Use tree netting to keep birds from eating fruit

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Question: How do I go about keeping birds from eating my peaches? I have covered the tree with netting, but they find a way to get underneath. I put an artificial owl and they ignore it. I fired my BB pistol to hit the back wall of my yard. That worked for about two days, and as soon as I come out onto my patio, they split, only to return as soon as I go back into the house.

Answer: The best method is netting, but the netting must be tacked to the ground securely with no openings or they will get in.

Putting netting on trees taller than 8 feet is nearly impossible. A method for putting the netting on comes from Dave Wilson Nursery in California.

For most 6- to 8-foot trees, a 12-by-12-foot piece is sufficient. A piece of PVC pipe a little longer than the tree is wide, also will be needed.

Spread the bird netting out on the ground and lay the pipe on one edge of the material. Roll the bird net onto the pipe like a paper towel on a roll. With a helper holding the other side of the pipe, starting at the base of the trunk of the tree, unroll the netting over the top of the tree.

Remember to tie the netting together at the bottom and leave no way for the birds to get in or your tree will turn into a dead bird aviary.

Another possible method is the glitter tape. Dave Wilson Nursery recommends making the strips about 3 feet long, tied to a stake about 2 feet taller than the tree, and then placing stakes at different spots around the tree. Tying them to the trunk will not work.

There is a method discussed in a Montana State University fact sheet found at www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt200011.html whereby monofilament line (fishing line) is used to keep sparrows away.

Evidently, the light refracted from the line is somehow disorienting or confusing to birds, much like light reflected from windows. I will talk more about this technique in my fruit newsletter, which you can get by e-mailing me at Extremehort@aol.com.

Q: I just planted five trees about two weeks ago -- mulberry, golden locust and Bing cherry trees. I have never planted a tree before. I just dug a deep hole and filled it in. They all have wilted leaves, leaves are drying up, and on the Bing cherry, the leaves are turning yellow. The soil is dry and rocky. I have been watering every day. My husband told me that I am overwatering. I know they are going into shock. How can I save them?

A: The general way I recommend for planting is to predig the planting hole before you take the plant out of the container or if it is bare root (no container but naked roots with no soil around them; experienced gardeners only!) before taking them out of their protection. Dig the hole about two or three times wider than the container. The depth should be about the same as the container. Fill the hole with water and let it drain. It should drain in about an hour or two or less. If it doesn't, then you will have to dig the hole deeper so that the hole will drain, or look at alternative planting methods. Hopefully, your holes will drain.

From the soil removed from the hole, take out rocks larger than a golf ball and discard or build a small wall (a joke, but there are some out there who might not find that funny). Blend into the soil, removed from the hole, about the same amount of soil amendment, plus a starter fertilizer. If you already have some pretty good soil, then you can reduce it to one-half that amount of soil amendment.

Remove the plant from the container by removing the container without pulling on the trunk or stems and quickly put the plant (green side up) into the hole and start filling the hole with water.

When the hole is about one-fourth full, start adding the blended soil, letting the water turn the blended soil into a mud that will fill the voids around the root ball (the brown part of the plant).

Fill the hole so that the mud around the rootball is at the same level as the top of the rootball.

This should result in a small depression around the plant where the hole was dug.

Put about a 4-inch mound all around the plant at the edge of the planting hole. Use this depression and surrounding mound to water with a hose, filling this basin twice each time you water.

Do this for one week before you put the plant on an automatic watering system.

If it is on drip, you can knock the mound down and make it level. If the water is meant to flood around the plant like some of the so called drip emitters that deliver water up to gallons per hour, then leave the mound, since that is no longer drip irrigation, but flooding.

Q: I have a fruitless mulberry tree that has been here for 34 years. This winter, some of the branches turned black. This spring, even more were black and dead. I have been noticing many more trees in this area near Nellis Air Force Base have dead, black branches. I have never seen this before and I'm wondering if any of my other trees will get this, including my pine trees.

A: This tree probably has sooty canker disease. To control the disease, all of the branches must be cut off a foot or two below the infected areas. If the infection is in the trunk, the tree is most likely lost.

After every cut, the chain saw or pruners must be disinfected because cutting with a dirty pruner or saw will reinfect the tree at a new cut. Trees that are weakened or not getting the right amount of water and fertilizer are most prone to the disease.

Pine trees are not known to get sooty canker disease, but some other trees like poplars and ash might.

It is always best to disinfect anything you use to cut into trees with since you are introducing anything from the previous tree into a new tree via a fresh cut. Would you use a dirty needle or scalpel if you were a doctor or a nurse?

Q: Do you thin citrus fruit the way that you thin peaches or apples, or at all?

A: It all depends on the fruit load. If you have lots of fruit on the tree and the fruit has had a tendency to be small in the past, then the fruit will most likely benefit from thinning. If the tree has large fruit to begin with, then thinning probably will not do much.

Some of the citrus that are thinned include some tangerine varieties.

The process is basically the same as peaches; thin early when the fruit are small.

Some citrus can get into what is called an alternate bearing cycle -- one year it bears heavy and the next year it bears light.

In these cases, you can try thinning all the fruit off of half of the branches and leaving the others with heavier loads. Do this only if your tree is in alternate bearing cycles. Remember the fruit must be thinned early or it won't do you much good.

Q: Now that the fruit has set, when is the next time fruit trees (including citrus) should be fertilized?

A: There are three times that fertilizer is important for citrus and this usually corresponds to the months of January and February, May or September and October.

Tree stakes are convenient and not messy. Put the stakes about 2 feet from the trunk. Or you can make a small hole in the same area as you would put the stakes and put in a handful of fertilizer and cover the hole with soil and water it in.

In fruit trees that are not citrus, you would look at the current season's growth and determine if fertilizer is necessary at all next year.

If the growth is lush, dark green and luxurious, it might be wise to skip a year next spring during the normal time to fertilize.

If you have yellow foliage now or later, then you will need an iron application in the early spring.

You can always play catch-up with a foliar application of fertilizer if you feel that you were wrong.

A good time to fertilize is just after harvest. A light application then right after taking away all those nutrients in the fruit might be a good idea.

Of course, you can skip a spring application if you make a late fall application, say in about late October or November.

Bob Morris is a horticulture specialist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.