Fruit trees – installing a barrier to potentially destructive insects

The next two weeks is a good time to put grease bands onto your fruit trees. They prevent caterpillars from climbing from the soil, up the trunk and stake, and into the tree. If they reach the tree, next spring they will start eating the foliage and fruitlets. Click here to read more about grease bands. And if you’re thinking about ordering some new trees for your garden, quality trees, and the necessary advice, are just a click away at realenglshfruit.co.uk

Big trees, little trees, can they compete?

Photo courtesy of Moreland’s emerging urban food gardens/flickr.com

It’s not tree planting time yet. But, if you’ve already ordered your trees, this is the time to start thinking about how to ensure that the new tree will survive in your garden. In this post, I’m thinking particularly of situation in which you already have healthy, well-established trees in your garden, and you want to fill a gap with a new tree. In this case, you have to follow a certain procedure to give the new tree or trees a chance to compete successfully with the trees already there, and ensuring them a constant supply of moisture, light and nutrients throughout the growing season. Here we go:

1) Choose the correct fruit type, rootstock and variety compatible and vigorous enough to compete with the already established and larger trees in close proximity. If you need advice on which trees to purchase, there is some basic information here. Otherwise, take a look at our Tree Varieties page, fill in the form, and provide some information on your situation in the box ‘Special instructions or local conditions.’

2) Use a mini digger to prepare the planting hole, and cut and remove all the roots of surrounding trees that are crossing the planting hole. The size of the planting hole needs to be 1 metre square and 45 cm deep. (If you don’t have a mini digger, well, it’s going to be spade work… take your time, take it easy, do some warm-up exercises before you start. If you have back or heart problems, ask someone who is fit to do it… or hire a mini-digger.)

3) Next, loosen the subsoil but do not take that soil out of the planting hole.

4) Remove and cut back all overhanging branches of other trees, which will be taking away the light of the newly to be planted tree or trees.

5) Mix plenty of garden compost or well rotted straw based farmyard manure into the soil.

6) When planting your trees make sure the union of the trees is at least 4 inches above soil level once planted.

7) Plant the trees well away from any building or wall, which might create shade.

8) Firm the soil around the roots, but with only moderate force. No stamping. Stake the trees with a 6 foot, round, 2” diameter stake, which has been treated against fungi. If it is not treated against fungi, it may rot off at soil level.

9) During the growing season do not forget to water the trees weekly, with 10 litres of water for each tree.

10) Apply “Growmore” spread evenly over the 1 square metre area, twice a year, in February and June. Do not allow any weeds or grass to grow on your specially-prepared soil area, around the trunks of the trees. Mulch the trees if possible. Follow instructions on the packet of the fertilizer. Do not exceed the stated rate of application.

If you do all the above you will succeed. Good luck and all best wishes!

Top twenty fruit tips for September – complete list

1. Start preparing the ground where you are intending to plant your new orchard, cordons, fans or espalier-trained fruit trees. Check the pH of the soil which needs to be between 6.3 and 6.8. If the pH of the soil is below 6.3, apply some lime and work into the soil.

2. Make sure the site and position is right; not in a frost pocket or on the northerly and shady sites of buildings, walls or hedges.

3. Apply plenty of well-rotted farmyard manure and work into the soil up to a depth of 15 inches.

4. Remove and kill perennial weeds such as bramble, stinging nettle and couch grass.

5. Eliminate wasps nests and remove rotting fruits, which will hide the wasps, from the orchard floor.

6. Remove any rotting or damaged fruits from the trees. Pick the fruit that is ready to eat. Do not store early-maturing fruits such as Discovery and Grenadier apples. Fruit for storage needs to be slightly immature. Fruit that is too ripe will not store.

7. Finish the summer pruning programmes as mentioned in the August tips.

8. Check the storage space for your fruit; it needs to be clean, cool and free from vermin such as flies and mice.

9. Check that the thermometer in the store is in good working order.

10. Start discussing which varieties would be suitable for your location with a knowledgeable and experienced fruit specialist. All types of fruit are site sensitive!

11. Blackcurrant bushes: remove the wood which has carried this year’s crop.

12. Raspberry canes. For the summer-cropping raspberries such as Glen Ample, Tullameen and Leo, cut out all the old canes to make room for the new canes. After the autumn-cropping raspberries such as Autumn Bliss and All Gold have all been picked and have finished cropping, cut ALL the canes back to ground level. Remove/treat strongly-growing weeds.

13. Cherry trees. Apply treatment to reduce the risk of bacterial canker. Apply Winter Tree Wash by the end of September. This is to control greenfly/aphids eggs.

14. Peaches, plums, greengages: as soon as picking has been completed, complete the last pruning. Do not forget to seal the wounds with “Heal and Seal”.

15. Put grease bands onto fruit trees.

16. Fig. Continue to water the fig if planted in a container. Protect the fruit, which is close to ripening, from birds.

17. If you are intending to plant trees to be trained as espalier or fan, now is the time to install the horizontal wires.

18. Apples and pears which have been damaged by hail or insects, or have simply split due to weather conditions, will not store. Use them for processing into apple juice or cider.

