Seattle Tree Fruit Society

Dear Fruit Club Members,

One of our favorite Vashon Island Fruit Club events is almost here!  Saturday, June 26, beginning at 1:00pm, Bob & Carol Norton will host their Orchard Tour & Strawberry Shortcake Tasting party. Members only please. Join us for lemonade & scrumtuliscious berries.

We are also taking this opportunity to send out a call for extra Strawberry Fest volunteers, Friday July 16 through Sunday, July 18^th.  In order for the Club to avoid paying a $160.00 fee for our  Strawberry Fest booth, we need to provide the Chamber of Commerce with 10 hours of volunteer time. This can be 5 people, each for 2 hours. Place & times needed: the Micro Brew Beer Garden. Possible jobs to include set-up, ID checking, beer pouring, and bussing tables.

VIFC needs volunteers in these time slots:

FRIDAY: 4 volunteers from 3:00 pm to 7:30, 5 volunteers from 7:30 until 11:00.  

SATURDAY: 2 volunteers from 10:30 to 2:00, 4 volunteers from 2:00 to 5:30, 5 volunteers from 5:30 until 11:00.

SUNDAY: 2 volunteers from 10:30 to 4:00, 4 or 5 from 4:00 to cleanup time around 7:00

Please let our Special Events Chair Linda Rhodes know when you would be available by calling her at 463- 9826, or call Elizabeth Vogt at 920-7603.

We hope to see everyone at the Nortons on the 26^th, and we thank you in advance for your valuable volunteer time. After all, the club is as good as what we all put into it, the more we contribute, the more each of us gets back.

Happy Fruiting season to all of you!

Dawn Perlman - 2010 VIFC Membership Chair

Hello all,

Please pass the word about this great opportunity to take our summer fruits and nuts class from Bob Norton. Feel free to use any, or all, of the information below.

Pomology expert Bob Norton will be teaching a horticulture course on Growing Fruits and Nuts in Western Washington this summer at Edmonds Community College. Bob will cover how to get started and follow through to have maximum satisfaction with minimal input of cost and time. He will provide a comprehensive look at fruit and nut varieties, including vining and bush fruits, suitable for growing in Western Washington. Emphasis will be placed on how to provide proper growing conditions, cope with pests, and integrate these food producing plants into the landscape.

Fruits and Nuts, Hort 247, 2.5 credits*
Thursdays 1-3 PM (July 8-August 19)
Class also meets 10 AM-5 PM on two Saturdays, July 24 and August 14.

Dr. Norton, emeritus professor of pomology, Washington State University, has 50+ years of experience in teaching, research, and growing fruit plants.  After graduating with a BA & MS from Rutgers University and a PhD from Michigan State University, Bob has been teaching, researching and consulting in the Pacific Northwest. Bob founded a Chapter of Western Cascade Fruit Society (100 members) and now grows over 150 kinds and varieties of tree fruit and berries on his small orchard.

*Please note that you must be admitted to the college before registering for this course. To apply online, start at the Edmonds Community College home page: http://www.edcc.edu/ and click on Future Student. For state residents, tuition for this course will be $201.50.

Bus trip & Lunch - $20 a seat.  Now open to all WCFS Members.  If you have not heard of Tom Woods, pay attention now because there will be a STFS sponsored bus going to see his innovative greenhouses full of produce on June 5th.  We are holding the group to the 47 on the bus so that we can get close enough to him to ask questions and hear him talk.  We’ll start the day at Raintree Nursery for their 50% off Bare-root Sale, get a tour of Raintree and picnic in the orchard - Yes, and lunch is included in the $20 bus ticket.  After lunch, we’ll head over to Tom Woods for a tour of his All Season Fruit greenhouses.  It is amazing the amount of produce he grows. He assures us peaches, apricots, tomatoes, and blueberries to taste. 
 
