling Insect Control. 5.3.15

Tanglefoot and polyethylene strips.  5.3.15

 This is a good time of year to apply Tanglefoot to fruit tree trunks.  It's  well in advance of fruit ripening, but after most of the Spring rains.

For figs, the Tanglefoot prevents ants from climbing the trunk and entering ripe figs.  Without the Tanglefoot, my figs invariably have some added crunch, that seems to move around on the tongue.  In addition to being odd, infection by ants also seems to cause mold spoilage of the figs before they fully ripen.  I suspect the ants carry mold spores.

For cherries, Tanglefoot prevents black aphids.  My theory there is ants farm the aphids.  Either that or, the black aphids climb the trunk themselves.  Whatever the case, the Tanglefoot prevents them.

I also apply to apples, pears, and peaches.  The treatment does not stop problems caused by flying insects, but does stop problems caused by tree-climbing insects.

I don't know that tanglefoot applied directly to the trunk is harmful.  It is messy, sticky, and next to impossible to remove.  I wrap tightly with 6-inch-wide strips of light-weight polyethylene.  The strips are cut from disposable grocery store bags.  They are too flimsy to girdle the trunk.  I wrap twice, then tie with a square knot.  Then apply Tanglefoot, squeezing a strip from the tube like toothpaste, and spread on the plastic wrapping using a disposable plastic spoon. 

Being very cheap, I save the plastic spoons from my work place lunch.  I usually take my own flatware, but sometimes forget.

Wrapping fig tree trunk.  5.3.15

During the winter, I remove the Tanglefoot.   By then, it is covered with dust, dirt, plant material, and ineffective at stopping insects.   The polyethylene bags are flimsy enough, to simply pull off the tree trunks.

Alternatively, one could apply sticky plastic tape, sticky-side out.  I would not use duct-tape, which is too tough and might girdle the tree.

Tree protected with Tanglefoot.  5.3.15

Some Images from Vintage Printable.com. 11.11.14

Vintage images of Daffodils.  source: vintageprintable.com

Browsing vintageprintable.com, online source of vintage, public domain images that are free to use.

I enjoy these old images.  They involve much more effort, artistry, skills of observation, talent, than any photo.

These images relate to recent plantings.  They demonstrate the continuity of gardening through the ages.

Fritillaria rubrum "Crown Imperial"  source vintageprintable.com

New Trees progress report.

Cherry "Almaden Duke"

Jujube "Li"

 Here is the progress report for new trees planted 2012 - 2013.  Most, but not all, are fruit trees.  They are young.  Not all are pictured here.  They are in no particular order.

Duke Cherry "Almaden Duke".  Now 6 ft tall.  Growth this year, 6".  Transplant from Vancouver yard last fall.

Ginkgo seedling from Illinois.  My dad's collected seed, tree is the smallest of the 3 I grew.  6ft tall, growth 0 inches.  There were tufts of new growth from each node, but no stem extension.  Leaves remain green so far.

Madrone.  New planting this fall.  6 ft tall.

Sweet Cherry "Vandelay".  New bare root from Raintree, started late this winter, before my surgery.  3'8" of which 2" is new.

Sweet Cherry Sweetheart.  As for Vandelay.  3'10" of which  1'2" is new.  Bloomed after planting, no fruit.

"Greenspire" Linden, South side of yard near house.  6'6" of which 1'6" is new. 

 Jujube "Li".  Planted as container plant last fall.  about 1 ft tall, of which 6" is new.

Pawpaw "NC-1".  All pawpaws were planted summer 2012.  2'7" of which 7" is new.

Pawpaw "NC-1"

Pawpaw "Rebecca's gold".  This tree was eaten by an animal, leaving only about 3".  It grew to 1ft 7" tall, 3 stems.

Pie Cherry "North Star".  Planted as container tree from Lowes, late Spring.  This tree is 5'4".  Growth occurred before I planted it, about 1 ft was new.  This tree had cherries when I bought it.

Pie Cherry "Montmorency".  6'3".  I moved this from Vancouver last summer.  18" of the growth was this year.  This tree bore cherries this year.

Wild Plums - grown from seeds summer / fall 2012.  Tallest is 4'3", next is 3', and smallest is 2'.

Peach "Indian Blood".    Now 4' tall, of which 1ft 4 inches is new.

Persimmon "Seijo".  Now 4'10", of which 15"  is new.  This was bare root planted this year, from Raintree.  The growth was nice, but there is a wound on the north side, narrow, extending much of the old stem.  The wound is about a mm wide.  I don't know what that bodes for next year.

