Green, I likely had my first “killing frost” this morning! However, my persimmon leaves had already dropped, as had most grape leaves … kiwi leaves are hanging on, pear leaves are long gone – but as usual – With more (apple) varieties than I can shake a stick at, it seems apples in general are the most hardy regarding leaf retention. Though the first, or lower leaves, have thinned, those surrounding this years crop of ‘sucker shoots’ are holding strong!

I wouldn’t waste your spray… they’ll be down soon enough -- but make sure you rake to get them away from surrounding apple trees so obnoxious microbes don’t ‘splash back’ to re-infect next years foliage.

As most look forward to Thanksgiving, for 25 years it’s meant four days of racking for me! And if the weather’s decent, I may start the pruning process as well. Actually, my latest method is to prune first, then rake everything; it’s much slower and far more difficult but helps gather up the suckers & leaves in one process instead of two…

I’ve noted two major problems with trees not losing their leaves ‘fast enough:’ One includes my foggiest of memories as the Columbus Day Storm (of 62 I believe) hit our Willamette Valley. “Columbus Day” - the leaves were still on the trees, especially the English walnut trees in our double-lot in Portland. The winds were high, but a month or so later they’d not have caused half the damage. We had one tree go over and break out our bathroom window but after such a scary and devastating night I still remember the beautiful day after… in which my woods-wise uncle arrived with his chainsaw to cut us out!

And (Second), a good decade ago we had an early localized snow storm that took my ‘Signature tree’ to the ground. Already leaning, a foot of snow latched onto the remaining leaves of our oldest Gravenstein and laid it to the ground, severing some ‘far-side’ roots. Had its leaves been down, no problem, but there again, introduced trees hold their leaves longer than indigenous, thus setting themselves up for severe wind or snow damage.