|
|
  |
|---|
Take a good look at your trees. Now, when leaves are gone, it's easier to inspect the trunk, branches, and bark for insect or disease problems. Get acquainted with the normal, healthy appearance of the bark and branches. Prepare to prune out any broken, diseased, or crossing branches to improve the tree's appearance and health.
Fruit trees in particular may be affected by disease symptoms that show up on the branches. On stone fruit, such as cherry, plum, or peach, bacterial canker causes distinct sunken areas, depressions on the branches. These sunken areas look as if a giant thumb pressed into the wood, or perhaps a giant finger. They are generally longer than they are wide. The area may look blackened as well as sunken. Look for cankers on the trunk and lower branches. Often, cankers also result in lots of gummy sap accumulation (a phenomenon called gumming!) Cankers may also girdle branches and result in branch death.
Prune out affected branches. You may not be able to save the tree if it's severely affected on a major area such as the trunk. Be sure to clean tools after each cut, using a 10% household bleach solution. Bacterial diseases enter plants through wounds, and the disease can spread even while the gardener attempts to cure it. After disinfecting tools, dry tools and wipe them with oil or WD-40 before storing them.
Apple anthracnose, another fruit tree problem, shows up in wood and bark symptoms. Advanced cases of apple anthracnose (a fungal disease) result in bark that looks as if it's been firmly raked with a narrow iron comb. You'll see stringy parallel fibers in the wood. Prune out affected branches.
Plum trees holding onto withered fruit may have a fungal disease called brown rot. The fruit stays on the tree throughout winter, shrivelling and showing a gray coating, which is the fungal disease itself. Remove all fruit still adhering to plum, cherry or other stone fruit trees. Rake up and dispose of fallen leaves. Keeping a clean garden is the first line of defense against disease problems.
Prune on days when the temperature is above freezing. For specific information on fruit tree pruning to improve crop production, WSU has a useful bulletin, PNW 400 "Training and Pruning the Home Orchard." You may order this bulletin by contacting your local WSU Extension Office.
Visit nurseries to shop for bareroot fruit trees, raspberries, grapes, currants, and other fruit for the edible landscape. Check local catalogs and nurseries for the plants best adapted to fruiting well in western Washington. Cool summers slow down fruit ripening, and it's important to select plants that ripen well west of the Cascades. An informative local catalog comes from Raintree Nursery, Morton, Washington. January offers nearly perfect conditions for planting and transplanting. But wait for a day when the ground's not too soggy!
Take time to relax by visiting a local park or arboretum in January. The Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle, features plants for winter beauty in the Joseph Witt Winter Garden, a great place to stroll on a JanuarySunday. Look for blooming, fragrant early plants like sarcococca (S. ruscifolia and others.) Many winter-blooming plants entice insects with alluring fragrances!
Remember to rejoice as each day gives us a few more precious moments of daylight.
Hortsense: Managing plant problems with Integrated Pest Management
