Want to grow your own fruit trees?

Better have plenty of PATIENCE

By Dani Messick House and Home Feature Writer

“It’s kind of the image of sending your kid out to go harvest an apple from the tree and unfortunately that’s not a very idealistic way of looking at it,” said Jeff Burbrink, LaGrange County Extension educator for Ag & Natural Resources. “It’s a very complicated world, tree fruit growing.”

It’s not as easy a feat as you may think and if you haven’t done your research, you may be in over your head quickly.

“If you follow a spray schedule from the Purdue Extension or Michigan State, you’re going to be out there every 7 to 10 days spraying,” he said. It takes careful planning and preparation, especially in the early years.

Burbrink explained the majority of modern fruit trees come from grafts. Grafted plants are smaller, making it easier to reach the fruit and also producing more fruit by more evenly distributing light throughout.

It’s not hard to find a grafted tree - any box store will have them. The difficulty, Burbrink said begins at the root.

“That rootstock is just as important as the variety (of fruit) that is above,” he said.

The rootstock will determine how well the plant will handle differentiating types of soils, moisture levels, disease resistance, and height of the tree. If the scion goes into the ground, there’s a risk the tree with revert back to the height of its ancestral tree.

The rootstock is information most box stores simply aren’t given when they receive a grafted plant. Instead, Burbrink suggests going through a distributor who can customize the rootstock and scion, the fruit-bearing portion, that works best for your needs. For apple trees in Michiana soil, Burbrink generally recommends B9.

Companies who do offer custom mail-order grafts are generally out by this time of year, but they’re accepting preorders for next year, to be shipped in early spring.

If you choose B9, expect a short tree - 9 to 10 feet or so, and a weak root system. You’ll need to stabilize the tree, but according to Burbrink, you can plant them around 18 inches apart and, if all goes according to plan, in four or five years, you’ll have apples. That is, assuming you put the time and energy into proper pruning and care.

“This is not a short-term thing, this is a long-term thing,” Burbrink said. “People are very impatient. They want instantaneous results… Be patient, too, once you get them into the ground.”

In the first few years, new fruit tree growers will be focused on structure. Pruning is absolutely essential.

“You got to keep them thin enough that the light can penetrate, and you have to leave enough of the wood on there that they actually produce apples,” he said. “You’re establishing side branching that will collect light, that will allow light to come in through the top of the tree and get down into the interior so you can get some apples not only on the top but also in the middle.”

Certain varieties are more disease susceptible and regardless of the variety you choose, scab resistance is essential in Indiana.

Apple scab is very prevalent,” Burbrink said. “They get black spots on them and they turn yellow and pretty soon the leaves drop off and the trees like 8 to 10 years like that and then they pretty much fade out to the point where people just take them out.”

Insecticide is also a requirement for fruit trees in Indiana, Burbrink said, adding organic options that are effective for apple scab are severely limited. Knowing how and when to spray will also have a strong bearing on the future of your fruit tree and even though Burbrink says it needs to be done, less is more and all-in-ones are a no-go.

“For instance, you don’t really have to spray an insecticide until after the blossoms fall off of most trees,” Burbrink said. “If you spray when the blossoms are on the trees and the bees are coming to pollinate that tree, you’ve just killed the bees. These all-in-one sprays that contain an insecticide or two and a couple of fungicides, if sprayed on the tree when they’re in bloom are killing bees. You have to understand what it is you’re spraying. Most of the time, most people don’t really have to be thinking too much about spraying most fruit trees before the blossoms.”

Instead, choose sprays specific to the problem at hand. Peach trees may get peach leaf curl and cherry trees may get grey mold.

For more information, check out the Purdue Extension Publication, “Managing Pests in Home Fruit Plantings” at https:// www.extension.purdue.edu/ extmedia/id/id-146-w.pdf. It’s a comprehensive guide to all things pest-related for fruit trees that can be grown in Indiana. n

By Len Harms

Michiana Master Gardener

In 2005 Diana Lawson, the director of the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, led a group of industry leaders and other professionals brainstorming ideas for a project that would capture who and what Elkhart County is. Their guidelines were four-fold: connect the cities and towns with each other, encourage extended stays for travelers, attract new visitors and create local interest from the county residents. According to Sonya Nash, who has been part of this attraction from the very beginning, one member envisioned a field planted in flowers. An idea was captured.

Nash, selected as the person in charge of getting it off the ground, promoted the project extensively through many meetings with many people. In 2006 two sites were selected as test sites: American Countryside Market (now Southgate Crossing) and Das Dutchman Essenhaus. These sites affirmed the idea as workable.

