Got 6 new trees today:

• A&P
  • Cot-n-Candy Aprium
• Tropica Mango:
  • Summer Delight Aprium
  • Shanxi Li Jujube
  • Sherwood Jujube
  • Princess Seedless Grape
  • Ruby Seedless Grape

Planted 2 grapes (Princess/Ruby) next to Ramada

Pulled stakes from:

• 2 grapes in Veggie patch (Princess/Ruby)
• 2 new figs (Violette de Bordeaux/Lattarula)
• Parfianka

Ruby Grape started budding

Metrics:

• Girth (inches only): 1.3"

Pruned and tied up 2 grapes next to ramada

Made 2.5 gallons of Pyrethrin from 8 FL OZ and sprayed

• 4 grapes at front
• 2 grapes at back
• Kai dwarf mulberry at front
• Oscar and 3 white mulberries in E
• Sonali Dwarf
• Tiger Fig

The leafhoppers were vicious and plentiful when spraying the grapes at the front. With hindsight I might have transfered the leafhopper that were on my clothes to other plants at the back of the house because I didn't do a good job of brushing them off.

Sprayed the vegetable garden with Pyrethrin and had some left over so also applied to these trees:

• Dwarf Mulberry x 3 (parent, Kai, Sonali)
• Oscar Mulberry,
• 3 White Mulberries
• 2 grapes near veggie patch

This vine is being super resilient in going into dormancy.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed Start: ✔

Sprayed a bunch of trees with Bonide All Seasons Concentrate Pest Control Spray - 212. Mix was just under 3%.

This is the arbor that has been constructed to hold the grapes. Slightly to the left of the center of the image is the Princess Grape and at the right of the image is the Ruby Grape. I plan on planting another grape in between these and then another to the far left on the other side of the path. The arbor attaches to the beam that forms part of the roof of the Ramada. The top of the arbor was created with galvanized ladder mesh that's usually used for reinforcing block walls.

It appears that the Princess Grape (left) favors growing up while the Ruby Grape (right) favors growing out. That might just be the two that I have or it might be characteristics of their cultivar. I also trimmed the Ruby much more over the previous summer than I did the Princess to keep it up against the trellising.

Sprayed with Neem Oil. 2 Fl Oz per gallon. Made a total of 4 gallons for the trees listed on this note.

• The girth has changed by 0.5" over the last 293 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 3'6"
• Girth (inches only): 1.8"

I had let this vine interweave through the chain-link fence and after seeing how thick these vines grow their trunks (at a friends vine arbor) I realized that this was going to cause a world of problems for both the vine and the fence in the future. I did a major trimming operation and pulled through or removed all the parts of the vine growing on the other side of the fence and retied them to the same side as the trunk and roots. This will be a small setback for this year but hopefully set-it-up for success in the future. The image is after I did the trimming and most of the tying.

Shade cloth placed on the east side of the grapes to shade the sensitive plants behind it like the Black Satin Blackberry.

An unexpected benefit that I just noticed of putting the shade cloth behind the grapes is that it's now pushing all growth that would have grown away from the fence into an upward direction and forcing an espalier of the grape which is exactly what I want it today. One day the shade cloth should not be necessary because the grapes will be providing that shade by being espaliered along the arbor.

A bunch of grapes forming on this vine.

The second image shows the shade cloth behind the vine which is having the unintentional positive impact of espaliering the vine and forcing it into a flatter shape against the fence and pushing it up which is exactly what I what. The vine is growing vigorously and it have to train it on the correct side of the fence at least every two days to prevent any spurs from growing through the fence which will ultimately damage the fence and the vine.

Large milkweed bug found on the vine today. From what I read they don't do much (if any) harm to fruit trees and vegetables so I'll leave it be.

These grapes are doing really well on this section of the arbor. I thin that the shade cloth is reflecting heat onto them. I have to twist the growth out of the fence every couple of days to keep it on the other side so that no trunk sections end up growing through the fence.

All four of the grapes on the arbor are growing well.

Sprayed the listed trees with Copper Fungicide. I noticed rust on the Royal Crimson 6GM25 so that got sprayed and then as a preventative the other cherries next to it got sprayed. Also all the grapes in the back yard seem to have something that's turning the leaves brown that could be fungal that might be helped by this so they all got sprayed as well.

