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South Okanagan Photos

Rural report with Laird Smith

The days are feeling chilly lately. In fact, as I walk about the trail system in Edmonton, I see the poplar tree leaves turning yellow and falling. The Farmer’s Almanac says we should be expecting an early winter. I hope it is wrong, I’d like to see a nice warm, long indian summer.
Returning to my column last week concerning the fruit grown by the unknown Keremeos grower. He does know how to ship fruit because our peaches, though some were softer than I expected, were not punky. We still have some peaches uneaten and keep them in a crisper below 3 C. The flesh is still sweet and firm. Now we just need to get those punky peach vendors convinced to serve the public in a similar fashion.

I’ve been reading the 47th Report of the Okanagan Historical Society (OHS ) which was published in 1983. I bought my copy in November of that year when I returned to Oliver to mourn the death of my father, Wally Smith. The book is a wonderful read!

To give you a heads up, we have 6 fruit trees on our property in Edmonton that were developed for Prairie conditions. The trees were likely developed at Morden Manitoba to give them their hardy root stock.

We have a yellow plum, an apricot, two varieties of pears, an apple crab and a crab apple. The yellow plum has been in stress for several years producing scorched yellow leaves with shoot die-back. The tree always produces ample blossoms and they are well pollinated.The worst part is that all the fruit falls off before it starts to mature.

I have been scratching my head to discover the reason for this problem. This year we had the most incredible bloom of apricots. Every branch was full of blossoms, the bees did a marvelous job pollinating. We had a bountiful crop of cots coming.

Nelly and I left our tree of promise and departed for the British Isles for three weeks. While we were gone the rain fell in torrents. Upon our return we checked out the cot tree. To our dismay there were only two cots remaining, both in sheltered areas of the tree.

I had to discover what was causing the great fruit drop! Then I was reading the OHS report when I came across a possible solution. In the 1920’s, the Okanagan Valley and elsewhere became affected with Drought Spot.

The symptoms were russetting, spotting or pitting of the fruit. In some cases the apples were small, gnarled or split, corky core, a browning of tissue around the core, leaf scorch and shoot die-back. Sometimes the tree died.

The government began its research, and in 1936, Dr Larry McLarty published two comprehensive papers on the use of boron compounds for Drought Spot and related behaviors. They found the soils were boron deficient.

According to my research, our soil may be boron deficient, but I won’t know that for sure until next summer. I’ve looked for Boron but it comes in commercial quantities only, $85.00 for a five pound bucket, that is way more than I need. I went to the grocery store and bought Borax and now I will use that. When I’m done with the Borax it will help wash my clothes.

I’ll do an application this fall. Apparently, the applications are only required every 3 years, if that is what my problem is.

One of my sisters tells me that for every answer there are three more questions to ask. I think she is right and my treatment of my soil may bring me those extra questions.

ruralreportwithlairdsmith@gmail.com