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Pest Problem

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Robert:
Hi Arnold,

Thank you for taking the time to supply so much useful information. Squirrels are a huge problem in our Sacramento garden. I have read about how the Japanese use little netted bags to protect their ripening fruit. Where do you purchase the remay sacks? It is extremely frustrating to make hand pollinated crosses and have squirrels (mostly), raccoons, or birds run off with or destroy some of the crosses. Are there larger remay sacks that might be useful for large clusters of table grapes. I use lettuce bags in my breeding work, but the material is not strong enough to keep squirrels out.

Cornell University is right in your backyard. As I remember they have conducted extensive field studies of apple rootstocks. Unfortunately they are more geared toward agri-business. U.C. Davis is 10 miles from our Sacramento home. They too are geared toward agri-business. They basically they know nothing of natural pest control. Organic has been subsumed by agri-business, so the advice is generally just as toxic and destructive as the chemical version.

A lack of chilling hours for fruit trees (some ornamental species too, such a lilac) as well as the disappearance of pollinators is becoming a huge problem in California, especially in the Central Valley and other areas of intense mega scale commercial agriculture. Almond growers are desperate for honeybees or any other pollinators they can find. Ground water over draft is so bad that in many Valley location the surface of the ground has dropped 30 feet, sometimes much more. In addition, the well water quality has declined so much that the water now contains high levels of salts. The food grown with this water, it is often cut with fresher water so the plants do not die, contain toxic levels of heavy metals such as arsenic, selenium, and other heavy metals. In the super market these foods are labeled with warnings. Crazy isn’t it! Don’t believe me? I will take a photograph of one of the labels.

I bought a Magness Pear from Arthur Wiebe, owner of Vallombrosa Gardens, Chico, California, back in the late 1970’s. Arthur died in 1983 and his amazing little nursery died with him. He grew all sorts of usual, heirloom, and rare fruits. I still have one of his ”Chinese Easter Cherries”. I have never been able to ID the plant to the species level. It is compatible with both Mazzard (Prunus avium) and Mahaleb (Prunus mahaleb) cherry rootstocks.

Jeffnz:
The demise of bees should be of huge to all no matter where..
Remember seeing a report of the need to hand pollinate commercial fruit trees growing in parts of China where bee populations had disappeared due to the use of toxic pesticides. Mites have also contributed to a reduction in the number of live bees in hives.
DIY bee keeping has become very popular here, mainly for a cheaper source of honey. Our Kiwifruit industry sources hives for flower pollination.  As long as there is an uncontaminated pollen source this practice may improve the potential for natural pollinators.
In NZ there has been a move to ban the use of systemic pesticides and fungicides by hone gardeners. The same does not apply to commercial growers of produce, the logic used to justify this is that home gardeners use garden chemicals in an indiscriminate and un controlled way. Cannot find any stats but I am sure that commercial use well out weighs DIY use. While there has been some restrictions placed on commercial users, they require their produce to be free of the possibility of disease transmission with export crops. We export huge quantities of apples to markets that place strict controls on  acceptance.
I knew a small commercial grower of paeonies as a flower export crop, mainly to the US.  They classed due to the requirements for their flowers to be accepted. Regular spraying was the base for acceptance.

MarcR:

--- Quote from: Robert on June 29, 2022, 08:52:42 PM ---Hi Arnold,

Thank you for taking the time to supply so much useful information. Squirrels are a huge problem in our Sacramento garden. I have read about how the Japanese use little netted bags to protect their ripening fruit. Where do you purchase the remay sacks? It is extremely frustrating to make hand pollinated crosses and have squirrels (mostly), raccoons, or birds run off with or destroy some of the crosses. Are there larger remay sacks that might be useful for large clusters of table grapes.

--- End quote ---

Robert,

You might try planting the material you want to cross in an enclosure of chain link fence with chain link over the top, and the bottom embeded in a poured concrete footing. It could be made more attractive by planting flowering vines on it.

ArnoldT:
Robert

The remay sacks came from a Chinese supplier.  I'll see if I can find the source.

I think they may be large enough for a bunch of grapes.

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