19. Once peaches and nectarines have been picked, complete the summer pruning programme.

20. Apply farmyard manure or home-made compost around the trees, if the soil is in need of it. Remove perennial weeds before applying farmyard manure.

And if you’re thinking of planting a few more trees this winter, now is the time to contact RealEnglishFruit to select your varieties and place your order!

September tips for fruit trees: apply manure

Well-rotted manure. Photo courtesy The Word Factory Ltd/flickr.com

Apply farmyard manure or home-made compost around the trees, if the soil is in need of it. Remove perennial weeds before applying farmyard manure.

September tip: peaches and nectarines

Once peaches and nectarines have been picked, complete the summer pruning programme.
If you are thinking of planting peaches and nectarines, take a look at the RealEnglishFruit website and the varieties available.

Growing raspberries

Photo courtesy of Liralen Li/flickr.com

Raspberry canes are reliable croppers, provided the soil is not waterlogged, the canes are supported and the plants are not short of water during the growing season.
For that reason we advise you to mulch the canes, supplying them adequately with well-rotted farmyard manure.

Plant from November to March, best if earlier, in winter, so that the root system has time to develop. Always plant the canes on ridges of 40 cm width and 20 cm height. The top roots need to be an inch below soil level. Newly-planted canes need to be cut back 6 to 12 inches, above soil level.
In June, cut all surplus cane back to ground level. Leave 4 to 6 of the strongest canes per plant.
Summer cropping raspberry canes crop the following year. Autumn raspberries crop on the current’s year cane growth.
In January, cut back autumn raspberry canes to 3” from ground level.
On summer-cropping raspberries, cut out all canes which had a crop.
Do this as soon as the picking season is over.

Summary:
Raspberries are a wonderful crop to grow. The soil preparations before planting are fundamental in ensuring that the canes grow well. The following points are of great importance:
1) Raspberries hate to be waterlogged. Make sure that in every season, surplus water will disappear from the root zone, within 48 hours.
2) Never let your raspberries go short of water during the summer months. Roots will explore up to a depth of soil of 60 cm.
3) Organic matter on an annual basis is a fantastic tonic to the plants. Well-rotted straw-based farmyard manure is ideal. Spread it on either side of the canes, without touching the canes. Mulch the canes to stop weeds from competing for moisture.
4) Plant the canes 40 to 45 cm apart. Use potted canes, or rootwrap instead of bare root canes. The roots of raspberry canes dry out very quickly if bare-rooted, during unfavourable dry weather conditions.
5) If the canes are growing well, do not let them swing about in the wind. Give the canes good support and tie them from 50 cm and upwards on to horizontal plastic covered wires. Or you can lead the new growth between 2 horizontal wires, kept apart by short spacers, which are firmly fitted to the vertical stakes.
6) Only use healthy virus free canes.

Photo courtesy of Karen Jackson/flickr.com

RealEnglishFruit does not sell raspberry canes, but you can buy quality fruit trees from our website, just follow this link!

September tip: damaged fruit

Apples and pears which have been damaged by hail or insects, or have simply split due to weather conditions, will not store. Use them for processing into apple juice or cider.

September tip: espalier and fan wires

If you are intending to plant trees to be trained as espalier or fan, now is the time to install the horizontal wires. Read more here: http://realenglishfruit.co.uk/content/treetraining.htm

September tips: fig tree

September tip for fig trees. Continue to water the fig if planted in a container. Protect the fruit, which is close to ripening, from birds.

Do you have to remove a fruit tree? Now’s the time!

Dan Neuteboom

None of us would ever want to cut down a fruit tree, but sometimes it has to be done. For example, if you planted a fruit tree on a vigorous stock and it has grown too large for your garden. Sometimes in this situation, there is no way to tame the tree. In this sort of situation, it is best to grub the tree and plant one or two new trees on a dwarf stock.
So the problem is: how do you remove the tree from your garden? It is actually very simple. It does not require any complicated procedures. However to be successful the following points need to be carried out properly, within the next three weeks, and on a dry day, when no rain is expected.
1) With a chainsaw the tree trunk needs to be cut off at ground level.
2) Within the next hour the stump needs to be painted with a liquid called “STUMPKILLER”, using an ordinary painter’s brush. This is a product available in any good garden centre. It is usually based on the totally harmless weed killer called Round Up, which is a chemical formulation containing glyphosphate. It should be used at the full concentration, and NOT the diluted version.
3) Any woody suckers coming up from the ground underneath the tree need to be treated in the same manner.

No digging up of the soil or removing stumps from the ground is necessary. If the above procedure is followed, the tree stump will immediately die and the chemical used will be neutralized as soon as it hits the soil, via the stump on which it has been applied . We carry out tree removal on our farm on an annual basis, with 100% success.

Why does it have to be done now (i.e. from late July to September)? Because at this time of year, the tree is preparing for dormancy. Carbohydrates produced in the leaves by photosynthesis are being transported down into the root system where they will be stored during the winter. So if you cut your tree down now, and apply the stump killer, the chemical will immediately be sucked in and brought down to the roots, causing the stump to die immediately.