The Old Folks Home

[Beer can]

They sell hard shell nut crackers but they're 50-$75...
I've used a bench top metal vise for black walnuts, I don't care much for the flavor of them though.
Hickory nuts I love, not that hard to crack with a regular nut cracker, but not easy either, tend to smash them.
Plain ole pair of vise grips works good and easy squeeze squeeze crunch crunch, but takes adjusting back and forth tightening and loosening for different sizes and turning the nut. Takes a bit to get efficient at it but nice cause it won't over crack them and leaves the nut meat whole. I use vise grips for Brazil nuts also.

 

[Beer can]

I've lost hundreds of $$ in fruit trees, DW won't let me buy anymore, was hoping for a small orchard. Oh well, should've just got goats like she suggested.
I've heard wild Hawthorne spreads it.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

They sell hard shell nut crackers but they're 50-$75...
I've used a bench top metal vise for black walnuts, I don't care much for the flavor of them though.
Hickory nuts I love, not that hard to crack with a regular nut cracker, but not easy either, tend to smash them.
Plain ole pair of vise grips works good and easy squeeze squeeze crunch crunch, but takes adjusting back and forth tightening and loosening for different sizes and turning the nut. Takes a bit to get efficient at it but nice cause it won't over crack them and leaves the nut meat whole. I use vise grips for Brazil nuts also.

Ok...so do companies heat the nuts (that's not the wording I want) so nuts in the shell are easier to open? Roast! Roast the nuts?

 

[microchick]

We use Fert-i-lome Fire Blight spray on our trees. We have found that it does very little towards the established Fire Blight on Pears and Apples but it does kick Leaf Curl blight on peach trees.

Last week a neighbor who is starting a vineyard stopped by and we were showing him the trouble we were having with fire blight. He suggested pruning the pear trees back to nearly the main trunk and let them re-sprout limbs. He said he had done that with blighted pears and it had worked in the past.

We usually just prune and carry a bucket of mild bleach water to sterilize the pruning sheers between cuts (yep, you gotta do that to keep from spreading the nasty stuff) and then use a 1 inch paint brush to paint the cut with fungicide.

For peach trees, they recommend spraying in the fall after the leaves fall to help them not develope the 'crud' in early spring.

As for nut trees, Lots and Lots of them around here, including pecans. I so wish I wasn't allergic to tree nuts. I don't go anaphylactic. My allergy is more of a digestive response. Severe stomach cramps, nausea and finally the end result which keeps me in the bathroom for a day or two. Not worth the trouble so I stay away from them.

Appaloosas.....sigh.....My girls were App/Morgan cross and App/quarter cross. Billie, the App/Morgan cross was a black snowflake. Missy looked more like a quarter horse with App conformation. Missy was a sweetie. Billie was a comedian. She would steal the equipment out of the vet's bag and make him chase her around the corral to retrieve whatever she had in her mouth. He used to say that he loved coming to our house just to see Billie.

They say if you own horses there will be one that will bond with your soul. Billie was that horse for me. There will never be another like her. DH offered to buy me a horse. I declined. My joint disease won't let me do the heavy work that horses require and I told him frankly that once upon a time I was lucky enough to have my perfect horse and no other horse would ever equal her. If I ever did get another horse it would definitely be another Appaloosa.

 

[chickadoodles]

Thanks Wicked for sharing those videos. I learned some thing for my pear trees.
And thanks Beer can for the helpful info on cracking the hard nuts. I will pass it along.
Thanks also Micro for the helpful info on the fire blight. I saw some on one of my apple trees last year and cut it out. And it has not showed up yet this year.

I did some reading on orchard spray and it seems to work on many things including pests.
I used to work at a nursery and I will call them and as if I can send them an email with pics or I will call Auburn Ag Dept. back and ask them.
I called them a couple weeks ago about losing all my plum trees. They are working with the research orchard in N. Alabama trying to develop a plum tree that will tolerate the soils here in Alabama. They said they might know more in a couple of years.
I told them I hope so that we love them and want to grow them.
I have lost 6 so far.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Thanks Wicked for sharing those videos. I learned some thing for my pear trees.
And thanks Beer can for the helpful info on cracking the hard nuts. I will pass it along.
Thanks also Micro for the helpful info on the fire blight. I saw some on one of my apple trees last year and cut it out. And it has not showed up yet this year.

I did some reading on orchard spray and it seems to work on many things including pests.
I used to work at a nursery and I will call them and as if I can send them an email with pics or I will call Auburn Ag Dept. back and ask them.
I called them a couple weeks ago about losing all my plum trees. They are working with the research orchard in N. Alabama trying to develop a plum tree that will tolerate the soils here in Alabama. They said they might know more in a couple of years.
I told them I hope so that we love them and want to grow them.
I have lost 6 so far.[/QUOTe
That is miserable! Our apple trees in TN got a lot of pruning due to blight.

 

[perchie.girl]

Thanks Wicked it does sound over whelming.
Here are a few pics just in case anyone knows what it is and how to fix it. lol
View attachment 1144089 View attachment 1144090 View attachment 1144091

That looks like a fungus of some sort. Trees and Plants also can get viruses... different treatments.

I would take a leaf or two to a hortoculturist for diagnisis. Bot diseases can be spread through dropped leaves and non steril trimming equipment.

Once you know what it is you will know how to fight it.

deb

 

[ronott1]

Our apple trees and one pear are 3 years old. My plum died.
All my fruit trees have some fungus
I sent pics to the state Master Gardener help line. He told me to spray them with copper fungicide early spring when they have 1/4" leaf break.
Our large pear tree out back started this mess so for several years we will have to spray them. I will also have to spray the grape vines.

Copper is good for controlling fungus!

 

[chickisoup]

We've been having an unnatural heat wave for this time of month. (92-94-96, then supposed to cool off al ot by mid-week. Who knows. I have 3 seasons of clothes out because I never know what I'll need.

Going to see "Kingsman: the Golden Circle," lunch, and light shopping - . Hope to see "Stronger" with Jake next week, and after that "The Mountain Between us," pant, pant, starring my latest crush "Idris Elba."

hope you had a good time! Can't remember the last time I sat in a theater I'm thinking somewhere in the 1980's.

 

[chickisoup]

Yeah, we have fought the deer and raccoons for our fruit ever since the trees popped their first blooms. Last year they stripped every ripe peach off our Red Haven the night before we were planning to pick. We found all the pits in tidy little piles so maybe raccoons?

Another reason to hate the nasty things.

I was very disappointed in our trees in general. We bought them from Stark's in southern MO. Don't get me wrong, when these trees work, they produce big time. The problem with them is that when we bought the first 9 trees from them, we specified that we wanted disease resistant trees and were told that the Asian pears and the trees we bought were hardy disease resistant. Well they weren't. Many were susceptible to fire blight. We have been replacing the vulnerable trees with truly resistant trees, Candy Crisps, Enterprise, Arkansas Blacks, Red and yellow delicious. The Asians are just about done for which is a shame. We got one good season out of them and the pears were as big as soft balls.

I'm starting to feel like we've hit the trifecta of farming, Marek's disease in our chickens, Fire blight in our pear and apple trees and leaf curl blight in our peach trees. Almost makes me glad we don't have horses, goats or cows. We already tried sheep. They died too.

Maybe I should try ducks...........