Questions needed to be answered. Where the gardens would be; how would the flowers be purchased; who would supply the flowers; what flowers would work best; and what quilt designs would be used? A new question arose. How can businesses without garden space participate? The project grew to include murals painted on the sides of buildings.

The ECCVB Quilt Garden Project is now in its 16th year. In 2007 there were 12 gardens, in 2023 15. The gardens have done very well, though Nash reports there has never been a year without a major issue in at least one garden, such as diseases, grass infestations, weed infestations, a hailstorm, and hungry animals, since Mother Nature is a player in the project.

Covid 19 was a challenge. Because tourism was down, funding reduced, people isolating, and fewer volunteers, the committee asked for organizations to fund the expense of their garden and continue to find ways to plant and maintain it. Out of 17 gardens 16 said they could. This freed the ECCVB staff to invest time and resources to promote the gardens.

ECCVB has invested many resources in promoting the gardens. For the 10-year and the 15-year anniversaries they sponsored bronze statues by Seward Johnson at each of the gardens and some downtowns. They have presented to many tourism groups and have worked to maintain good relationships with all the parties involved.

Many people have visited the gardens, including many from other states and foreign countries. Though the gardens are free, they have brought millions of dollars into the county through hotel reservations, meals purchased, money spent in local businesses and in other ways.

Currently the planning and carrying out of this project is a yearround effort by a few paid ECCVB staff and hundreds of volunteers.

The gardens are open for viewing beginning June 1 and ending Sept. 15. There are several approaches one can use for seeing the gardens, including a one-day plan, a two-day plan, or a few-selected-gardens plan. Whichever way one chooses to see them they will have a relaxing day seeing the county and viewing beautiful gardens. Many of the businesses are also interesting places to shop.

To get started go to VisitElkhartCounty.com or go to a garden near you and pick up a 2023 map and guide after June 1. Have fun and talk to the gardeners if they happen to be working when you visit. They love to talk about gardening.

Through creating an idea, planning carefully, promoting buy-in from interested people, working diligently, and fully committing to the task, the quilt gardens have been a success. n

A survey of 2,000 dog and cat owners found two in three wished they could be their furbabies for a day, because 65% of pet owners spoil their pets daily! And really, who wouldn’t like being able to sleep more? Plus those zoomies are so much fun to watch they must be fun to do, too.

By BethAnne Brink-Cox House and Home Feature Writer

Why do people spoil their pets? Why not? Seriously, interaction can alleviate anxiety, depression, loneliness and stress. Our bodies produce oxytocin, one of those feel-good hormones that leads to happiness.

Most of us can’t resist buying just one more toy, or a really cute sweater or spending more money at the groomer for a spa day, not just the classic cutting of coat and nails. We hold them, talk to them, sleep with them. (Or not.) In fact, pet nooks are quite the trend now, such as what looks like a casual table–until you see the pet bed on the lower level, a nice replacement for a crate. And catios are just the thing for pampered kitties, which, of course, is just what they think they deserve.

On the other side of the spectrum, fancy chicken coops are becoming quite the thing.

There are kits and patterns for them and one business offers some that cost, no kidding, $1m. That’s more than most of us could or would ever spend to build our own homes!

Matt Sandy serves as the Kosciusko County Area Plan Director, and has handled a lot of questions about chickens in the county. “I know there are many who would like to have chickens in town. Agriculture use, such as chickens, cannot just happen in a residential area.

“But owners can ask for an exception, and that would go to a public hearing, (it) gives us – and neighbors – a chance to voice any concerns. We take a number of things into account. One thing we do is look at the town itself. We would feel remiss if we said yes and the town ordinances said oh you can’t; we don’t want to create that conflict.

“Bird flu can wipe out a whole building of birds! We are very conscious about how it will impact the rest of our community. What about manure? You can only spread so much on a garden!

“Noise. Are you having roosters? Some like to be woke catiospaces.com up that way, others don’t. It can be easy to get the birds, but by the time you look at coops, vaccines, maintenance and food you have a lot into them. Mostly what we have seen are folks who want eggs and meat. I think they look at it as a cheap source, but it isn’t, at least not at first.” You don’t, in other words, want to start the process and then realize it’s not for you, even if your city allows them.

While Kosciusko County at this time does not allow chickens within city limits, Sandy said, “I will never say never. I’ve been doing this work for 20 years and I’ve seen a lot of change. Some of our schools do have ag programs, and they can have chickens. That’s new, and we didn’t think about that before.”

Ordinances and environments change for all sorts of reasons; you might just want to tuck away those chicken coop plans! n