When I receive your $20 then your name will go on the list.  First come first served.  Only 47 seats!  We’ve been to his place in the past and people want to ask questions and hear what he has to say.  Bigger crowds don’t allow that.  You can email me to expect your check and find out where to mail it. At seattletreefruitsociety@hotmail.com
 
Also, tell me if you have any food issues.
Thank you.
Lori

8:00 am  - Meet at the Park & Ride at 6810-8th Av NE, Seattle            

10:30 am – Raintree Nursery 50% Off Bare-root Sale and Tour of the Facilities

11:30-12:30  Picnic in the orchard

1:30 – 4:00 pm - Tom Woods Greenhouses Tour

6:00 pm – Arrive back at the Park & Ride at 6810-8th Av NE, Seattle   

 I volunteer for the City of Bellevue as a Neighborhood Liaison, and was recently contacted by a local church with an idea they had for the Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP).  Part of the church’s property is an old orchard from one of the original farms in Bellevue.  They wanted to know if the City of Bellevue could partner with them using NEP funds to recondition their orchard, and then the Church would provide the fruit to the local food banks.  Since the orchard is not on public property it does not qualify for money from NEP.  Nevertheless it does seem like a great idea.  The local food-banks get a lot of canned and dry goods but not so much fruit, especially organically grown fresh apples, which fetch a premium price on the market.  The church’s congregation is elderly, and is not physically able to maintain the orchard themselves which is why they are requesting help.  Although, the STFS’s primarily mission is to provide education, I thought this may be a project that members of the STFS may wish to support and donate some time to.   Lorine Brakken, went out on a Saturday to look at the orchard and said the trees are healthy, but are large, as most old orchard trees are.  There are a number of ways members of the STFS, with their special skill set, could help: pruning, and perhaps grafting new disease resistant varieties are a possibility.   Also, it could be the church would elect to replace the old trees, with modern varieties on dwarf root stocks which are easier to maintain.  While none of the above is currently planned, the church does have an immediate need for which they are requesting help.  They have asked for a maggot barrier workshop.  We will teach the congregation how to put on “footies”, and work several hours installing them.  Since these are large trees, anyone with an orchard ladder is encouraged to bring it. The “footie” work part will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday the 22^nd of May.  Come have some fun, and do something good for the community!    Anyone willing to donate a few hours for a public service project please contact seattletreefruitsociety@hotmail.com

Maggot Barrier Workshop

When: May 22nd, Saturday

Time: 9am Lecture, 10am Footie Party Begins!  A piece of apple by and a beverage for the volunteers!

Location: Holy Cross Lutheran Church Orchard, 4315 129th Pl. SE, Bellevue, WA 98006

Learn: How to apply Surround to the Maggot Barriers, how the Maggot Barriers work, lifecycles of apple pests, and how to apply them to the fruit

Experience: Hands on Surround application to MB’s and orchard application of footies to the trees

Contact: seattletreefruitsociety@hotmail.com

Bring: Ladder for working in the trees (if you have one), sack lunch, water

STFS & FOPO ‘Meet Up’ May 8^th

(FOPO is Friends of Piper Orchard)

Potluck, Lecture, games at Carkeek Park

Door prize: Get a free entry ticket for bringing your own cup and a Nametag (you can make one if you don’t have a STFS nametag)

What is a ‘Meet Up’?  I searched the web and came up with this…

Do something • Learn something Share something • Change something

 A Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest.

Where local community gets together to network, socialize and show-and-tell new technology.

Time:   10:30am to 2pm

Location: Carkeek Park meeting room/Piper Orchard

10:30 Lecture: Bob Norton ‘Summer Pruning’

11:30 Drawing for Door Prize

11:45  Potluck: This is Lunch.  Cake, Drinks, and plates/utensils provided.

12:15 Dessert: A Special Cake by Mike Ewanciw’s friend.

12:30 Fruit Grower’s Jeopardy Game

1:00 Presentation of heritage grape to the Piper Orchard, followed by planting of the grape and tour of the orchard.  I’ve requested an electric cart to get those up to the orchard that cannot walk the ¼ mile flat rolled gravel path.  Hopefully we will have the cart available.

