JoAnne Skelly: Fruit tree tips from ‘Michael’s Apples’

I have a longtime friend, Michael Janik, who is a fruit tree expert for our area. He has a collection orchard in Northern Nevada 100 varieties of apples, a dozen stone fruits, currants, raspberries and grapes. All Michael’s trees are on dwarf rootstocks and are supported on wire fences. He has grafted over half of his trees. He provides pruning services in the Reno area, and I think Carson City and is an ISA Certified Arborist, specializing in fruit trees and espaliers. He sells bare-root and dwarf apple trees every year in March and April.

To request a price/availability list of available apple varieties or to receive his free monthly newsletter, send an email to michael@michaelsapples.com with your name, street address, city, state, zip, and email address. His newsletter contains tree care tips, educational links, recommended books and where to find local products/services for your fruit trees.

Michael has written an excellent apple calendar that details upcoming fruit tree chores, which is available on his website: www.michaelsapples.com. Here are his suggestions for fall. “Be sure to pick up and discard all fallen fruit to remove insect eggs and larvae in the fruit. Remove all fruit from trees or they become hotels for insect pests to overwinter.

Paint tree trunks with 50/50 mix of interior latex paint and water to prevent sun scald especially on the south-west side of the tree. Peaches will benefit from some paint on the upper side of limbs exposed to the south-west. Rake the mulch, leaves, and other debris away from the trunk to prevent small rodents from nesting there and eating the bark; leave about a foot of clear space for young trees and 18 to 24 inches for older trees.”

“For folks who have seen rabbits, moles, voles, gophers, and other vermin in their yards, you will want to put on a plastic tree guard or a wire guard (like 1/4-inch hardware cloth) around the trunks of your fruit trees. These are just for the winter and need to be removed in the spring. If not removed in May, earwigs will nest inside the plastic and the tree will grow into the wire. You will also want to trap or otherwise eradicate these pests that eat the bark and or roots this winter.”

This is my last column for 2022. Enjoy the fall. I’ll be back in mid-January.

JoAnne Skelly is Associate Professor & Extension Educator Emerita at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Email skellyj@unr.edu