Orchard April Todo List

Apple before thinning

•     Thin fruit, apples and pears. You should be removing or thinning fruit so that the resulting fruit receives more “food” reserves from the leaves and gets larger. The larger the fruit, the greater the distance between them. Nut trees are normally not thinned. Leave one fruit per cluster in apples and European pears. Peaches and nectarines are four to six inches apart. Asian pears are thinned very early; sometimes in the flowering stages if you know you have had good fruit set in the past; perhaps leaving no more than one fruit a foot apart if you want Japanese-style large fruit.

Apple after thinng

•     Apply calcium chloride sprays to pears and apples susceptible to bitter pit or corky spot, five times in the spring, spaced about one to two weeks apart. Bitter pit or corky spot might appear on Comice pears and Mutsu apples for instance. These are sunken brown spots in the flesh just under the skin. Food grade calcium chloride is applied as a spray to the tree (focused on spraying the fruit) along with a wetting agent to aid in absorption through the skin of the fruit.

Corky spot in Comice pear

•     Thin corn to 12 inches apart. I like to plant seed fairly close together in March and then remove plants so the remaining plants are 12 inches apart in the rows. No, you cannot replant these plants to fill voids. Kernels in the ears fill in better if you have a minimum of three rows of corn since they are wind pollinated. Corn likes lots of nitrogen fertilizer applied frequently.

•     Weeding. Stay on top of your weeds and remove them as soon as you see them.

•     Flower thinning of Asian pears. Mentioned earlier.

•     Harvest asparagus daily. Now that it is getting warmer the spears are growing faster and need to be harvested more often. You should stop harvesting asparagus after about 8 to ten weeks of removing spears. After harvest you must let the spears mature (let the spears become that five foot tall, ferny growth) which is cut down in December or January.

•     Wind protection on the emerging corn. If we get some high winds this time of year and you planted corn in a potentially windy location the wind can flatten your corn rows. A wind barrier such as some fencing like chain link with pvc slats or chicken wire with vines can prevent this from happening.

•     Mulch. As temperatures rise and with our low humidity surface mulches can help keep seeds planted in the summer from drying out and not emerging. Straw, shredded paper and other surface mulches can preserve soil moisture and aid in more complete germination. Presoak large seed for 12 hours in cool water prior to planting.

•     Fertilize corn every four weeks.

•     Pull onion flowers. Remove any flowers from onion plants and use them in cooking or as garnishes to keep them from robbing energy from developing onion bulbs.

•     Mulch garlic and onions. Mulching garlic and onions before it gets hot will aid in getting larger bulbs and reduce stress.

•     Fertilize onions and garlic and all vegetables in the ground every 3 to 4 weeks. If you used a good fertilizer at the time of planting then all you need is a high nitrogen fertilizer. If you used compost or decomposed manures you may be able to skip these applications.

•     Harvest beets and peas. Peas and other cool season vegetables are coming to the end of their growing season. Replant in mid fall.

•                  Set pheromone traps for peach twig borer (PTB). PTB causes wormy peaches, nectarines and apricots. You first see their evidence on the occasional death of new growing shoots on these trees. Traps help you to reduce their populations or determine when or if spraying is required. I would suggest purchasing lures and complete wing traps from Alpha Scents: (http://www.alphascents.com/Lures/lures.html; http://www.alphascents.com/Traps/traps.html#wing )

Insects caught on sticky insert on the bottom of winged trap. Here the lure is hung from the bottom of the top of the trap. I prefer placing directly on the sticky bottom instead.

•     Spray for peach twig borer if necessary using BT sprays or spinosad.

•     Spray for Western flower thrips on nectarines using spinosad.

•     Spray insecticidal soap for artichokes and aphids. Spray the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves.

•     Stake tomatoes, peppers to keep fruits from lying on the ground. Expect more fruit losses if plants are allowed to sprawl on the soil surface.

•     Mulch tomatoes, peppers, eggplant. These plants will benefit from surface mulches.

•     Label vegetables in vegetable plots. Keep track of what varieties you are planting so you know which ones to purchase or not to purchase in the future.

Immature almond nut in the “green” stage

•     Green almond harvest. Almonds can be harvested green when they are very small (1/2 inch long) and the entire small green nut can be eaten raw or in salads or allow the nut to enlarge and harvest the immature nut for salads or cooking such as stir fry.

•     Young garlic harvest. If garlic was planted 2 inches apart in the fall you can now harvest immature garlic (before the bulbs have enlarged) and use them for roasting or grilling resulting in the remaining garlic plants four inches apart and harvested when fully mature in May or early June.

•     Fix irrigation leaks.

•     Prune palms.

•     Reapply iron where necessary or spray iron. If you see some trees or grape vines starting to yellow on new growth then reapply iron chelate to the soil now. Spraying fruit trees now with iron may result if iron-stained fruit.

•     Dig up root suckers. Remove suckers as you see them sprouting from tree bases or the soil a foot or two from the tree.

•     Summer prune. Watch for trees that are extremely dense with new growth. If the canopy is getting very dense and shades the interior of the tree then remove unnecessary new growth by pulling down on it and letting it decompose on the ground if you are using wood mulch.