We have a heritage Campbell Early (Island Belle) grape to present to the Piper Orchard.  Bill Horn of the Tahoma Fruit Club informed me that there was a Northwest heritage variety of grape from the site of the original Stretch Island Winery homestead that is now to become the Sehmel (Homestead) Park in Gig Harbor.   Local Master Gardeners heard that there was going to be construction on the site and rescued this grape.  They handed off a 5-gallon sized start of the Campbell Early grape to Bill, who handed it off to me (Lorine Brakken), and we will present it to Piper Orchard’s Andy Zaborski who is planting a row of heritage grapes in the orchard.  We will follow him up to the orchard and get it planted right away.  Hopefully everyone will get to toss a shovel full of dirt in the hole.

There are exciting plans in the making for STFS future events:

On April 24^th, 9:30am-12 noon, in the Douglas Classroom at the Center for Urban Horticulture, will be the next Member Meeting with Marilyn and Dick Tilbury as our speakers.  They will speak to us on the life cycles and controls for Apple Maggot, Coddling Moth, and the Spotted Winged Vinegar Fly.  We’ll make traps for the SWVF at the meeting. 

On April 24^th, 8:00am-9:30 before the Member Meeting, we will have a Board Meeting where we will introduce  our new Membership Person on the board.  Also, we have a volunteer to be nominated for Vice President.  We have no other nominations for VP and if you know of any please bring them to our attention before the April 24^th meeting. 

Also on April 24^th, after the Member Meeting, we will have a Membership Fruit Database meeting.   We have talked for a couple years now about coming up with a member database of the fruit varieties that we all grow.  This would benefit the club by knowing where to get scion wood for the spring shows, fruit for the fall shows, make name tags for the fruit/wood at the shows, and for apple identification at the fall shows.  A database of this information would be very valuable to the club.  We will meet to discuss the possibilities and categories we’d like to see developed after the Member Meeting on April 24^th.  We will probably move outside to a warm corner of the CUH garden for this meeting.  Bring a sack lunch. 

Grafting wax- Used to seal grafts, 4oz, $7.29+tx

Source:  Skagit Farmer’s Supply  (360)757-4055, 1276 S. Burlington Blvd. Burlington, WA 98233

TangleTrap - Insect Trap Coating by Tanglefoot, 15oz Tub $5.75+tx

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

Small Planer -Makes flat cuts when splice grafting, $7.98+tx

Source:  Lowes (425) 744-8411, 3100- 196th St SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036-6960

Rubber Splicing Tape - Used as grafting tape, breaks down faster (being rubber) than vinyl electric tape and sticks to itself more than the graft wood. $2.40/roll+tx. In the Electrical section, but on an end display.

Source: Home Depot (206) 361-9600, 11616 Aurora Avenue North, Seattle 

Yellow Sticky Traps  - 3”x 5” Sensor Cards -Used to Monitor and Catch fruit pests. $15.95+tx / Package

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

Grafting knives   $12.95+tx

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

White Plastic Labels - 7” long, $24.95+tx / 1000 on a roll

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

Aluminum Labels -  3”x 1”, $5.75+tx / box of 50

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

Industrial Permanent Markers - More Permanent than Permanent Markers, Will last longer outdoors.

