POP TIPS: Orchard Care in July

[Phil Forsyth]

Dear Philly Orchardists,

After a busy spring of orchard care, harvest season is in full swing in July!  

Please check out our POP Monthly Orchard Task List for recommended maintenance activities to complete this month (the July/Aug list is also attached below). 

Here is some more detail on some of the key tasks for July: 

Orchard Watering

New plantings (from this spring or last fall) should be watered thoroughly once per week throughout the summer months.  In most years in our typically wet climate, established orchard plantings don't require much in the way of supplemental watering.  However, in hot dry periods extending more than 2 or 3 weeks, some more established orchard plants would also be glad of some additional water. In response to rising heat and more erratic weather patterns, POP created some more detailed recommendations for when and how to water your orchard, see pages 10 to 12 of our new Orchard Care Basics Guide! 

POP's new Orchard Care Basics guide includes helpful recommendations for orchard watering, weeding, monitoring, and more!

Summer Weeding

With the hot weather many weeds are growing rapidly and some will begin to go to seed.  Weeding at least once a month is advisable for orchards and food forests throughout the summer months!  POP's weed identification guide is available on our website and we always have free copies to distribute to community orchard partners. Check out POP’s guide to Ramial Wood Chips and Weeding in Place.   For more detailed recommendations on weed identification and management, see pages 7 to 9 of our new Orchard Care Basics Guide! 

Remove Orchard Spreaders

Any limb spreaders or other means used to train branches to wider angles in the winter and early spring can be safely removed in July.  By this time, branches should stay in their new position.  Leaving spreading devices too long can result in them getting stuck and possibly damaging the tree upon later removal.

Summer Pruning

Do you have a fruit tree that is stuck in a cycle of quick upright growth on branches (watersprouts) or from the base of the tree (suckers) in response to your winter pruning?  Do you need to make some major cuts, like reducing the height of a tree, but want to avoid significant replacement growth in response to it? Summer pruning may be a strategy to try!

Summer pruning is done after the season of intensive spring growth is over, and therefore the regrowth response is minimized.  Typically this is completed between June and August.  Make sure to sterilize your tools and minimize unnecessary cuts to limit entry points for pests and diseases.  Make primarily heading cuts focusing on removal of quick upright growth. 

Read more about summer pruning on page 16 of our updated POP Pruning Guide! 

Emergency Pruning

Keep an eye out for any diseased, damaged, or dead wood that should be pruned away no matter the season. The most significant diseases to look out for include fire blight on pome fruits and black knot and cankers on stone fruits.  Pay special attention to the base of trees - especially of the stone fruits - and prune away root suckers, the quick upright growth that can be a cover for dreaded borers, which make a home beneath trunk wood.

Look out for fire blight damage on apples and pears!  Be sure to prune back to healthy wood at least 8- 12" below signs of damage to prevent further spread of this disease. 

Remember: use sharp, rust-free hand tools and sanitize between every cut for disease prone trees during the growing season. For easy disinfecting, we recommend carrying a spray bottle with you of rubbing alcohol (isopropyl 70%) or a bleach solution (1 part bleach: 10 parts water) to wipe down tools.  

Pest and Disease Monitoring & Identification

Many pest and disease challenges continue into the summer months!  POP has developed some new resources to help guide management of some of the most common challenges affecting fruit trees in Philadelphia.  

Check out POP's newly updated Pest & Disease Management Guide!  This year's updates include additional pests and diseases for both pome and stone fruits, with new illustrations and photos to help with identification!

Here are the videos POP created in partnership with Big Picture Alliance: 

Orchards as Ecosystems

Orchard Sprays

Common Orchard Diseases: Brown Rot, Fire Blight, and Black Knot

Common Orchard Pests: Oriental Fruit Moth, Plum Curculio, Aphids & Scale

Here are Action Plans for Diseases: 

Brown Rot

Fire Blight

Black Knot
Peach Leaf Curl

And Action Plans for Insect Pests:

Oriental Fruit Moth

Plum Curculio

Aphids
Codling Moth
Peach Tree Borer

Apple maggots are most active in July and August and can sometimes attack pears and stone fruits in addition to apples. Small dimples appear where they enter, but they can quickly destroy fruit from the inside. Read POP's blog post about Apple Maggot management! 

If you can't find a particular challenge in our new pest and disease guide, you can also check out POP's original Scouting Guides for identification available for download on POP's website: 

https://www.phillyorchards.org/?s=scouting+guide&post_type=resource

Remove Damaged and Dropped Fruit

Although the ideal time for thinning fruit has passed, it is still advisable to continue to monitor your developing crops for insect and disease damage and remove the affected fruit.  Similarly, it is advisable to gather any fallen fruit to avoid the further spread of pest and disease challenges.  All fruit should be disposed of by adding to a hot compost system, feeding to poultry, or bagging up to remove from the site.  

Distinctive crescent shaped scars from the Plum Curculio weevil can be found on pome and stone fruits, but they cause much more damage to stone fruits.  Remove affected stone fruits (or pome fruits with many scars), dispose of dropped fruit, and watch out for a second generation of this common pest in late July! 

Summer Harvests!

Look out for ripening raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, apricots, peaches, plums, mulberries, currants, gooseberries, perennial herbs and greens, and more!   Record your harvests using our handy POP Harvest Tracking Sheet.  

Enjoy the summer harvests and stay cool in the heat! 

Phil Forsyth, Director of Horticulture

Philadelphia Orchard Project

www.phillyorchards.org

215-724-1247

Pronouns: he/him

"71 community orchards, 1699 fruit trees, and growing!"