Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 Part 39

Mr. Philips: Well, not with a blossom bud on; I wouldn't use such a scion. Some people say if you cut your scions from a bearing tree they will bear quicker, but I never saw any difference.

Inasmuch as this question has been asked a great many times by people, what age to plant a tree, whether it is best to plant young trees or trees four or five years old, I will say I am in favor of young trees, and I am in favor of grafting a tree when it is young.

Mr. Brackett: Isn't that a general opinion in the West where they make a business of planting large orchards?

Mr. Philips: I think so. I think that is the case.

Mrs. Cadoo: Can you graft onto a Martha crab and have success with that?

Mr. Philips: I never had very good success with the Martha crab; it isn't vigorous enough.

Mrs. Cadoo: We had a tree twelve years and got seven apples.

Mr. Philips: Well, I think I got eight. (Laughter.) I believe with the Martha crab if you will plant it where there are other crab trees around it you get a pretty good crop, but not if you isolate it. I have an idea it is not self-fertilizing. I think that is the trouble with the Martha.

It is a nice crab.

Mr. Brackett: You showed the difference in size there, those top-worked and those not--don't you think that is because of cutting the top back?

You throw a heavy growth in there, which makes the fruit that much larger?

Mr. Philips: Well, it might be.

Mr. Street: Have you had any experience in budding in August or first of September on those trees?

Mr. Philips: Yes, sir, I do a little budding every year. Budding is a hard thing to do, that is, it is a particular thing to get the bud matured enough and still have sufficient sap to slip.

Mr. Street: Would you put it on the top or bottom side of the limb?

Mr. Philips: I would put it on the upper side of the limb every time, but I would put it a little further from the trunk of the tree than I would to graft for the reason, if the bud fails you have two chances, and you have that same limb to cut off and graft next year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Winesap apples top-worked on Peerless, grown at Northfield, Minn.]

Mr. Johnson: I want to ask if it has a tendency to make the apple any earlier? Virginia crab is an early bloomer, and would grafting it with Wealthy make it bloom earlier?

Mr. Philips: I hardly think so. I think it is a great deal as it was with the man that had the boots. Some told him his boots would wear longer if he greased them, and some one else told him they would wear longer if he did not. So he greased one and not the other, and the one that he greased wore fifteen minutes longer than the other. (Laughter.) I don't think it makes much difference. I tell you what it does do. You graft a McMahon onto a Virginia and instead of having the McMahon its usual color, you will get a very nice blush on it.

Mr. Erkel: Is the d.u.c.h.ess a good stock to graft onto?

Mr. Philips: I haven't found it very good. It is hardly vigorous enough for a stock.

Mr. Erkel: You mentioned Patten's Greening a few minutes ago. Isn't that considered a rather short-lived tree?

Mr. Philips: Not with me it hasn't been. I set some thirty years ago. I never had a Patten's Greening injured with the cold. It is very hardy.

Mr. Street: How about the Brier's Sweet crab? I grafted some last year and had a larger percentage of the scions live on those than on the Hibernal.

Mr. Philips: You wouldn't get as good a growth afterwards. The scions on the Virginia would grow better and have a better top. I don't think the Brier's Sweet is as vigorous as Virginia.

Mr. M'Clelland: I grafted on 120 Hibernals this spring and got hardly one failure.

Mr. Philips: You did good work.

Mr. M'Clelland: Made a growth of three to four feet, some of them.

Mr. Philips: That is good.

Mr. M'Clelland: Have you anything as good?

Mr. Philips: If I had Hibernals I would graft them, but if I had to set something on purpose for grafting I would set Virginias. I have had better success with that variety for stocks.

Mr. Kellogg: Too big a growth on the graft is liable to be injured in the winter, is it not?

Mr. Philips: Too vigorous a growth on the tree is liable to get injured in the winter anyway. I like to see a good growth. I like to see it grow and then pinch it back in the fall. You can pinch it back a good deal easier when it has made a good growth than to make it grow big enough.

Mr. Street: I would like to know whether we should force all of the growth into the scion the first year where we graft on trees that have been set two years.