$1.25+tx each (but you buy a box for that price)

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

Chip Bud Tape   -used for grafting, ½” Grafting Tape, $4.95+tx /roll

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

Calcium Magnesium Suppliment  -used as watering suppliment to add Calcium to soil for treatment of Bitter Pit in Apples, 1 quart / $14 +tx

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

TreeKote  -used to seal grafts, ½ pt/$3.95+tx

Source:  Steubers Distributing   ‎(360) 568-2626, 308 3rd Street, Snohomish, WA

Parafilm Grafting Tape   -used for grafting, ($34.35 each box of 12)

Source:  Search Online for ‘parafilm grafting tape’ from SPI Supplies www.2spi.com/catalog/supp/parafilm-grafting.shtml

Fels Naptha Laundry Bar Soap  - Used to make Insecticidal Soap Spray to kill soft bodied insects $3.00 each

Source:  Online search Amazon.com    $2.31 Each  =$23.10 (shipping incl.)/10 bars

Surround ®- Used to dip Maggot Barriers in for added control of Apple Maggot and Coddling Moth

24pound sack for  $27.86 (I was quoted $49.00)

Source:  Wilbur Ellis  (360) 466-3138, 13586 Bayview Edison Rd, Mt Vernon 98273

The “how-to” for Surround soaked footies

Need 4 quart pan, colander to hold 288 footies, another pan to catch fluid. Directions:

1. Add container of Surround® (3 T) into 3 quarts of water
2. Stir– or Surround® will not dissolve
3. Place 288 footies in Surround® + water – stir to soak footies
4. Pour footies and Surround® mixture into colander with pan beneath to catch fluid 5. stir captured fluid and pour over footies with catch container beneath
5. Keep repeating until fluid does not have evidence of Surround®
6. Dry footies by spreading on wire mesh, table,etc.
7. Apply to fruit BEFORE codling moths mate

0-5-25  PNW Fruit Tree Maintenance Formula - This fertilizer is made in the PNW, for the PNW.

Source: Skagit Farmer’s Supply  360.757.4055, 1276 S. Burlington Blvd. Burlington, WA 98233

Price:  20# bags, $13.99+tx & gas & time

It is also available in 50# bags from Skagit Farmers Supply.

0% Nitrogen (this helps to restrict excess top growth)

5% Phosphorous (needed for energy production in the plant)

25% Potassium (critical for sugar movement into the fruits)

15% Sulfur (for enzyme and protein production)

5.4% Magnesium (for photosynthesis and sugar production)

6.6% Calcium (critical for normal cell development)

0.14% Boron (for pollination and fruit development)

0.15% Zinc (needed for shoot and leaf growth)

The sources of nutrients for the Skagit Farmers Supply 0-5-25 Fruit tree fertilizer: Granulated Bone meal, sulfate of potash, K-Mag natural, Granubor and Ruff& Tuff 10% Zinc. All ingredients used are OMRI certified ORGANIC. The bagging equipment (used to package this product) is not organically certified.

The directions for fruit trees and all berries, grapes, shrubs, & roses is 1-3# per 100 square feet. To avoid getting too much Boron in one season, don’t apply more than 5# per 100 square feet per year. Peaches, young trees or trees on very poor soil will often benefit from adding some Nitrogen, such as feather meal or ammonium sulfate, in the spring.

This fertilizer, the PNW Fruit Tree Maintenance Formula, was developed by Bill Swanson (Skagit Farmers Supply) & Gary Moulton (WSU Mt Vernon).  It has been unadvertised but available for approximately 4 to 5 years now.  This is the first time that Seattle Tree Fruit Society has offered it to our members and Show attendees.

     http://snohomish.wsu.edu       by Lorine Brakken 

The Snohomish County WSU website has a wealth of information for home gardeners in our area.  It is located at WSU Snohomish County Extension in Everett.  Great things to find at the website are:

• Direct links to the WSU Plant Pest Leaflet Series – info on local insects! 
• Once-a-month ‘Bugs & Blights’ workshop having both lab and field time on timely local garden issues,
• ‘Preserving the Harvest’ 5 part workshop starting in June
• Master Beekeeping classes coming up soon! 
• Drip Irrigation class on April 8th is 1pm -3:30pm and again 6pm - 8:30pm.  Learn how to develop your yard for easy maintenance and low water usage.  Regular watering for fruit trees is very important through the summer and if we can conserve water using drip irrigation, all the better.  Cost is $20/per person, or $25/2 people sharing materials, pre-registration required. To register download the form at www.snohomish.wsu.edu/garden/workshops/ registrationform.pdf and mail with your check, or call Karie Christensen at (425) 338-2400, e-mail klchristen@cahnrs.wsu.edu

Wow!  Great Show.  We had a lot of fun and I want to Thank Everyone.

