Citrus and Peach trees

PeakOiler · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:04 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

Thanks for the tip Pops. I'll keep an eye on that, but I don't think fungus is the problem. Other than the weather, bugs and birds are the more likely culprits for most damage to the trees. At least that has been my observation over the last 10 years. I can always take a leaf sample to work and check it out under the microscope, since fungal spores and fungal material are some of the particle types I routinely look for in environmental field samples.

I wouldn't be surprised if I found some fungus, since Central Texas is famous for that. (Molds are often at the top of the list in the allergy news.)
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PeakOiler · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

Pops · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

It jumped out at me PO, I grew up around peach orchards in Central California. Looks pretty benign till it gets into the wood.

I miss Elberta peaches till I trot, too

Not much else tho....
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PeakOiler · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

btw, I still have some peaches frozen after last season's bountiful harvest. It's time to make more peach jam from those. I tried some of the unfrozen peaches the other day and they tasted just fine. Not as good as fresh of course.
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Pops · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 8:20 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

frankthetank · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 7:25 am Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

Pops-

Elberta peaches rock. Sometimes you can get them here. Probably my second favorite after my own.
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PeakOiler · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:59 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

So Pops got me all freaked out about fungus (mold) on the peach leaves. So I took a sample to the lab to look at under the top light and polarizing microscopes.
Here is a view at about 40X of one of the holes in a peach leaf:

Here is a closer view:

So I took the micro scalpel and cut away the darker brown-red section and dried it in a vacuum oven for an hour or so. Took the sample out, mounted with no dyes, just refractive index oil, and magnified to 400X :

I didn't see any mold, at least any that I've ever seen. Edit: Above are the peach leaf cells. The reason I put the sample in the vac oven was to dry the leaf fragments so I could more easily grind them up with a mortar & pestle.

I took down a ceiling panel in the lab that had a little mold growing on it from an old AC water leak that occured last year. Here's what a typical mold looks like at 400X :

One can clearly see the dark mold spores, those segmented particles are the hyphae, and there's conidia and other fungal material. You can also see one of the fiberglass fibers from the drop down ceiling panel, and a few mineral particles too.

I think the leaf damage is from bugs. I've seen grasshoppers out here and all sorts of other critters...

But I will keep a close eye on things...

Edit for typo and clarification.
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Pops · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:37 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

Right on PO!

I don't know my molds from my fungi - they both look the same under my nails!

Really, shothole management (as I think was noted in the link) is mostly a matter of tidiness, pruning out and burning bad wood, not top watering trees and maybe some copper or other fairly benign spray if things start to getting out of hand.

It was just a heads up, I may want to drop in and buy a piece of pie one day.

Smile

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PeakOiler · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 6:15 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

Actually Pops, last year when we had all those flooding rains, and it was wet for many many days, some of the peaches did get a little bit of mold on the skin, but the skin was removed before I sliced them up and froze them. Again, I appreciate the link and thank you. I will keep the tip in mind if I ever do see a serious problem.

Edit: Pops, you and yours are always welcome to come by for some peach pie or jam or lemons. Bring apples.

Very Happy

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Pops · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

You are welcome here as well, PO.

Very Happy

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PeakOiler · Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 5:19 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

Update:

I counted the young citrus fruits on the trees this morning and found:
24 lemons (and blossoming)
12 limes (13 last season)
4 satsuma mandarines
2 grapefruit
1 orange (first one!)
43 total

I'm disappointed in the satsuma count. Last year I harvested 29. Perhaps that bad wind storm a few weeks ago had something to do with it. The plants appear very healthy.
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PeakOiler · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 10:18 am Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

Peach update:

Today I brought in the first dozen small peaches (1.75-2", [4.4-5.1cm]) from one of the trees. There are ca. 30 left and are still green. I'm disappointed in the yield this year, but some is better than none, as has been the case in years past.

Birds and bugs got to most of the peaches that survived the Spring storms, so most of these peaches will have to be carefully processed using a knife to remove the bad parts. I just didn't have time to build net-cages over the smaller trees to protect them from the birds this year.
Nevertheless, I will enjoy some of them:

Those 100 pecans in the basket from last fall's harvest will get shelled this weekend. The inertia nut cracker shown is a pretty good tool which will allow me to shell those 100 pecans in about 50 minutes. I've been getting about 4.2 grams of edible pecan per nut, which is not bad at all.

Also shown is the last lemon for about 6 months. Two liters of lemon juice are still frozen.
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Ludi · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 1:15 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

My peaches are still tiny and green....
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PeakOiler · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:32 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

Ludi · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:45 pm Post subject: Re: Citrus and Peach trees

I've been irrigating with the well. I'm still not willing to use much of the rainwater - I want it for emergencies! Shocked

This bugs my husband, for some reason. He thinks I should use it...
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