Newsletter & Tips

We will be closed Thursday the 28th and Friday the 29th for Thanksgiving. We will be back Saturday the 30th at 8 am. Time for the first of three dormant spray applications. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentines Day are the three dates to remember for dormant spray applications on your fruit trees, The first application should be done this week or very soon after. As soon as the rain stops and the trees have lost their leaves. Use Liquicop mixed with Horticultural Oil or Neem Oil. Spray the entire tree. Spray all your deciduous fruit trees in your orchard to prevent leaf curl, reduce the chance of fireblight and kill overwintering insects. Healthier trees will be the result next spring. Kind regards, Jeff Rice

The weather is getting cooler. The long range forecast is for upper 80’s and low 90’s for the next 15 days except for a few. It is starting to feel like fall. FALL IS THE BEST TIME FOR PLANTING. We have an excellent selection for fall planting and if we don’t have it in stock we can get it usually within a week. Fall fertilizing should be done this month. Use a balanced fertilizer for most of your trees and shrubs. We carry 15-15-15 in 50 pound bags and organic all purpose fertilizer in 6#, 25# and 50# bags. If you have only a few plants, we also have it in 1# boxes. Be sure to fertilize your deciduous plants and perennials before they show signs of dormancy. Give your tomatoes a balanced fertilizer now and you should get more production out of them for another month, maybe longer. With the cooler weather coming, trees and perennials will start to go into dormancy probably later in the month or early October. Weather depending. Fertilize citrus now, then let them go through the winter without feeding but do protect them if there is freezing weather in the winter. Use a citrus …

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August is a good time to start planning for the fall planting and if it is not too warm you can get a jump on the fall planting season. Looks like we will be in for some nice weather for a couple of weeks starting this week. Nice weather to get a jump on fall planting. Remember that fall is the best time for planting trees and shrubs. Especially trees. I know the ground is hard after the summer but if you start a hole and soak it and then dig a little more and soak it, pretty soon the hole you need for the tree or shrub is done and it is a fairly painless way to dig a hole. Watering and Mulching Continue to water established plants deeply for the balance of the summer and into fall. Check the mulch you added at the beginning of the summer, and if it is getting thin, add more to keep the moisture you are applying in the ground. Late Summer & Fall Planting We have a very large selection of trees and shrubs for fall planting in stock as always. If you want to get a jump start and plant …

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Bare root season continues through February. The selection of bare root fruit trees and roses is still very good. The rain this year has been spaced out fairly and the weather has stayed cool to keep the trees dormant so it is an excellent time to plant bare root fruit trees. At the end of the month we pot up what has not been sold bare root and then the price goes up. Take advantage of bare root prices and selection and get your fruit trees in now. Final Dormant Spraying is Due This Month The third and final dormant spraying to prevent leaf curl is due this month. Don’t delay. Get it done before the trees bloom. I spray all the deciduous trees in the orchard. It prevents leaf curl and also helps to prevent fireblight on pears and apples, although not completely, and greatly reduces the aphid and insect problems on all the trees. The third and final spraying is the most important one. You should have done two applications already and the final one should be done before flowers come out. We will be spraying the nursery orchard for the final time this week. In between the …

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Fall has been taking a while to get here this year but lately the nights are nice and cool and the days very comfortable. It is the best planting time of the seasons. Fall is the ideal time for planting trees and shrubs as you can see in the diagram above. Take advantage of the beautiful weather we are having and get fall planting done now. Your fall installed plants will do much better next spring and summer than those planted in the spring. This is also the time to plant fall bulbs for spring bloom. Plant wildflower seeds this month as well when the rains start coming regularly. Dormant Spray on Fruit Trees This month you will need to be thinking about spraying your first dormant spray on your fruit trees to prevent leaf curl. Use liquid copper and horticultural oil to spray the trees when they are dormant. Looking at the orchard here at the nursery, it looks like about 3 weeks or so and they will need their first spraying. Once the trees have lost their leaves, is when you want to do your first application. You will do two more applications after for a total of …

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