Top ten fruit growing tips for July

Bumble bee

1. It is very important for the health and welfare of bees to grow the right type of flowering plants favoured by bees for pollen and honey gathering, throughout the summer months. I t doesn’t need to be complicated. At this time of the year Angelica and red clover are definite favourites. Bumble bees are always on the look out for disused mice tracks in the soil. That’s where it likes to build its nest for the queen.

2. Red currants, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries are now beginning to ripen. Late-picked gooseberries are sweeter than the ones picked in June.

3. Support heavily cropping branches of plums, apples and pears. However, overcropping will greatly reduce next year’s crop. To reduce the threat of the silver leaf fungus entering via broken branches of too heavy-cropping plum trees , drastically reduce the number of fruits now and space the fruits 6 inches apart, leaving the best sized fruits.

4. Space the apples six inches apart, after the middle of July.

5. Check weeds around trees and bushes. Tie in the newly-forming shoots of loganberries, blackberries and tayberries.

6. Tie in the replacement shoots of peaches. Check the fruit cage for holes in the netting. Birds are good at finding the holes and eating your cherries, redcurrants, blueberries and raspberries.

7. Check tree ties. Too many trees are severely damaged due to ingrowing ties.

8. Place the pheromone traps to reduce the damage caused by caterpillars of the codling moth and plum sawfly now.

9. All fruits need a steady supply of moisture. Check the soil. If too dry, apply water at 10 day intervals.

10. If apple and pear shoots are growing too strongly, remove the growing tips of the new growth. Carry out summer pruning where trees are becoming too dense and light is excluded.

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Wrens, a sad story

For years we have had wrens nesting close to our house. By early November 2012, as usual, the wren family with about 6 offspring had prepared a wonderful moss-lined nest, near the roof beams inside the tractor shed. It would be their home for the winter, in which they would have their long winter sleep during the period in which no little insects were to be found during the cold winter days. Wrens in fact eat almost exclusively insects.
They emerged at the start of spring. But spring 2013 was long and cold. The wrens went out to find their food at the normal time. But there wasn’t any food in the form of little grubs or small insects. It just was too cold. Disaster struck: all these little birds starved to death. The bird table stocked with food just wasn’t to their liking. To date, 3 months later, there is still no wren to be found. They are such wonderful little birds with a strong and melodious song… we miss them greatly.

Flowers for bees

It is very important for the health and welfare of bees to grow the right type of flowering plants that they use for pollen and honey gathering, throughout the summer months. It doesn’t need to be complicated. At this time of the year Angelica and red clover are definite favourites.