Blogger's add photo tool

Well the photo I added with the Blogger tool didn't show up so I'll try again. The picture is of the unripe serviceberries. The birds don't seem to eat very many of the berries. I think our resident mocking bird who zealously guards the trees and the wild mulberry trees have something to do with the lack of predation.

On almost every bunch of berries there is usually one green one with yellow-orange protrusions. You can see it in the middle of the photo. The protrusions turn out to be spores of some kind of fugus and will readily drop off in a powdery puff like pollen. I sprayed the trees at blossom time and have noticed a lower infection rate but still more than I would like, although it appears to be harmless but for the few infected ones.

As with the "Hello"/"Picasa" photo tool, clicking on the picture brings up a larger higher res photo.

Update:
I found out that the fungus spores are actually cedar rust. I'll live with it. Otherwise I would have to take out all the cedars and junipers that host the rust and I'm not willing to do that. Besides the undeveloped 5 acres behind our home has numerous cedars and junipers on the property.

Quick update

Testing out Blogger's add image tool.

The cornmeal antifungal did not work. Half of the Roxbury Russet apple tree was killed by fire blight. There's a strip of bark-actually the bark on half of the tree trunk that's dead. There are a few apples on the remaining living half but I will get rid of the tree when/if the apples ripen. The opalescent apple is ok but the powdery mildew is back though not nearly as bad as last year. I've been spraying with soluble sulfur and that seems to keep the mildew in check and has the added benefit of making the plants inedible to the deer. The only other plants affected by mildew have been the dogwoods.

We had a huge crop of juneberries/serviceberries/amelanchier this year. I have frozen many quarts of the stuff and it looks like a very good year for the blueberries too. We've already had two pies and they were delicious.

We bought more trees: 3 golden dawn redwoods, 2 forest pansy redbuds on sale at HomeDepot for $19.99 + 20% off for skinny but 8 feet tall trees. More rhodies and serviceberries and about 7 different named japanes maple cultivars. We are rapidly approaching the plant saturation point. The yard looks like a miniature forest much to the chagrin of our neighbors who like the spare manicured look.

We started digging a dry streambed, trying to dry out a perennially wet area in our yard. Even with a light rain the sump pump in the corner of the basement next to the wet area will come on. So far we haven't heard it run but we've had a very dry couple of months in NJ. In fact we're probably close to a drought condition having to water the plants and trees every other day now.

The "Merrill" magnolia bloomed this year with very pretty flowers and the sweetbay magnolia also bloomed with a very sweet almost tropical scent like stephanotis I think. You could smell it all over the yard. Such a wonderful find. All the descriptions of the sweetbay I've encountered never mentioned the wonderful smell...I wonder why? The Japanese tree lilac also bloomed for the first time but the efflorescence was mostly covered by the virgorous new leaf shoots so it didn't look anything like the spectacular display of more mature trees.

Will write more as I think of it and hopefully more regularly even if the floor tiling is not completed yet.