Drew, I'm sorry, I did accidentally (subconsciously on purpose, probably) exaggerate, but the guide doesn't recommend spray after pruning. However, upon further reading, I've found that your information is correct and copper spray is widely recommended after pruning even though it isn't very affective- but enough so to be worth doing according to current Cornell and other guidelines. I stand corrected and thank you for bringing this to my attention. After reading all this material about cherry canker I am somewhat surprised that my careless timing of pruning has never led to any outbreaks of this infection over the last 25 years. Cherries are a minority species in orchards I manage and I am very busy doing non-pruning work in the first couple weeks after trees come out of dormancy. It would be expensive to come back to prune only cherries and peaches at many of the smaller orchards I manage. I recently started managing cherries with summer pruning anyway- but only to better manage fruiting wood. I will now pay more attention to weather forecasts before performing this kind of pruning. I will wait until I actually see some cherry canker somewhere before I start spraying after pruning. I have to keep customer expenses down. If you hadn't posted about it I wouldn't think about cherry canker much at all. Thanks again.

Hi Spatz, thanks for reminding me of the variety, I would love some seeds from Jaune Flamme, I have just been to visit my mum and I'm pretty sure I can scam a bit of space in her garden for some more varieties, though i haven't really told her that yet, ha ha - I managed to get her to grow a broad bean cover crop without having to reveal my sneaky 'surrogate' tomato patch plan *snickers loudly*. I was wondering if I could trouble you for some seeds of some cherry varieties as well? I was going try a few different coloured cherries in pots this year. I was just looking at Finbars recipe above and noticed the cavalo nero reference, now I have been looking for seeds of this for a while and was talking to the woman at the market who grows heritage seedlings and she informed me that cavalo nero is more often sold as lacinato kale, which I have had seed to all along! Can anyone confirm this for me? I did an internet search, from this I learnt that Cavalo Nero is most definately a type of kale but I'm still not sure if it is actually Lacinato. cheers, mudlark

I also don't understand how it is said that TTTF requires as much water as KBG because TTTF has like 3X the depth of drought resistant roots. There's a lot of this information that just gets repeated over and over until it becomes truth. But what's missing is the context. Where are you located? A TTTF fescue in NC is going to burn up quickly in full sun with no irrigation, but it may stay green without any irrigation in NY. As a matter of fact, you probably won't make it past early May in NC. Lawn care practices also make a huge difference. Root depth is directly proportional to top growth, the longer you let it grow, the deeper the roots. My neighbor, who only cuts her lawn about once every 30 days, has some fescue that can go through any heat wave without any water, but the grass is always a tangled mess. If you cut weekly to 4", you can only expect 6"-8" root depth. So while TTTF has the ability to go up to 3 feet deep, in your average well maintained lawn it will only go about as deep as KBG. Therefor, it will need just about as much water.

I found this article under Home Guides but could not get the link to copy: Transplants "The best time to get yucca transplants in the ground is when the average minimum air temperature remains above 50 degrees Fahrenheit and the ground has begun to warm. Planting at that time allows roots shocked or damaged during the planting process to regenerate and the yuccas to acclimate to your landscape. Supplement rainfall and fog moisture if necessary during the first year, letting the plants dry out between watering sessions to enhance successful transplantation." I'm bumping it up so maybe others with experience can chime in.