Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

To spray or not to spray

First off - I am not a horticultural farmer. Just wheat, corn, beans, hay, oats, barley. No fruits - I just see the "fruit" of my labour.
We have two apples trees in our backyard that I would like to "save" but we are considering replacing them with maples. Tent caterpillars and some sort of scab or rot are the issue. The caterpillars I can deal with (trim or burn) but the rotten scabs are killing me.
Two regulatory issues are bugging me: the need to save historic seeds or Species at Risk, and the Cosmetic Pesticide Ban. Since I do not "sell" the apples... you know the rest.
The variety of apple - the original Macintosh. Beautiful apple but highly susceptible to scab.
Hort people - what are my options? Cut or make another attempt next year?
Thanks for any input.
Wayne

Views: 77

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Peter Gredig on September 7, 2009 at 1:38am
Hey Wayne - scab is a tough one when you only have a few trees and no orchard sprayer. The best advice I can give is to prune aggressively to get as much air as possible moving through the tree. It's just like white mold in soys - air is the best medicine. You can use a backpack sprayer with some fungicide like Polyram a few times a year to keep scab under control, but it's tough to get rid of it completely. This was probably the perfect year for scab - wet fall last year and ongoing wet this year, so I wouldn't give up yet.

Peter
Permalink Reply by Wayne Black on September 7, 2009 at 4:54am
Peter,
I aggressively pruned last week and my wife says it looks like a bad hair cut so there is more trimming required. My thought was more sunlight to the centre of the tree would be good.
The other advice I have read is to clean clean clean under the trees. Rotten apples, branches, leaves, everything related to the tree. Just finished doing that and picked all the apples off the tree - then cut the grass short. I will still have to clean up the leaves later this fall.
Give it one more year and see what happens I guess. Thanks for the advice.

Wayne

Peter Gredig said:
The best advice I can give is to prune aggressively to get as much air as possible moving through the tree. It's just like white mold in soys - air is the best medicine.
Peter

▶ Reply to Discussion

RSS

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Minister MacDonald concludes successful outreach to southern Alberta

This week, the Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, wrapped up a successful outreach to Calgary and communities across southern Alberta. To begin his outreach, Minister MacDonald announced an investment of nearly $900,000 for SmartGRO Bioengineering Inc. under the Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program – Research and Innovation Stream. In partnership with Hydragreens vertical farm, this funding enables SmartGRO to test and scale new clean lighting technology that helps indoor agriculture producers grow more while using less electricity. In addition to the $750 million investment dedicated to controlled environment agriculture, through the National Food Security Strategy, innovations like these boost the sector by lowering costs and helping local producers grow more of our food year-round, closer to home. While in Bow Island, Minister MacDonald visited a multi-generational farm to discuss pulse and sugar beet operations. In Barnwell, he saw the prod

FCC invites expressions of interest in new Agri-food Project Finance initiative

Farm Credit Canada (FCC) today launched a 60-day Expression of Interest (EOI) process for its new $1 billion Agri-food Project Finance initiative. Organizations are invited to bring forward major agri-food processing and manufacturing projects across Canada in support of a stronger, more resilient and affordable food system for all Canadians. As part of the Government of Canada's National Food Security Strategy, the specialized financing is designed to advance construction-ready, infrastructure projects that expand food processing and manufacturing capacity across Canada. By expanding food processing here at home, Agri-food Project Finance aims to create more value-added Canadian agricultural products, strengthen domestic supply chains and improve long-term food security. "Our government is focused on strengthening Canada's food system so Canadians can count on a reliable supply of high-quality, affordable food," said Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Heath MacDonald. "This new

Canadian beef regains access to the Dominican Republic

JBS Food and Cargill in Alberta, and True North Foods in Manitoba, are approved to export to the Dominican Republic

Atlantic ag rundown

A collection of goings on in agriculture east of Ontario and Quebec

U.S. Corn Harvest Reaches 8%, Soybean Harvest 6% Complete

The U.S. corn harvest made modest progress this past week, while soybean harvest got underway. USDA’s weekly crop progress report on Monday showed 8% of the U.S. corn crop had been harvested as of Sunday, up from 5% a week earlier and ahead of the five-year average of 6%. Meanwhile, the national soybean harvest was 6% complete, twice the five-year average of 3% and slightly ahead of 5% at the same point last year. Illinois had harvested 8% of its corn crop as of Sunday, while Iowa and Indiana were each 2% complete. North Dakota was 1% harvested, while Michigan and Ohio had yet to register measurable progress. For soybeans, Illinois had harvested 4% of its soybean crop, while Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and North Dakota were each 3% complete. Michigan had yet to report measurable harvest progress. Corn development also moved quickly during the week. Nationally, 42% of the crop had reached maturity, up sharply from 25% a week earlier and ahead of the five-year average of 38%. Illinois

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service