Today I diagnosed that what is probably killing these grape vines is Pierce's Disease. Yesterday I can across a Glassy-winged sharpshooter on the Nonpareil Almond in the front yard and it is known to spread this disease on grape vines. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/r302101211.html

Over the last week the grapes on the arbor have been doing really well and there are lots of foot long leaders poking through the chain link fence that have had to be rerouted to the other side.

Yesterday I noticed leafhoppers on the Ruby Grape on the Arbor. Today sprayed all grape vines and one of the dwarf mulberries with Pyrethrin with the strongest recommended solution of 3 Fluid Ounces per Gallon.

The grapes on the arbor have gone into a vigorous growth phase. I gave them a pruning today and tied up lots of leaders to train them up the poles and over the arbor. This phase of the Grape on Arbor Project has a lot of directional shaping which will hopefully pay off in the future when it becomes a fruiting shade structure.

All four "Arbor Vines" are growing really well. Added about ten ties to the vines to train them back onto the arbor and fence.

After removing the shade cloth from the Arbor grapes.

Discovered a leaf-hopper infestation on the grape vines on the Arbor (Ruby, Perlette, Princess, Blueberry). Interestingly I couldn't see any on the tiny vines that are on the south fence that's not far from the Arbor grapes. Also the vines at the front did not seem to have any or had a very low infestation rate. I saw some insect activity on the front vines when spraying them but couldn't detect if they were leaf-hoppers.

Treated with a mixture of 4 Oz of Pyrethrin and 4 OZ of Neem Oil mixed in 2 gallons of water.

I was surprised to see what looked like live leafhoppers on the vines yesterday. I was planning on spraying again but on today's inspection I could not find any. The images attached to this note are from the Ruby Seedless grape on the Arbor showing the leaf damage from the leafhoppers or whiteflies or whatever they were.

This image was taken just after 6pm and I liked the sunset in the background. The grape vines that are growing on this part of the arbor are, from the left, Ruby, Perlette and Princess.

Still thinking about losing their leaves.

Sprayed with copper fungicide and all seasons horticultural oil. Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicide - 1 fluid ounce per gallon of water + Bonide Horticultural Oil - 3.75 fluid ounces per gallon of water.

Sprayed with 3 Fluid Ounces per gallon of Pyrethrin mixed with 1 Fluid Ounce per gallon of Neem Oil. Purpose of this is to combat the influx of Glassy Winged Sharpshooters that have suddenly been observed and also to hopefully suppress Peach Borers.

First bud.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

First grape bunch spotted.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Healthy growth.

Spotted a bunch of leaf-hoppers on the grapes in the North section so sprayed them with Pyrethrin. Also sprayed the other plants listed because I'd seen sharpshooters on them or they might have leaf-hoppers already.

Sprayed with a mixture. Mostly to combat leaf-hoppers that had returned to one of the grapevines:

• MGK Evergreen 5% Pyrethrin
• Spinosad - Bonide Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew

Looking ready. What did this taste like?

First harvest from this vine. Very late as most of it has already turned to raisins. The grapes that had not turned to raisins that that were "ruby" in color tasted very good. The raisins aren't bad either.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 15
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Harvest End: ✔

This is the family raisin tray. When we get too many grapes from the yard or the grapes don't taste great fresh we turn them into raisins. The process is very simple. Put parchment paper onto a tray and then spread the grapes out evenly on the tray.

Don't put it outside because the birds will eat it. We put it on a shelf next to a window which gets afternoon sun which helps dehydrate them. This is also in a central location in the house that everyone walks past which reminds them to take a handful of raisins to munch on.

In this image are grapes from our Arbor vines that we recently harvested. On the left are a mixture of Ruby and Perlette. That small triangle at the bottom of the image with orange colored grapes are Ruby grapes that haven't quite turned to raisins yet. In the middle section are the Blueberry Grapes. On the right are an unknown variety of grapes that we bought at Costco that none of us really enjoyed so instead of throwing them away we make raisins.

