White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1926-05-07
PROSPECTS FOR GOOD
FRUIT CROP LOOKS BETTER

All frost danger to the fruit crop
appears to be past for the season and
growers this week began thinning
work The early season and the
warm weather has tended to bring
the fruit along fast with the result
that it is much larger at this season
than in ordinary years. The size
makes the fruit show up better on
the trees and apple growers who a
short time ago were complaining
about poor set in their orchards now
say that they are going to have a
larger crop than they expected two
weeks ago. Cherries are beginning
to turn red and from present indica-
tions Bings will be ready for ship
ment not later than May 20. The
cherry crop in general will not be as
large as last year, although several
orchards promise full crop.
The Indications now are that of the
other soft fruits there will be about
a normal CROP. ALI of the varieties
of apples promise normal yield ex-
cept the Delicious and Winesaps.
The Delicious will undoubtedly be
short but there is still much debate
about the Winesaps. Some growers
say the set of fruit in their orchards
is poor, while others claim they have
splendid prospects for a good crop
Why the Delicious and Winesap trees
did not set good crop is a question
that has caused much discussion. In
this connection an article in the Wen
atchee Daily World couple of weeks
ago regarding the late application of
the lime-sulfur spray may be interest
ing:
"We are now in the danger per-
strength, on most varieties of apples,
and the danger is very great on some
varieties, declared R. Edward
Trumble yesterday. There is a grow
ing tendency for growers in this dis
trict to spray later and later with
dormant lime-sulphur. This is the
cause of more damage during the
last few years than most growers re-
alize. If the grower sprays so late
with line-sulphur dormant strength,
that the blossom cluster on the apple
dries up and dies, he knows tina. the
lime-sulphur has killed that blossom
cluster.
Most growers do not seem to
have observed that if they spray
little earlier than this, so that the
fruit cluster does not dry up and die,
but continues to bloom and falls off
later, that the over stimulation from
the late full dormant lime-sulphur
spraying is responsible to a great de-
gree for the heavy blossom drop
that follows later. Some varieties, es-
pecially Delicious and Winesaps, are
very sensitive to this stimulation
from late lime-sulphur spraying. Dur
ing the last few years I have noted
some serious cases of damage due to
this cause. In naany orchards the
heavy blossom drop on Winesaps and
Delicious can be traced to this cause.
Some apples are showing the pink
now. We are certainly in the danger
period, and just as little lime-sulphur
spraying as possible should be done
from now on.
"The Yakima growers are way
ahead of us on this practice. When I
was in Yakima on the fifth of March,
was in an 8O-acre orchard where
liCy "ClC just SOlNplctiIlS llc llIIlc-
sulphur spray, The water had been in
the bitches since the first of March, the
weather WIS nice, no wind, and the
growers were going right after the
dormant spray. The president of the
ditch company told me that they
cleaned the ditch and made repairs in
the fall so they were always ready
for immediate action in the spring.
II wonder why we cannot get at
the root Of our trouble and get our
irrigation bitches into action on the
first of March. Too often our grow
ers are put up against this a: u. i'm
possible situation. Right now many
growers must run the hazard of loss
of crop from late dormant spraying
or not spray and take the chance of
scale, if they have scale in the orchard.
The sad part of it is that this is an
loss and hazard. The
bitches are here and the water is in
the river; why can't the water run
down the bitches month earlier,
when s25,ooo.ooo crop is
depending on it for proper protec-
tion?"