Planning a New Orchard

• Select a site well away from old cytospora-infected trees. This has proven to be the best method of keeping canker out of newly planted orchards.
• Select a site with deep, well-drained soil and good air drainage to reduce the possibility of winter injury.
• Plant only the hardier varieties, especially if cytospora canker has been a major problem in your orchard. Also, painting the southwest side of trunks and the lower scaffold limbs of cold-susceptible varieties with white latex paint will moderate temperatures somewhat under the bark and reduce cold injury and canker in critical areas of the tree.
• Plant only disease-free nursery stock. If trees are planted when infected with cytospora they will probably not live to produce fruit.
• Plant whips no larger than 9/16 inch in diameter. Large-diameter whips do not heal properly when headed back and can become rapidly infected with cytospora. The infection becomes obvious in the crotch of the tree when it is 3 to 4 years old.