My favorite from this batch I think are the Blueberry grapes. They're difficult to describe because each time you eat them they taste slightly different. They have a complex musty, berry, fermented taste.

Discovered an infestation of Eumorpha achemon (Achemon sphinx) (Sphinx Moth) caterpillars and leafhoppers on these vines. Sprayed with MGK Evergreen 5% Pyrethrin. This type of caterpillar is commonly known as a hornworm. The Perlette Seedless (the smallest of the vines) has been hardest hit and has almost no leaves on it now.

Update: There was a short but heavy rain shower about 6 hours after I sprayed the Pyrethrin. Checking the next day the rain didn't seem to have impacted the effectiveness of the Pyrethrin.

Leaf fall start.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed Start: ✔

Leaves turning fast on the Blueberry Grape and hardly at all on the others on this arbor.

Spread 50 lbs of Arizona's Best Soil Sulfur at the bases of these trees.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔
• First Bud: ✔

• The girth has changed by 2" over the last 752 days.

Metrics:

• Girth (inches only): 3.8"

First grape bunch.

Grapes on the arbor all leafing out and growing well.

Leafhoppers now present heavily on the vines in the north yard. Light presence on the Arbor and none or little on the south fence. Looking back at my notes from previous years this is a predictable annual occurrence during the last 10 days of May. I've now made a note to take preemptive action around 20-May each year to prevent them getting to this stage. Researching this subject shows that using a horticultural oil at this stage is beneficial as there are still eggs and larvae hatching and the oil will stop this. So in addition to creating a mix with Pyrethrin I've also added Neem Oil.

In the backpack sprayer added three gallons of water along with:

• 1 fl oz per gallon of Neem Oil. I would have added 2 fl oz per gallon had I not run out of it.
• 0.5 fl oz per gallon of MGK Evergreen 5% Pyrethrin.

Looking back at late October 2018 notes on this the 0.5 fl oz per gallon of Pyrethrin was not strong enough to address the Leaf Hoppers so after 2 attempts with that I doubled the concentration for the third attempt. I'm hoping that the combination of Neem Oil on this will address the problem.

Three gallons turned out to be the perfect amount to get full coverage on all 10 grape vines. It won't be next year though so a note to self to mix the full four gallons in the backpack.

The whole operation from start (calculating measurements) to finish (cleaning equipment) took about 45 minutes.

Grapes seem to have doubled in size since I last looked at them.

Many bunches

Lots of grapes hanging on these vines. All of them looking really healthy and growing vigorously.

Noticed more Leafhoppers today, especially on the Flame Grapes. Sprayed with a 1 fl oz per gallon mixture of MGK Evergreen 5% Pyrethrin. Used a total of 3 gallons for the ten grape vines.

Update: Checked the vines 24 hours later and could not find any sign of leafhoppers. I think that the reason that it worked was the doubling down on concentration and the time-of-day the spraying was done which was just before dusk.

I tried a few but can't find any ripe ones yet.

Leafhoppers have returned. Sprayed with a 1 fl oz per gallon mixture of MGK Evergreen 5% Pyrethrin. Used a total of 3 gallons for the ten grape vines.

Picked 10 bunches. Not convinced that they're ripe yet as I don't recall what these ones should taste like. They're definitely not sweet. At the same time they don't taste particularly unripe either.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 10
• Harvest Start: ✔

Picked 4 bunches for friends. Didn't eat any of these.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 4

These are turning out to be delicious. Ate some, gifted some and turning some into raisins.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 12

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 20

Progress on the raisins.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 3

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 20

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 3

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 3

Marking this day as harvest end for the Ruby, Princess and Blueberry grapes on the Arbor. There are a couple of grapes left on each vine but for the most part they done and what is left is turning to raisins. Plenty of bees around the grapes recently getting the sugar from them.

Metrics:

• Harvest End: ✔

Leafhoppers have returned again. Sprayed with a 1 fl oz per gallon mixture of MGK Evergreen 5% Pyrethrin. Used a total of 3 gallons for the ten grape vines.

Very heavy Leafhopper infestation on the Ruby (south most) and Princess (2nd from north). The vine in-between the two (Perlette) and the north-most vine (Blueberry) have no Leafhoppers which I find strange. Not spraying at the moment because of the rain forecasts.

