Ballard's Nursery

01/17/2024

All of you probably know by now how inept I am with facebook. I thought I had posted that the sale of the nursery had been finalized but it has come to my attention that the post didn't ever go where I thought I put it. Anyway, here is what it was.
12/07/2023

Well, it's official. The Kerksieks from Beaver are the new owners of the nursery. As of today it will be known as Ladybug Nursery in Hurricane. The phone number will remain the same. The Kerksieks are a multi generation nursery family beginning with Beaver Nursery in 1956. We have been friends with them for years and expect them to serve you as well or better than we have. We hope you will support them as wonderfully as you have us.
Darwin and Dorthy Ballard started Ballard's Nursery in about 1961 as a hobby that got out of hand. We took over in 1983 and moved to our current location at 691 N State in 1986 when we outgrew the back yard.
We have been overwhelmed and grateful for the outpouring of support and friendship all of you have extended to us throughout the years. We are also grateful for the many faithful employees we have had over the years. We could not have done it without them. We appreciate you all more than words can express and will greatly miss the association we have had with all of you. Again, thank you so much! We love you all!
Ray and Kari

Thanks for your patience with me!!!

11/24/2023

It is with mixed emotions that after nearly 40 years we have decided it's time to retire. All of you have been so supportive and such great friends it has been a pleasure to serve you. We are working on selling the nursery, probably in the very near future. We will keep you posted. Thank you all so much!

06/03/2023

As of June 1st we will be closed both Saturday and Sunday. It has been a great spring and we have enjoyed serving you. Our customers/friends are the very best! We hope you have a productive gardening season.

02/21/2023

I have been warned against long posts, but I think it is important to know what to do, when to do it, and why, so here goes anyway.

It's time to be giving some serious thought to applying DORMANT SPRAY to fruit trees, grapevines, and any deciduous trees or shrubs you may have had insect problems on. This needs to be done before your plants bloom or leaf out but can be applied up until just before the first buds open. This spray consists of:

Tree Oil (aka Supreme oil, horticultural oil, Volck Oil, Dormant Oil, etc.) NOT neem, although it is considered organic because it is not a poison. It kills by smothering insect eggs lurking in the bark of your plants so make sure you get thorough coverage. It should be applied when temperatures are 50 degrees F or above so that it can evaporate after it does it's job. It should be on at least 5 hours before being washed off by rain or sprinkling. If you don't add anything else to your dormant spray, at least do the oil.

Additional contact insecticide such as Malathion, Sevin, or a product containing permethrin can be added according to directions on the product label to clean up any insects that may have already hatched.

Fungicide. Daconil and Copper products can be added to the oil spray to help prevent fungal diseases. This is not always necessary, but can be quite helpful in a wet spring. DO NOT mix sulfur with and oil spray. It is physically incompatible and will clog your sprayer.

All the above may be mixed together according to their individual label directions and sprayed in one application.

02/08/2023

We are now open on Saturdays for the spring. Lots of you are asking when the bareroots will be here. As of today about half of them are. We are still waiting for most of the semi-dwarf fruit trees, some of the apples, peaches, and nectarines. Grapes, Strawberries, Rhubarb, Asparagus, Blackberries, Currants, and most of the raspberries are here.

06/11/2022

Curly Top Alert! I have started to lose a few tomato plants to curly top virus and others have too. If you see any of your tomato plants turning an off yellow-green color and the upper leaves curling upward pull it out and dispose of it. The disease is spread by a tiny grasshopper-like insect, the beet leafhopper, that feeds by sucking and carries the virus from plant to plant like a dirty hypodermic needle so it is important to remove each potential source of infection quickly. It may be a little late already for best control. Prevention seems to be the best defense. Spraying with neem oil or spraying or dusting with sulfur seem to leave an odor that repels the leafhopper. I have heard that spraying with milk works as well.

On another note, here is a link to a video by Dave Wilson Nursery on orchard watering that makes some very good points. They have a number of videos that are quite helpful.

Tom and Phil discuss irrigation for the backyard fruit tree grower. How much water does a fruit tree need? How to use a moisture meter. The importance of mulch.

05/11/2022

We have enjoyed serving so many of you this spring and appreciate how kind, thoughtful and patient you have been with us and each other. It is wonderful to live among such great people. Unfortunately, it is time to slow down a bit, so beginning June 4 we will again be closing on Saturdays as well as Sunday. We will still be here to serve you Monday thru Friday.

04/23/2022

Sweet Potato plants just arrived. 4 varieties available: Beauregard and Georgia Jet have red skins and orange inside. Centennial, most likely the ones you buy in the store, orange inside and out. Vardaman is a "bush" variety that does not produce such long runners, has yellowish orange skin and orange inside.
Unless your soil is very light and loose, mound rows 10-12 inches high and 3 feet apart. Space plants 12-18 inches apart on the top of the mound. Sweet potato plants do not need a lot of water.

04/22/2022

Seed Potatoes are finally here. Red Lasoda, Red Pontiac, and Yukon Gold

03/18/2022

Victoria Rhubarb and Concord Grapes arrived late yesterday.

03/16/2022

Pretty much the last of the bareroot fruit trees came today, mostly apples and Asian Pears. The buds are starting to pop so we will have to begin canning the bareroot next week.

03/09/2022

These are strange times. We are still receiving more bareroot fruit trees. Usually we are almost done by now. With the warm weather coming next week the trees will start budding soon which mean that the time is very short for bareroot planting. Those of you in colder areas especially need to get them soon.