Hi Mo, Thank you for your response and confirmation to continue that way.
Yes there was fireblight last year and now will be "forevermore". Was thinking that also would be a fringe benefit of removing flowers. After pruning and flower removal, is it still necessary to spray this year? Thanks again Mo! Rye Hefley So Cal ------------------------------ On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 3:09 AM PST maurice tougas wrote: >You're doing fine Rye. You will encourage growth and do no harm. You'll >also reduce the potential for fireblight infections. We simply pinch the >buds at or as they break "tight cluster". Prefer not removing entire spur >as we may want fruit there next year. It's time consuming, but for >fireblight reduction and increased growth response, worth it. > >Mo Tougas >Grower, Tougas Family Farm > > >On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 6:38 PM, Rye Hefley <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> I am removing flowers by hand this year to promote scaffolding growth. >> When I see a flower that is protruding from the bud (before it is open), I >> grab the whole bud and pull it off. I started to wonder if this is in any >> way harmful to my goal of scaffold growth. Is there a "right time" and >> "right way" to manually remove flowers? I'm not looking to grow any fruit >> this year just scaffolding. >> >> Thanks, >> Rye Hefley >> So Cal >> _______________________________________________ >> apple-crop mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop >> > > > >-- >Maurice Tougas >Tougas Family Farm >Northborough,MA 01532 >508-450-0844 _______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list [email protected] http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
