November has arrived and with it we have seen the first snow of the season. Temperatures were hitting as high as the mid-seventies three days ago and now it’s winter coat weather. Residents of Southeastern Indiana are well aware that if a person doesn’t like the local weather, just wait a day or two and it’ll change.
We’ve been playing “catch up and clean up” these past few weeks since we officially closed for the season. Equipment has been winterized, picking equipment repaired and stored and plans made for our orchard fertilization and rodent control programs. Trying to batten down the hatches before the onset of winter.
Rodents are a very real challenge in the orchard over winter and it’s imperative that a management plan be put in place to effectively control them. Rodents, primarily voles, have done a tremendous amount of damage to the trees in the orchard over the past several years. We’ve noticed more damage done in the U-Pik location this year than in the older trees but that’s not too unusual as young trees are more vulnerable. Voles feed on the trunks and roots of the apple trees. They’re hungry and looking for food so they gnaw on the roots and the bark of the trees and actually girdle the trees causing a slow death.
Managing the orchard floor to reduce a vole’s habitat is critical to keeping vole populations under control. Voles are vertebrates. They rarely live longer than one year. Females can reproduce in three weeks after their own birth and in any season. Female voles can have four litters per year and each litter can contain up to twelve pups. Under these circumstances, it is quite understandable that the vole population in an orchard can increase rapidly.
Orchards are not the only areas that voles will invade. A neighbor’s asparagus patch was completely devastated by a vole invasion. Voles also are attracted to sweet potatoes. Tunnels or “runs” next to plants or trees are evidence of vole activity. A preventative approach is the best way to control vole activity. No one specific approach eradicates the problem. In orchard settings, we practice habitat manipulation and rodenticides. In a home garden setting there are other approaches to use such as exclusion, trapping and repellents.
With colder temperatures, the fruit trees will begin to “go to sleep.” Dormancy is their time to rest after their production season. When the trees become dormant our pruning challenge becomes a priority task on our “to-do” list. Seems like we just put the pruning equipment away and now it’s getting readied to come out of storage and back into the orchard.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! We are truly thankful for all of your support.