Mr. Philips: One of the pleasures of doing top-working is to watch the growth of the grafts. I did a good deal of that on Sunday. You might do worse than communing with nature. You watch them same as you watch the growth of anything else, and if you think the graft is growing too fast let some of the shoots on the stock grow to take part of the sap, but if you think it is growing too slow and these shoots are robbing it, cut them off. I like a good growth on grafts; it looks more like doing business.

Mr. Street: But the second year would you keep all of the growth in the graft?

Mr. Philips: Yes, sir, the second year I would, and if it makes too large a growth pinch off the end. I put in some for a neighbor this season, and I go down and see to them every two weeks. If I thought they made too much growth in August I pinched them back so as to make them ripen up quicker. I don't like to have them grow too late; as Mr.

Kellogg said, frost will get them. (Applause.)

Spraying the Orchard.

HON. H. M. DUNLAP, SAVOY, ILLS.

(Continued from March No.)

Then just as soon as your bloom falls, just as soon as the blossom petals fall, then you want to spray again. You should use a.r.s.enate of lead along with your lime-sulphur in both sprayings, because your a.r.s.enate of lead will take care of a great many insects that injure the fruit. The first spraying, immediately before the bloom, with a.r.s.enate of lead is for the curculio, what is called the Palmer worm, for canker worm--if you have any of them--the tent caterpillar, the leaf roller and various other insects that injure the fruit and the foliage. The spray just immediately after the bloom in addition to fungous is a codling moth spray. To get rid of the codling moth worm you use the a.r.s.enate of lead. The codling moth egg hatches shortly after the bloom falls, and the little worm instinctively goes into the blossom end of the apple, because that is the only place it can enter the apple at that particular time. Just why it does not enter on the side of the apple I can not say, but there is a little fuzz on the outer side of the apple at that stage of growth that perhaps prevents their getting in, and that fuzz as the apple grows larger disappears, so a little later they can enter on the side or at any other part of the apple that they choose.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hon. H. M. Dunlap, Savoy, Ills.]

When the blossoms fall the apples stand upright on the tree, and the little pointed leaves that are on the blossom end of the apples, that we call the calyx, are all open, and at that time you can spray so as to get the a.r.s.enate of lead on the inside. Within a week or ten days after the bloom falls these sepals, or little leaf points, gradually close together until they are all closed up tight, and after that you can't get your spray in there. After the worm hatches he gets between the little leaves of the calyx and goes on the inside of the apple and into its center. You want to have your poison ready for Mr. Worm when he enters the blossom end of the apple, and the more thoroughly and more effectively you spray the better are the results.

It has been said that if you spray thoroughly at that time, that that is the only spray you really need for the codling moth worm. I don't agree with that, as there is always a second brood of worms. I use the a.r.s.enate of lead along with the lime-sulphur for all these sprays, before the bloom and after the bloom, and if you don't spray more than three times you will be doing yourself a good service, and it will well pay you. In some parts of the country they spray as high as seven or eight times in the commercial orchards, but I would say in a farmer's orchard three times would be enough, once before the bloom and twice later, and you will notice the good results.

There are other sprays besides these, but none perhaps of any importance to you up here except the winter spray for the San Jose scale, if you have that, and I noticed one or two specimens out there that seemed to have the scale upon them. That spray should be done either in the fall or early winter or late winter while the trees are dormant. That has to be put on of winter spray strength, using lime-sulphur or some of the other San Jose scale sprays without the a.r.s.enate of lead, as you don't need to use the lead with this spray.

Now, as I stated to start with, these remarks ought to be appropriate to your needs and to make them so it would be a good deal better for me to give you the opportunity of asking questions or of discussing this question of spraying yourselves rather than for me to go into this subject any further and not know just exactly what you would like to listen to. If you have any questions to ask I would be glad to answer them if I can.

Mr. Horton: What proportion of the lime-sulphur and a.r.s.enate of lead do you use?

Mr. Dunlap: If we get the commercial brand of lime-sulphur we use it in the proportion of three gallons of that commercial mixture to 100 gallons of water and for the a.r.s.enate of lead in the same spray tank at same time we use four pounds of a.r.s.enate of lead to the 100 gallons.