Mick Doobie
Maderator
The weather has put a damper on the next phase of the greenhouse which is the roof. The gravity feed watering system is working like a charm.
The garden is all in, the pot plants are growing, everything is going good except for... One of the apple trees I bought last year has rust. I have treated it
and it looks like touch and go. Also something is effecting the old pear tree. Bunch of dead branches. Time will tell.
What variety of apple tree? It's probably apple cedar rust. Word is, although certainly not good, it won't kill the tree first go 'round. Long term it could. Messes up the fruit to non edible as well. Crazy, damnedest thing, apple cedar rust. It's impossible to cut down every red cedar tree(and some relatives) within 10 miles. Requires spraying a fungicide on a schedule during the spring, copper for instance, approx weekly. Those alien looking orange balls with tentacles on the cedar trees swell after a rain. As weather dries they also dry out and shrink, and harden. That's when the wind carries the spores to the apple trees....up to 10 miles. My trees are semi dwarf, which will be a semi challenge to spray....several times...in the spring. A full size tree, I just can't see that happening, not with a typical homeowner type pump garden sprayer anyway. I suppose it's not the end of the world, but as you spray some falls to the ground, can build up in the soil after repeated sprays. So use an "organic" type fungicide. If the spray kills things on the tree, it can/will kill things in the soil as well. Good things you might not want to kill. It might not be a bad idea to where a respirator, or certainly some type of covering over your face to prevent breathing in that shit.
Good luck.