Have you tried actively aerated compost tea as a foliar feed early in
the season? I don't have any fruit trees, but I know a couple of
landscape contractors who have used it successfully to treat peach
trees that, in previous years, had gotten peach leaf curl.
At 9:46 AM -0800 2/17/09, Steven Garrett wrote:
Mulched with compost. Full sun. No chemicals.
As for my neighbor's laden prune trees; they are not mulched
(surrounded by turf). Can't say if they use chemical on their turf.
Prunes generally do real well here in rainland.
________________________________
From: Mike McGrath <[email protected]>
To: Steven Garrett <[email protected]>;
[email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 9:30:00 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] tolerate the eriophyid mites - they
are food forgood guys
that's strange tho;
are they in full sun? mulched with compost and not some kind of
wood? No chemical fertilizer?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steven Garrett" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:05 PM
Subject: [Community_garden] tolerate the eriophyid mites - they are
food forgood guys
Chris and Mike,
I am all for predatory/beneficial bugs. I have released lady bugs
on several occasions and I raise orchard mason bees. But these
little mites are wasting my trees. It is not about aesthetics. My
Italian prune tree is in the prime of life (around 10 years old)
but it is neither growing nor bearing much. Meanwhile my neighbor's
trees are laden with fruit (indicating that it is not climatic or
the wrong cultivar). And now my cherry trees have fallen victim.
Thanks for the Whatcom County Extension bulletin (I live just down
the road). I do take solace in this little excerpt from it: "use a
dormant oil to smother the overwintering females." That is advice I
am going to take.
Cheers,
Steven
________________________________
From: Chris Reid <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 6:50:52 AM
Subject: [Community_garden] tolerate the eriophyid mites - they
are food for good guys
Steven Garrett posted about using hort or dormant oil on eriophyid
mites on stone fruit trees (right, Steven? I am facing miles of
posts to find your post again, so will trust memory).
I found a U of California paragraph about this topic. First, are
the levels of mites at 300 per LEAF? if not, the IPM guys say to
relax. A Washington State bulletin I found said that treatment of
this type of mite is NOT for the trees -- it is for the worried
tree owner.
We fear for our trees, but they apparently don't do much damage to
the crop itself (do you have a type that you have learned is going
to hurt your fruit?). The red spider mites that may come later are
more damaging to a fruit crop, from what I have read online in the
ag extension literature.
Now, what to us (when we look at this eriophyid mite) is "ew,
bugs" is not the reaction of the insect good guys -- the predatory
mites -- they say, "MMM, Dinner!!!" No accounting for taste, but
what it means is this: tolerate the eriophyids now to "farm"
yourself a nice little micro-crop of predatory mites, who will
patrol your trees and keep any later red spider mites -- which
truly are crop damaging, it says -- in check. Killing the
eriophyid mites now means less dinner and therefore less attractive
living conditions for free sentinels -- predatory mites that eat
red spider mites.
Interesting stuff. Link to one of the sources of this info is below.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/homehort/pest/eriophyd.htm
Chris Reid
Stamford, CT
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ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to
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services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org
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