Apple genetics and scab resistant varieties скачать в хорошем качестве

Apple genetics and scab resistant varieties

I have mentioned this before, but its an important point and this is a good example. Apple scab, Venturia Inequalis, is a fungal disease which affects leaves, fruit and wood. It can stop a tree growing and cause 100% loss of the crop. When Joni Mitchell sang (in the song 'Big Yellow Taxi') 'Hey now farmers, put away the DDT Give me spots on my aples, give me the birds and the bees' her heart may have been in the right place but she was factually incorrect. For a start, DDT is an insecticide, but 'spots on my apples' are generally caused by scab, which is a fungal disease. OK, debatable point, but while she might be happy to pay for spotty apples, my customers are NOT. And as you can see, this is not a mere cosmetic deficiency, but plain destruction of food intended for human consumption. I will not give specific advice on pesticides, other than do research, be careful and obey all relevant laws, but to produce reliable clean crops you do need to control insects and microbes which will otherwise destroy your crops, sorry its a hard fact. We need more research on alternative methods of pest and disease control. There is a balance to be struck. Most backyard growers will not want to spray, and who can blame them? There are steps you can take to minimise damage, and the first step is to choose varieties which have natural resistance. This information is not so easy to come by-we learned the hard way. Avoid like the plague any apple which is known to be susceptible to scab. Top of the list I'm sorry to say is Cox's Orange Pippin. Kidd's Orange Red, which features in this video, is less bad but not too good. Spartan and Red Pippin are disasters, Sturmer Pippin only grows well in warm dry areas, very scabby for us. I show 2 older varieties in this video, growing adjacent to the spotty Kidd's-so the soil and micriclimate are identical, but which are clean of scab. Yes, they did get 2 lots of fungicide, but in their case they have no scab while the Kidd's is covered with a ruined crop. Intelligent selection by amateur and professional growers over the decades, even centuries, has left us a legacy of tried and tested fruits which are relatively better defended against pests and diseases by their genetics. Older apple varieties flourished in pre-pesticide days. It is absolutely vital that these ancient and regional 'heritage' (or 'heirloom' as the Americans say) varieties are preserved. The best way for this to happen is for hundreds and thousands of people like you to grow, value, celebrate, use and share them. Their DNA is non replaceable-think of the film Silent Running (which by the way you can view on youtube) The 2 scab-free varieties here are Adam's Pearmain and Orleans Reinette. Both are very old varieties and have good flavour. I reccomend them both, especialy for the grower who does not wish to use fungicide.