My friendly guardian angel/master gardener was concerned about the fruit trees and the steer manure. While normally I use 2 parts chicken and 1 part steer manure, this year when I went to buy them they were out of the chicken manure. I just got the steer, which is a poor substitute. It is too high in salt and low in nitrogen. The timing of putting out the steer manure before so much rain is good in that it will wash the salt away from the tree roots. To address the low nitrogen, I spread blood meal on the fruit trees. I'm considering repeating this in a month or two or perhaps using fish emulsion. I really would like to see some growth in some of the newer trees (like 5 years old - I'd have to look that up to know exactly). I'll also try to remember to only use chicken manure in the future, adding no steer manure at all.