Mixed 3.5 fl oz of Bonide (BND857) Pyrethrin and 1.5 fl oz of MGK Evergreen 5% Pyrethrin in 3 gallons of water and sprayed the 10 grapes vines. The mixture was because the MGK Evergreen was just running out.

Only the four grape vines on the Arbor had a Leafhopper infestation - and it was an extremely heavy infestation. The others were sprayed because I made too much mix and instead of wasting it sprayed them just in case there was something about to break out.

The brown leaves are from Leafhopper damage. No sign of the Leafhoppers since the spraying 3 days ago. The left of the image is north.

A check for Leafhoppers on the Arbor vines shows that there may be a couple and I think I saw more a few days back but if there are any the population is very low.

• The girth has changed by 1" over the last 247 days.

Metrics:

• Girth (inches only): 4.8"

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

Monterey Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicide - 1 fluid ounce per gallon of water. Made a total of 4 gallons for these trees.

Sprayed with Plantonix Neem Oil. Mixed 1 fl oz per gallon. Also added one-third fl oz of mild dish soap liquid per gallon. Made a total of 8 gallons for these trees.

Spray ran out on the espalier apple so only did around half of that tree.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

Spread 320 pounds of Arizona's Best Ammonium Sulfate around yard. Includes all trees tagged on this note which is about 95% of the trees in the orchard.

There might be leafhoppers on these vines. Need to check them daily. They are, from left:

• Blueberry
• Princess
• Perlette
• Ruby

Extremely vigorous growth at the moment.

Looks about double the number of bunches compared to last year.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Some of these got a very light spray as they'd just been sprayed a couple of days earlier.

Sprayed with a dual mixture of:

• Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon of water.
• Bonide Pyrethrin diluted at 2 oz to 1 gallon of water.

These got sprayed with pyrethrin today (documented in a different note) because there are plenty of leafhoppers on the middle vine in this picture which is the Perlette Seedless. Seems strange that the Perlette seems to be the target more often than the others.

On the left is the Ruby and the right a Princess Seedless. In the middle is the Perlette. You can see how poorly the Perlette is looking with the insect damage.

So hard to take a picture that reflects what the inside of this arbor looks like.

These grapes are looking good.

Sprayed with a dual mixture of:

• Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon of water.
• Bonide Pyrethrin diluted at 2.5 oz to 1 gallon of water.

This image is trying to capture the grapes hanging off 3 varieties in the arbor. In the foreground are the Princess. Next along are the Perlette. At the back slightly blurred are the Ruby.

Of the 10 grape vines I currently have there 8 varieties that have bunches of grapes on them. This morning I took a very honest-about-the-taste of fruit eight-year-old around the vines and solicited his opinion on the taste.

This is how they were ranked:

1. Perlette - the two images on this note are the perlette grapes
2. Black Monukka
3. Ruby - caveat: we could only find 2 or 3 grapes (not bunches) that were ripe and those ranked in this position but 99% of the grapes on this vine are not at that stage.
4. Thompson
5. Flame
6. Blueberry
7. Himrod
8. Princess - this is probably because these are not ripe yet . (He also decided that the unripe Ruby grapes ranked as equally disgusting as the Princess grapes.)

Eight of the grape vines currently have grapes on them. Today I did a taste test to see what was ripe and what was not. The testers were my family; two adults and two kids aged 9 and 11. We had to give each grape a score from 0 to 10 with 0 being the worst and 10 the best.

This is how they rank today:

1. Black Monukka
2. Thompson
3. Himrod
4. Ruby
5. Blueberry
6. Perlette
7. Flame
8. Princess (unripe)

Of note is the Princess. I remember it being the tastiest from last year but it was only ripe from mid-July to mid-August. Unfairly it ranks at the bottom right now because it's unripe.

Leafhoppers are back. Going to see how long the vines will last for without spraying.

These grapes are gaining color and popularity with the birds. I tasted a couple of them and they are not bad.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 7
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 1 lbs 7.2 oz
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Average Weight: 3.3 oz

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 8
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 1 lbs 2.5 oz
• Harvest End: ✔
• Average Weight: 2.3 oz

Leafhopper damage on the leaves.