I did want to thank each of you personally and managed to get quite a few phone calls in but if I have not spoken with you, know that I am truly thankful for everyone’s help.  This show was a success in it’s enthusiastic atmosphere and great attendance.  It could not have happened without each and every one of you. Thank You!

I would like feedback from you all on how we can improve the show for next time and am saving these notes for the next show.  Feel free to let me know what you think.   We want to know.  I’ve listed the Thank You’s by Job because it takes a lot of different activities to put this event on.  The Show process started in December and is wrapping up now in late March.   Thank you everyone for making this such a wonderful event!

Thank you to All who helped on… 

Creation of the Show Poster – spring-show-flier

Publicity – to media contacts,  Ciscoe’s Show, putting posters up, and All You who put the info up on the web in chat groups, calendars of other organizations, & distributed fliers around town.

Signs - There were lots of complements about well posted signage and directions to the site!

Show coordination and planning – This took onsite evaluations of use of space, planning for sales, activities, and numbers of people that might attend, running errands, picking up materials, floor plans, thinking thru the process of a show, preparing literature for handouts, where to get rootstock and scion wood, labels, everything…. Reak

Collection of Scion Wood at WWFRF - and storage of it all!

CUH Staff - help with layout, planning, and parking

Set Up Saturday–set up of the rootstock and scion wood areas, labels

Set Up on Sunday 8-10 – Assisting vendors with setting up their booths, signs up around the CUH, parking for volunteers/vendors.

Parking - All day long and we had full parking lots!

Cashiers– the accounting for all the sales is no easy task and this crew was adaptable beyond call.  We have useful info now on what sold and how people heard about the show.

Info Tables – These folks answered questions tirelessly all day. Thanks!

Scion wood– This is a huge draw for people to see the scion wood tables and all the varieties of fruit that are possible to graft up and grow yourself!

Rootstock -  The foundation of a great fruit tree.  We ran out of rootstock for the first time ever!  We took orders on the spot and delivered the orders last week.  Thinking on our feet to keep people’s interest in grafting alive and well!

Grafting– This is a wonderful event to watch and learn from the experts here.  People were in line for this service and it is very important.

Tool Sharpening– People really appreciated the service and tools were in line all day to be sharpened and cleaned up for a busy spring of work.

Movers - There are the folks that counted heads and kept the trash recycled and made sure it was all working smoothly.  Thank you!

Lectures -An intensive session of 2 lectures going at a time.  Quite the juggling event with 14 lectures in all!  This was offered free this year and the topics could have used a lot more time.  The job was covered with competence and our experts were diverse and knowledgable.

Memberships /Info table–The people that worked this table were experts on STFS!  Long time members with a lot of experience on past STFS activities and a knowledge of what STFS can offer.  Thanks.

Maggot Barrier Sales - Very important to our being able to put on this event is the sales of the maggot barriers.  Home gardeners appreciate being able to buy these in person and skip the shipping costs.

Dept of Literature -Our literature is up to date and in demand.  I hear that so much was purchased that we are needing to order a lot of new material!  I’m excited to see what we will be getting next.

Mason Bee Info – Our native pollinators, so important to the garden in our cool wet springs before Honey Bees are out.  There were lots of questions to get answered about keeping our mason bees safe and healthy.

Insect Info – A host of pests and beneficials to look out for in the garden keep this booth very busy with questions from attendees.  Thank you for answering our questions! 

