Henny Penny Farmette

The farmette apricot trees have been shedding leaves as winter approaches. I’ve recently noticed ants in the tree and leaves that are sticky. Further investigation revealed that the tree leaves are covered with apricot aphids seeking moisture and nutrients from the leaves.

Ashen leaves that are sticky might signal an infestation of apricot aphids

The local garden center’s expert explained that those tiny aphids know when the seasons are changing. As leaves fall, they take in nutrients to tide them over to spring. Ants often signal a pest problem with the tree long before you notice the presence of aphids.

Like many pests attacking apricot trees, aphids overwinter as eggs (smaller than a grain of rice). These eggs are hidden in the cracks and crevices of the bark, branches, and twigs.

During this past fall (2021), aphids flew around our apricot and other fruit trees like ash on a windy day. They consumed leaf and stem sap that resulted in a sticky substance known as honeydew, a sticky waste product left on the leaves.

It’s worth mentioning that aphids aren’t the only apricot tree pests. A partial list of other apricot tree pests includes:

1. mealybugs

2. earwigs

3. mites

4. leaf roller

5. apricot-peach twig borer

6. scale

7. spider mites

Although we don’t like using any kind of spray out of concern over toxicity to our honeybees, our local garden center recommends using an organic spray such as Captain Jack’s (approved for organic farming). This time of year, it’s a good idea to apply the spray after pruning the trees.

Doing a good job with pruning and spraying means that the aphids might not be such a problem come spring.

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Enjoy reading about farm topics? Check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries. Chocked full of farm trivia and helpful advice for keeping chickens and bees and growing heirloom fruit and vegetables, all three novels are available online and in bookstores everywhere.

These novels include elements based on the real Henny Penny Farmette

A Beeline to Murder–When the town’s celebrity pastry chef is found dead, Abby Mackenzie (a former cop who supplies the chef with her organic lavender honey) discovers the chef’s secret private life suggests the killer might be local.

The Murder of a Queen Bee–The botanical shop owner and friend of Abby Mackenzie doesn’t make it to a party where she’s the guest of honor. Her death leads Abby to speculate that friends of the deceased might be hiding her killer.

A Hive of Homicides–Abby attends a vow-renewal party of her best friend and is an ear witness to the murder of the newly arrived re-married couple. The husband’s philandering past establishes a pool of suspects but Abby is convinced that there’s more to the murder a scorned lover’s revenge.

I love dried apricots, but don’t tolerate well the ones treated with sulfur dioxide(used to prevent oxidation and loss of color). With so many apricots on our property coming ripe at once, I have decided in addition to making jam this year to also dry some of the fruit.

Apricots, so plentiful this time of year, are easy to dry and make great snacks when the season is over

Apricots dried but not treated with sulfur dioxide will turn a natural brown color. Some stores sell them this way. They are usually priced the same or similar to the treated apricots with the bright orange hue.

Besides apricots, other fruits that dry well include apples, bananas, cherries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, plum, rhubarb, and even strawberries. You can use a drying machine

Quick Tips for Drying Fruit

1. Choose to dry only the freshest picked fruits, without bruises, scale, sun scald, or other blight.

2. Spray nonstick vegetable spray on drying pans or trays to make it easier to remove the dried fruit

3. Lay out the fruit to dry in a single layer on trays. Remember to rotate the trays occasionally and turn the pieces from time to time.

4. Destroy any insects (miniscule or otherwise) by freezing or baking the fruit. Simply take the tray and stick it into an oven heated to 175 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes. Alternatively, pack the dried fruit in freezer bags and freeze for at least 2 days.

5. Freezing dried fruit in resealable freezer bags will preserve its shelf life.

Perfectly ripe peaches can be eaten off the tree or made into luscious jam

In the orchard area of the Henny Penny Farmette, we’ve planted several fruiting peach trees. Today, during this first full week in February, the Desert Gold peach trees (Prunus persica) broke into bloom.

These trees are more tolerant of heat than some of the varieties, but if planted in the desert Southwest or even in the hot interior valleys of California, the peach trees will perform better if given a little afternoon shade.

There are basically four types of peach trees: fruiting, flowering, combination fruiting and flowering, and dwarf. All peaches require heat during the hot weather months of their growing cycle and won’t properly set many blooms or be well pollinated during springs that are cold and wet. These trees also need some chilling during the winter months when they drop their leaves and go dormant.

We’ve discovered that our peach trees benefit from regular feedings (I’ve used fish emulsion tea, manure tea, and even chicken manure worked into the soil around the base of the tree) two or three times a year. For mature trees, plan on cutting away 2/3 of the previous year’s growth or cut each branch back about 1/3 it’s total length.

The Internet has some great videos that demonstrate how to properly prune your peach trees.

Buds on a Desert Gold peach tree about to break into a lovely pink blooms

If you’ve prune your peach tree properly, you’ll have lovely, large fruits. Another technique to increase fruit size is to thin the number of fruits on the tree. Taking away some of the smaller fruits and reducing the size of the crop means that the remaining fruit can enlarge before ripening.

Peach leaf curl, peach leaf borer, and scale insects are pesky problems for peach growers and gardeners. Treatment requires spraying with Bordeaux mixture or lime sulfur twice a year. Nurseries suggests you spray your peach trees in November and again just before the buds swell.

Now, our trees are ready to flower, be pollinated by the honeybees, and produce some luscious peaches by the end of May. I’ll use the ripe peaches to make some palate-pleasing jams.