The 4 grapes on the arbor had a bunch of leaf hoppers about 4 to 8 weeks ago. For a couple of reasons I decided not to spray (with Pyrethrin) them this time. (1) Timing was difficult. I needed to do it in the early evening and wasn't able to find that time. (2) I used the first point as an excuse to see what would happen if I didn't spray them.

There's zero sign of leaf hopper now. It could have been the brutally hot dry days we've been having. Also that time period could have provided enough time for predators to clear them out.

Currently there's a very heavy infestation of leaf hoppers on the four grape vines on the arbor and has been for the last couple of months. I'm experimenting with natural predators so haven't sprayed them. Early mornings now bring a lot of hummingbirds that feed on the leaf hoppers. I just with that the hummingbirds had a bigger appetite or there were more of them as they can't seem to keep up with the feast.

Most of the brown on these grape vines are from leaf hoppers and not the cold or fall effect. I've recently seen another type of bird, a white eye, feeding on the leaf hoppers in the early mornings when they're less mobile.

• The height has changed by 6'6" over the last 1443 days.
• The girth has changed by 1.3" over the last 444 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 10'
• Girth (inches only): 6"

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

The leaf hoppers have shown up in force already. I feel that they're earlier this year than they've been before.

Sprayed with a dual mixture of:

• Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon of water.
• Bonide Pyrethrin diluted at 2.5 oz to 1 gallon of water.

Made 1 gallon of Southern Ag 10401 Natural Pyrethrin Concentrate and sprayed these 4 vines with it.

The leaves are in terrible condition. I waited far too long to do this. The leaf hoppers are completely out-of-control right now.

Update (1 and 2 days later): This spray had no impact on the leaf hoppers.

Made 2 gallons of Southern Ag 10401 Natural Pyrethrin Concentrate and sprayed these 7 vines and 1 tree with it. It seems strange that the leaf hoppers also have a penchant for the nectarine.

Update (following day): No leaf hoppers on the vines. I think that the backpack sprayer used this time gave the vines a much better drenching which addressed the issue. Previously I had used the hand sprayer.

Made 2 gallons of Southern Ag 10401 Natural Pyrethrin Concentrate and sprayed these 4 vines and 1 tree with it. Still lots of leaf hoppers in spite of all the previous spraying.

Sprayed with Plantonix Neem Oil. Mixed 1 fl oz per gallon. Also added one-third fl oz of mild dish soap liquid per gallon. Made a total of 4 gallons for these trees.

Spread 42 lbs of Monterey's Dr Iron product around the yard under every tree. Product is 55% sulfur and 22% iron.

Put 0.5 fluid ounces of Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron in a gallon of water and poured at base.

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

Mixed together 1.5 ounces of Southern Ag 10401 Natural Pyrethrin Concentrate and 2 ounces of Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron with 4 gallons of water. Sprayed this a bunch of vines and some trees.

I did this between 6:15 and 6:45 in the morning while it was still cool and no wind in the hope that it will dry before the real heat sets in and do its work before then.

Spread Fertizona Furst Class 15-15-15 around the trees today. Used a handful for small trees and up to six handfuls for the larger trees. In total used 100 lbs.

I've never seen these grape vines looking this healthy. Lots of lace wings flying around them and no leaf hoppers yet but it's still early days and I would be very surprised if the leaf hoppers didn't make a very large appearance this year.

To the left of the gate/opening is the (1) blueberry grape. Then from left to right the others are (2) princes (3) perlette and (4) ruby.

Applied 8 fl oz of Bonide Annual Tree & Shrub Insect Control w/ Systemaxx Conc in 1 gallon of water to the base of each of these trees to control the leaf hoppers. The concentration is 1 fl oz per 1" of girth.

Spread Fertizona Furst Class 15-15-15 around all the trees today. Used a total used 200 lbs of which about 25 lbs went on the grass.

Used the Chapin 20 gallon lawn sprayer to spray Southern Ag Chelated Iron at the base of these trees today. Diluted mixture 50/50 with water.