[Sca-cooks] fruit trees

[Huette von Ahrens]

--- Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:

> Huette commented:
> > Our apricot trees just produced the best
> > crop ever.  And our little
> > ultra-dwarf peach produced a dozen normal sized sweet, luscious
> > peaches.  Our neighbors white
> > peach tree which is hanging more and more over the fence is overloaded
> > with succulent white
> > peaches, so sweet and juicy and ripe off the tree ... so much better
> > tasting than anything the grocery store ever provides.
> 
> Do you have problems with birds? If so, how do you solve this?
> 
> When I had a peach tree at our other house, the birds would poke holes 
> in the fruit. I would have been willing to share if they'd done this to 
> just a few peaches or eat most of a peach. But they would poke a hole 
> in one fruit and then go on to another, and another...

Some bird problems, but not apparently as bad as yours.  Our biggest problem is squirrels.
They find the ripest, biggest, most luscious fruit, eat half of the fruit, throw it down and then
go for another.  I am debating about adopting an outdoor cat, even though I am allergic to
them.  But at leat they don't deliberately eat fruit.  I wonder what kind of cat would go
after squirrels?  As far as I am concerned, squirrels are just rats in fluffy clothing with
better PR.  Fortunately, our apricot trees overproduce so that our losses don't affect us
too much.  My little peach tree wasn't bothered by birds and the squirrels didn't find it
until I had harvested all but two peaches.  I am not sure that the squirrels have found
my neighbor's peach tree yet as the peaches aren't ripe yet. 

I haven't found any effective bird and squirrel deterrents.  My mother used to cover the ultra
dwarf peach tree with cheesecloth, but that really didn't do any good.  The apricot trees
are 40' and 30' tall.  There isn't much one can do to protect such large trees.  Other than
perhaps a squirrel stalking cat.  Hmmm ... I should look into hawks and owls too, although
they probably wouldn't like living in an urban area.

Huette   


Remember that while money talks, chocolate sings.


		
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