[MassChestnutOrchards] Striking out

[Yvonne Federowicz]

Is anyone else pollinating in MA this year, or were these the only
prospects?

Thanks, Yvonne


On 7/7/09 5:05 PM, "Rufin Van Bossuyt" <rufin at charter.net> wrote:

> Not having much luck this year. I was planning to pollinate a tree in Carver
> and one at Quabbin reservoir. I had an okay from NSTAR to help with the Carver
> tree. Then they had to decline as twelve electric circuits had to be trimmed
> on a priority basis. I went to the tree yesterday with a stepladder and pole
> to pull limbs down. Almost all of the flowers were at the crown and I hadn't
> been sure that I could have reached them from the bucket truck. Only a few of
> the flowers were lower and I could not reach them. Live and dead limbs are in
> the crown and large dead areas are along the trunk. Not sure if the limbs or
> tree would have lived through harvest if pollinated.
> Today I went out to Quabbin ready to bag a tree. The tree is at the side of
> one of the gravel roads. It has no blight. It had been shaded and was not
> flowering. The DCR staff cut the shading trees down and last year it flowered
> and it was pollinated but only provided 32 nuts.
> Today I had Bill Davis of MA Fish and Wildlife with me, Rick Farrell, area
> Arborist for National Grid, and a Bucket truck and two man crew provided by
> National Grid. As we approached the tree I could see a lot of catkins and it
> was ready for bagging. However; as I went up in the bucket I wasn't seeing any
> female flowers. I found only 3 female flowers.The new growth was lush and
> about two feet long. The leaves were dark green. Still no blight.
> Bill and I then drove down to the tree we pollinated twice before. The crown
> is dead and lower branches had a few flowers. The seedling nearby is still
> alive.
> Bill and I looked at a tree near the shore of the Wachusett Reservoir that is
> tall but was shaded until DCR staff cut down the shading trees a few years
> ago. It now had a few flowers. No blight.
>  
> Maybe next year will be better. We take two steps ahead and fall back one but
> we overall make progress.
>  
> Rufin
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> MassChestnutOrchards mailing list
> MassChestnutOrchards at masschestnut.org
> http://mrsgale.fates.org/mailman/listinfo/masschestnutorchards

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mrsgale.fates.org/pipermail/masschestnutorchards/attachments/20090707/1a9a28c4/attachment.html