Thanks Glenn and Carla. I'll look for the messages Glenn mentioned (about not bagging too early and about different ways to attach the baggies). It was good to hear that you have a lot of good fruit thanks to the baggies, Glenn. The idea for perhaps starting to spray now was twofold: a) To kill earwigs which continue to enter some of the baggies of the apples & pears that haven't been harmed by CM or PC. b) To try to help next year's crop. From your replies, it sounds like spraying now won't help next year. It is possible that some of the fruit had been invaded before I bagged. My trees have very little fruit this year due to a spring freeze. The largest and oldest tree sprouted about 6 apples; the smaller apple tree had about 10. The new pear trees had about a dozen each. How do I get the forum to send email notification of replies to this thread? I've done it with threads I started but don't see a way to do it with this thread. Thanks! Laurie

Hello fegray, I am new to the forum but have been growing citrus in Connecticut (except for a decade spent in Florida) for about 35 years. My oldest tree is a sour orange I planted about 35 years ago when a young boy of 7 or so, and I have a large 4 by 4 foot Calamondin, a two by two Meyer Lemon (that had 25 lemons on it this fall, and still has 16 to go--2 lemons required per pie!), a two by-two Key lime, a 3 by 3 Buddha's Hand citron, a 2.5 foot tall and rather spindly Ponderosa lemon (on dwarfing rootstock), and a couple other smaller citrus, so I have plenty of experience with pruning, repotting, and dealing with insect infestations. I have had scale before, though not for many years. My citrus trees usually end up with spider mites during the winter: all it takes is a mite or two making it in during the move from outside to inside in October, and by Xmas I often have an infestation. The signs are similar to what you describe (sugary "sap", small spider webs, and sticky leaves). If you have mature scale insects of the kind I've encountered here in the northeast, they would likely be quite obvious and will often be clustered on the newer (say last summer's) shoots and should stand out from the green bark as they are typically brown or yellow or reddish brown. The nymphs or little scale crawlers move about, but the adults stay in one place. I am skeptical that Safer will do the trick for you if you have scale or spider mites, but it won't hurt to try, as long as you don't let them go on too long. In a couple weeks, in zone 7, you may even be able to move the plant outside where the rain and humidity will work against the insects. Note: If you have spider mites and your closeup eyesight is not the best, you may not be able to see the actual insects. The particular mites I get are so small that I can only see them when I have full sunlight falling on the leaves and can spot the mites moving around on them or their webs. They are smaller than periods in newsprint, and light reddish brown to yellow in color. The test is to take a white sheet of paper, hold it under the suspected site of infestation, and gently tap and shake the leaves and smaller branches. If you have mites, you'll have a few specs that slowly move on the paper after this. I have never had luck controlling mites with the friendly sprays many posters advocate, but as long as the infestation is not severe they will fade away in numbers once the afflicted plant goes outside. If the infestation is severe, they can weaken the tree to the point of no return, though with a large tree I think this is somewhat unlikely. There are other possible causes for sudden leaf drop as I'm sure you know: a cold draft, the natural dropping of old leaves, and uneven watering; this last is not necessary obvious. With your large tree, you may not be able to get it enough water if it is rootbound: you can water a citrus two or three times a week and still won't keep it happy if it is growing. Thus, if the tree gets too dry during the winter you can quickly kill it or cause a large section to die back. I make an effort to water my trees thoroughly up to twice a week in the winter if they are growing, flowering, and fruiting (and they often do all of this for months on end). By thorough, I mean until water comes out of the bottom of the drain holes. Having repotted and root trimmed a few times over the years, I can tell you that if a citrus plant is badly potbound and it goes into a growth phase you may need to water it every other day. I had to do this a few years ago. In other words, you may think you are watering enough, and you may even have water coming out the drain holes, but there may be too little soil to hold the water inside the pot long enough for the plant to drink it in. Of course, too much water can also cause leaf drop, so please check to see if your citrus is potbound. The quick test is to try to lift the rootball out of the pot. You may need help to do this! If it comes out and all you can really see is roots . . . well, that is a pretty good sign it needs to be root-trimmed and backfilled with new soil, or repotted, or both. Regarding your long-standing lack of flowers and fruit: I would say that this is odd. My 35 year old sour orange flowers and fruits profusely, and has done so since it was about 15 years old, and before then it did so to a lesser extent. I have kept it in a 22 inch plastic pot for the last 5 or 6 years and take it out and root prune it ever three or four. I think it is due for another pruning this spring. Including the container, it is about 6 1/2 feet tall: I prune it back a foot or two over the course of the summer (if it sends out suckers I tend to cut them before they get too unruly), and then I inevitably end up pruning it once more in October before it comes in. I regularly leave my citrus outside until the night temperatures drop into the low forties or upper thirties (I live in central Connecticut, and last fall I think the last citrus came inside on the 14th of October). In my experience, the only think healthy citrus trees need to induce flowering in the winter is a good sunny window: I've had them flower with west light, south light, and even west light in an attached garage that got down to 50 degrees at night where the light came in through the little garage windows. My advice is that as long as the tree is healthy you should try giving it a good pruning a week or ten days after you move it outside. Say a good 6 inches to a foot all the way around. Good luck! Don

Jill, I'm running out the door, and could give a better answer if I had more time. These webworms are very common here at this time of year. There are several simple solutions. If you want to spray, spray the trees with a Bt product labeled as a caterpillar-killer. Bt is an organic product, as it is a Bt that specifically targets butterfly and moth larvae. However, it will kill ALL butterflies and moths, so use it carefully. If the webs are low to the ground and you can reach them, put on some gloves, grab a bucket of soapy water, and use your hands or a stick to pull them out of the tree, submerge them in water and drown them. If the webs are further out on the branches, you can prune them out. If they are, however, in the interior of the tree on major branch crotches, you probably don't want to do that, as it might require you to sacrifice major branches. If you have a lot of wild birds around, sometimes all you have to do is break open the web with a stick so the birds can get to the worms. (Although, of course, this is not a guaranteed fix, since the wild birds might not care for these particular caterpillars.) If you want to go the chemical pesticide route, look for a product labeled for caterpillars and make sure it is also safe for use on fruit trees. Good luck, Dawn

I have a Bosch 800 series with Crystal Dry, same odor problem others are experiencing. This dishwasher replaced a 30+ year old Whirlpool that never smelled, ever. I rinse dishes first because I run the dw once every 6 days or so. Did a thorough cleaning of the filter, below the filter, the walls etc. Used Cascade dw cleaner this weekend, which did a super job of cleaning, but as far as the odor issue, it's back, now with an overlay of the strongly perfumed Cascade cleaner, which makes it worse because when I open the dw door to air it out, my kitchen smells like the dw cleaner, which I don't really care for. As far as the residual water, Bosch CS told me that it was an intentional part of the design, to prime the pump for the next use? However, I'm wondering if it's the crystals causing the issue, by absorbing odors and then releasing them after several days into the dishwasher? Thoughts? Very frustrated, because dishwashers are nothing new - the first one was invented in 1850 according to the internet. Would much rather have one that just cleans the dishes, than one with all the bells and whistles that smells.