Time out! Let's take a minute to untangle a matter which is confusing to many. 1. Plain cornmeal is used as an organic fungicide to control certain plant fungus problems such as Brown Patch, Southern Blight. It is not a natural pre-emergent weed killer. Nor should it be used as such. It also is a minimal fertilizer. 2. However, CORN GLUTEN MEAL, a by-product of corn processing, has proven to be a useful organic pre-emergent weed killer. Not 100% perfect but the best we have to date for the organic gardener. Much has been written about these two types of corn products here on GW over the years on the Organic Forum. A bit of searching should yield some interesting reading. Many in the deep south are faced with frustrating weed problems and the shade cast by large live oaks. A common solution is to plant Asiatic jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) in the area as a ground cover. This is an aggressive grower, requiring few plants which is then controlled with a weed eater keeping all trimmed low and tidy. Even though weeds sprout through it and tree debris falls into it, none of this is noticed due to the thick growth of the jasmine if it is well maintained as needed. An old southern gardening trick worth considering.

We get dogwood borers here, but they are not a serious issue, usually. Northern Spy tend to be long lived trees and I manage quite a few as well as growing them in my nursery. I've never seen borers using the burr knots as an entry point which are usually well above the graft unions (the entry points, that is). I do spray them with Lorsban when I've noticed them but by this time they may have already done their damage. Interestingly, of thousands of trees I manage, only 2 Bosc pears have been seriously injured by borers (talking about pomes, not peaches here). Both had the leaders snap off at the point of injury. Thanks for the input, Olpea. I'm not sure what to make of your neighbors experience, however. How could you not see the injuries if the neighbor had suffered borer damage? If you saw entry points specifically at the location of the burr knots, I'd have to re-evaluate my perception somewhat of the possible liability of burr knots. Why did he cut down the trees?

OK, I live in Australia and bought a Ryobi 30cc about 1.5 years ago. I don't recommend you buy one for the simple reason that the pull-cord is mounted mid-engine, not at the back like other models. When it breaks, as it surely will, because Ryobi carefully leaves a nice sharp edge on the inside of the eyelet, you have to pull apart the whole casing and engine to replace it! But, with regard to the line problems mentioned above, loading on new line is certainly a fiddly job. To help, Ryobi recently introduced a wind-on mechanism like Shindaiwa. But that doesn't solve the problem of bump line feed-out. Like 'weedwimp', my line tangles, melts, jams ...you name it! I spend more time fixing the damned line feed than cutting the grass! I've just had it with this hopeless bump system! It depends on so many things being 'just right' - the line gauge, the spring, the line tightness and neatness, the cleanliness etc etc. Last week, in frustration, I replaced it with Ryobi's 'Pro-cut II' head, using fixed pieces of line (as mentioned in an earlier post). But this design is also not great in that ~1/3 of each piece is wasted. Some recent Ryobi models include a fixed line head in the box, as a back-up - almost an admission that the bump-head is likely to fail. The market is screaming for a company to release a simple manual feed-out system. In fact, Ryobi could have just designed the wind-on spool head to operate in reverse - to feed line OUT as well - dah?! Otherwise, perhaps a turn-knob on the shaft attached to a spring-loaded cable which pushes down to the head and connects, to wind out line in a very controlled way, then recoils back - why not THAT edger makers!

HI J, I have 3 peach trees. All have fruited in 2-3 years. I did not really amend the soil except for adding some top soil to fill the holes because I did not have enough native soil to put back. In my areas, rocks grow best. Rocks and boulders are everywhere when you dig a hole. I've fertilized the tree a bit in the spring each of the following years. I don't want to fertilize too much. If I were you, I'd get rid of competing weed around each tree and mulch it. Your apple tree looks stunted. A 3 yrs old apple tree should not look like that even in your type of soil. Not sure why, but you may want to consider relocating it. The soil in my yard is also land fill. The trees still grow decently. As for apple fruiting, I have apple trees that have fruited in 2nd and 3rd year on semi-dwarf rootstocks. My Honey Crisp is on an unknown rootstock. It must be at least 6 years old now but still have not fruited. My guess is it's on a standard rootstock which will take much longer. Make sure you have another variety of apple that blooms about the same time to cross pollinate. If there are crab apple trees in your neighborhood, you'd be all set.