Pawpaw "Rebecca's Gold"

 Persimmin "Nikita's Gift".  2'6" of which 2" is new.  Small but survived the first year.  Persimmons are considered difficult to start, but making it through the first year is encouraging. 

Peach "Charlotte"

Peach "Oregon Curl-Free"

 Peach "Charlotte".   6ft total, of which 2'2" is new.  Fast starting tree.  Moved from Vancouver last summer, started from bare root Spring 2012 as container tree.

Peach seedling and Grape "Price"

Peach "Oregon Curl Free".  Total 4'5" of which 3'7" is new.  Same issues as for "Charlotte"

Pawpaw "Sunflower"

Pie Cherry "Surefire"

Apple "Red Sentinel"  2'4" tall and "Golden Sentinel" 2'4" tall.  Minimal added height this year.  These were planted last summer.  The rootstock may be super-dwarfing. 

Linden "Greenspire" in front yard.  This was the first of the Lindens.  9"  tall of which 1" is new. 

Peach Seedling 8" - unknown parentage, suspect genetic dwarf.  Volunteer in vegetable bed, which was treated with compost.  If it develops leaf curl, I don't plan to keep it  The "Price" grape 8" was a cutting from my vines at home.

American Linden "Redmond"  5 ft tall, 4" is new.  This was container tree planted last winter.

Pear "Rescue"  4 ft tall, 9" is new, and pear "Orca, 4 ft, 9" is new.  Both bare root trees from Raintree, planted late winter 2013.

Apple "Spitzenberg" 3" of new growth on 6" of rootstock.  This was new graft, grown from new graft early Spring and given TLC with fertigation; Apple "Sutton's Beauty" 1'6" of new growth on 6" rootstock, same situation.

Chinese Haw "Red Sun", 4'8" of which 1" is new.   Bare root from "One Green World" nursery planted last fall. 

Plum "Stanley"

Sweet Cherry "Sweetheart"

Plum "Toka"

Mulberry "Illinois Everbearing", 6'4" tall, of which 11'1" is new this year.  Moved from Vancouver yard last fall.

Plum "Stanley" 7'6" of which about 2' is new.  Moved from Vancouver last year.

Plum "Toka" 5'10" tall, of which 1'4" is new and plum "Satsuma" 5'6" of which 3" is new, both bought as potted trees last summer on sale at Home Depot.

The Sourwood I planted in Sept, is 7'8" tall.

I've started applying a layer of compost around each tree.  Ran out, more expected with another truckload of compost this week.

Cherries and Berries.

Surefire Cherry

Surefire tart cherries

This was a good day for fruit.  Sweet cherries, tart cherries, raspberries, and strawberries.

Sweet cherries tart cherries, strawberries, raspberries.

Fruit Trees. Mini Orchard.

Almaden Duke Cherry

Jujube in bee yard

Jujube in orchard

 Almaden Duke Cherry, I moved last summer.  At the time I wondered if it would survive, due to wilting.  Growing nicely.  Only a couple of cherries now.  That may be due to the late frost, which caused a lot of damage to other trees and vines.

Illinois Everbearing Mulberry

North Star Cherry

Sunflower Paw Paw

NC1 Paw Paw

Oregon Curl Free Peach

Indian Blood Peach

Charlotte Peach

Chinese Haw Red Sun

Seijo Persimmon

 Jujube.  I forget which of the two this is.  One is Li and the other is Coco.  From One Free World last summer.  Both are late to start, but now growing.  They have a lot of growing ahead before they amount to anything.   Not a good recommendation for the source.  Planted last fall.

Nikita's Gift Persimmin

One jujube is in the bee  yard, the other in the little orchard.  This fall the other may also be in the bee yard, to provide room for another plum or peach.







Illinois Everbearing Mulberry.  Whatever frost damage was there, it's recovered.  Soon it will need a bird net.

North Star Pie Cherry.  Thanks to the rainy week, it didn't lose a leaf or wilt after planting.  From Lowes.

Sunflower and NC1 Paw Paws.  growing nicely.  They seem to leaf out later than most other trees, about the same time as the jujubes and mulberry.

Oregon Curl Free Peach.  This little tree won't have peaches this year.  It is one of the least affected I've seen as far as Leaf Curl is concerned.  From One Green World last year.  So far, not very vigorous.  There is a summer ahead for growth.  Might make up for lost time.

Indian Blood Peach.  Minimal leaf curl.  Much less than most of the others.  This year I hope it recovers from the damage I did transplanting it from vancouver.  I lost most of the roots when I dug it up.  Surprised it survived.  Can't be disappointed at it for not having peaches this year - just survive and grow.  From Raintree.