Educational Booths -by the Friends of Piper Orchard, Chinook Compost Tea, About Chestnuts, City Fruit, PlantAmnesty, Seattle Tilth, WWFRF,  Peninsula Fruit Club,  South Sound Fruit Club.  Thank you everyone for taking the time to set up an education display and answer all our questions.  You made the event very worth attending for many people.  Thank you!    

Composting & Recycling - We were able to recycle and compost a huge amount!  Our team is evaluating the event for even better ’green’ times in the future.  Thank you greenies! 

Food Vendors - Our espresso drinks and ‘Got Soup? meals were delightful.  Being able to sit in the sun on the pation was incredible too!  

Break Down– Putting away all the toys and cleaning up those grafting chips came at the close of the show.  We were all so happy with how it went that it seemed like a breeze.  Thank you all of you who stayed and helped from beginning to end.  You are all wonderful.

 After Show Grafting/Rootstock Orders -  We had quite a few orders to produce and distribute after the show.  All done now!

Accounting Wrap Up of Show – Finally, end of March.  Thank you for the wrap up of the finances and help putting everything back into storage!

I’ve been busy organizing and having a ball doing it all.  My garden is neglected.  I am looking out at my Beauty plum in full bloom and watching for mason bees.  So far, I’ve just seen bumble bees and hover flies.  On top of working on the show in March, I’ve been creating an apple poster from my photographs of the last few years.  I’m excited about it and hope to have them finished soon.  Maybe for sale at our show!

The final stages of planning are happening for the March 14^th Spring Fruit & Grafting Show!  It is evolving into another wonderful show for us.  I can’t wait!  Volunteer time slots are filling up.  I’ve been wanting people to have time to stroll the show and hear lectures so the volunteer time slots are short - Saturday Set Up 3pm to 5pm, Sunday Set Up 8am to 10am, Sunday 10am to 12:30pm, Sunday 12:30pm to 3:00pm, Take Down 3pm to 5pm, and we are done.  We still have a few openings so email me.  seattletreefruitsociety@hotmail.com

Things to keep in mind that day is that it is on a Sunday and the first day of daylight savings time.  So it will seem like an hour earlier than usual.  Also, Seattle Tree Fruit Society has no credit card sales so bring your check book or cash. Prices are now set - Tools Sharpened for a $1 donation please.  Grafting for $10, Rootstock $3-4, Scion Wood Free - please limit to five free then $1 each.  The Northwest Fruit Fertilizer will be $20 for a 20# bag.  Please bring all your plastic bags from home, we need your extra bags in the grafting area.                  

We have food vendors for this event.  We will have ‘Got Soup?’ from the local farmer’s markets, offering ~4 different soups using fresh, local, organic produce and local artisan breads.  Also, we have ‘Espresso First’ with beverages and bakery items. They will set up out on the patio and the food containers will all be composted.  The only non-composted items would be the recycle and plastic spoons.  Very cool!

In our Educational booth area we will have: our Literature Dept, Membership & Information table & Maggot Barrier Sales.  Marilyn and Dick Tilbury are preparing to try and answer questions on biology, cultural, and chemical control of insects and diseases of common tree fruit & berries.  They will have trap samples on display.  Roger Ledbetter is setting up a Mason Bee display with a few products for display with his friend Steve Brustkern.  There will also be Mason Bee houses, grafting knives, and finger protectors available from the Peninsula Fruit Club.  There will displays by Chinook Compost Tea, Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation, City Fruit, PlantAmnesty, Seattle Tilth, and Friends of Piper Orchard.  The South Sound Fruit Club will be selling a few of their blueberry plants (varieties Blue Crop, Jersey, Collins, Northland) in mixed bundles of 5 @ $50 to WCFS members, that mean us.  These plants are ~3′ tall, making this a great price!

I just took a break to go out and get the Sunday paper and see our ‘free’ ad, a bonus from advertising in the Flower & Garden Show Guide this year.  Here it is in the Pacific Northwest section, page 20 top.  I’m excited.  See you there.  Email me to volunteer.  Lori  seattletreefruitsociety@hotmail.com