Charlotte peach.  Supposed to be curl resistant. It's not.  Or not very.  What a mess.  I will need to research replacements.  I don't want to get stuck with another susceptible peach tree.  It's making a comeback with new growth.   Give it another year to see what happens.

Chinese Haw.  Growing nicely.  From One Green World.  Bare root planted last fall.

Seijo Persimmon and Nikita's Gift Persimmon.  Both growing nicely.  Bare root, planted this spring.  From Raintree.  They will need extra water all summer, because persimmons are said to have inadequate roots to support their tops, for the first year.

Front Yard

Tulips and sweet cherry.More tulips and another sweet cherry.Erythronium.

What's Blooming?

Sweet Cherry.

Iris bucharica.

Muscari. These multiply rapidly with no assistance from me.

Genetic dwarf peaches..

Wild Cherry and Wild Plum seeds

I found these with the other seeds.  I collected them in July.  There are also some plum seedlings that germinated earlier.  Might as well see what happens.  First, crack the nuts open, remove the seed.  Then place seed in moist paper towel, in zip lock back, in refrigerator for a couple of months.

Wild Cherry seeds. I tried cracking them open with pliers. Smashed the seeds. This worked, sort of. Then sanded a few for scarification only.

The pliers worked for the plum seeds, if I placed the seed into the open part of the pliers, not the flat part. Vice Grips work better but I don't have them here at home now. I would like a wild cherry, which I would prune aggressively to keep it small. The ones that provided these seeds, have a great flavor. If all of the wild plums grow, I don't know what I'll do with the trees. Something will come up.

Transplanted Trees

The Almaden Duke Cherry did perk up a lot. That's what a week of cool weather and rain can do. The leaves are not yet yellowing for fall. A few are damaged, but overall it took the transplanting well. With little root damage, and little loss of leaf, I think it's OK to let it bear cherries next Spring. If it chooses to do so. It will be nice to get our own fruit the first Spring here.

The Sal's Fig I moved the first week of ownership, last July. TLC and watering every week resulted in a healthy move despite the midSummer timing. These are its first figs, ever. They are very tasty. I think better than Hardy Chicago or Petite Negri. That might be my imagination.

That little Maple I moved last week. There is some sunburn of the leaves. That would not have happened if I'd waited a week, but they are about to fall off anyway. It's ready to settle in for winter.

Moving a 4 year old cherry tree

Rain is predicted for next Saturday. Nights are in the 40s to 50s, days in 70s to 80s. Leaves are beginning to change color and drop. So I thought it would be OK to move this 4 year old Almaden Duke cherry tree from the yard in Vancouver to the yard in Battleground. It was quite a job.

Before digging.   I watered the tree thoroughly 2 days ago.  It wasn't getting watered much this summer.  There was a handful of cherries this year.  good.

Starting to dig.  As with the ginkgo, vertical slices about 2 feet from the trunk.

Then dig further out, making a moat.  Then slicing under the tree.  Slicing the soil, as deep as possible, not prying upward.

Then, as the tree falls to one side,  easing a tarp under it.  I did not lift, but rather wedged the tarp under the tree.  Then pulled on the tarp to move the tree.  At the truck, I lifted using the tarp.  I covered the tree with another tarp, along with a shrub and another smaller tree, tied it all down, and drove it to battleground.  It wasn't as good as it sounds - wind blew under the tarp, resulting in some dehydration of the tree.

Here's the hole.  I hosed down the tree and kept it covered until ready to put into the hole.  There are two mole tunnels into this hole.

I'm tired of moles digging into the newly planted trees.  I don't know if they actually do harm.  I'm also tired of me not doing something about it.  So here is a lining of chicken wire.  It should rust away in a few years.

Cherry planted.  A bit droopy.  I don't know if that's the wind effect, which didn't affect other trees that I moved, or maybe cherries in leaf just don't move well.  After soaking, it's a little less droopy.  Still, it may lose leaves, and I may not know until next year if it survives. Added the next morning:

The leaves did perk up. Not 100%, but much better. I think it will be OK. * The mole screen did seem to annoy and frustrate the mole. He/she built a new mole hill right at he screen, where the tunnel was blocked. I don't mind the moles. They eat grubs, so they have a beneficial role.I just don't want them to damage the young tree roots. It's also annoying when they pile soil on top of the mulch. When the rains start, I'm guessing they will concentrate on the newly moist soil of the lawn, and stay away from my little fruit trees.