Any soft fruit growers out there?

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Normally that would be the plan but was trying to sell as many as fresh apples as possible this year. Plans are getting scuppered a bit due to other things but I am selling a few locally to shops etc.
I entered some of my Cox juice in the National Fruit Show a few years back and got best in show. I thought that was quite fun sending in to Kent. :)
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
The main thing scuppering my apple picking plans is Mum needing looking after and this afternoon I went and did todays shift of being at her house.
Mum has always been a keen gardener and a farmer too, she was in charge of 7 fruit farms at one time. In her garden amongst other things she has a grape vine and when I arrived I was told she had managed to go up the garden and see the grape vine which was a massive improvement. Last week she was on a zimmer frame and now she is on a stick and actually managed to climb quite a few steps to get up to where the vine is.
I'd taken her some cooking apples of mine as she likes stewed apple, we grow Belle de Boskoop and it is a family favourite even though my Grandpa ordered Bramley trees and got these instead. (Belle make good juice too, that one won Best in Show for me at Bath and West :))
I got her to peel the apple (one was enough, they are quite big) and again yesterday this would have been unheard of to get her in the kitchen and do something. There you go she says, it just needs chopping up now and I am going in the garden. I assumed she was sitting in a chair just outside the door but next minute she's shouting me to help her up the steps to the other garden. So we went off to the grape vine again and this time we picked and ate some of the grapes of which there are loads. Another miracle what with Cheshire being practically in the Arctic!
 

Hjcarter

Member
Dabinets getting ready, probably start picking our Red Falstaffs next weekend.
IMG_20210925_183609.jpg
 

aidan

Member
Location
Ireland
Professional or amateur?
Good pruning will help by reducing moisture and humidity in the crown. Scab likes wet, mildew humidity. Potassium Bicarbonate is good for mildew. On label is Karma, off label baking powder and soft water (apparently 10g/lt works….) but only if you think you can spray the whole tree, not worth bothering with if you can’t. You can’t do much about capsid, there might be a bit of Winter Moth in there too which can be controlled with grease bands - but they’re hassle and prone to bi catch of other beneficials. Encourage earwigs, they are voracious predators of aphids, caterpillars and other insects, use a bit of corrugated card rolled up in a cut off plastic bottle. But a good prune for light and air will do it the world of good. It’s not a 1 year job, look at doing some decent cuts this year and next, then after that it should be slightly more cuts of smaller branches. Strongly growing upright wood won’t fruit much, anything in shade will also be poor, but the answer might be removing the branch shading not the one in shade.
amateur, we have a few trees, we use for our own household.

Earwigs first use I have ever heard of them. - Mother Nature is strange indeed.
 

aidan

Member
Location
Ireland
@Kidds @Hjcarter @Veryfruity

how do you keep the birds away
Got some time to get some picking done today. Can’t think of anything better to do with my time, I just love it but it is hard work.
Whenever I talk to people in Kent about growing apples in Cheshire they usually react as if I am at the North Pole. I was told by a big apple grower just last year that Cox won’t survive this far North. Here are a few pics of them not surviving.

View attachment 987714
View attachment 987716View attachment 987717View attachment 987718View attachment 987719

Amazing quality there, shows what can be done when trees are looked after properly. and no bird damage anywhere.

@Kidds @Hjcarter @Veryfruity

how do you keep the birds away, 25-30 percent bird damage here.

Not sure about the UK, but here in the SW of Ireland, the crows can tell the difference between sweet and cooking apples, and prefer the sweet ones.
 

Veryfruity

Member
You’ve got some clever crows there.

I get some bird damage on cherries, though this year I lost more to wild boar, who came every night And got the low ones, they broke low branches too.

Birds tend to prefer to perch away from where they eat, fly in to feed, then return to perch. My orchards are in a block with no perching areas. I also sell PYO, so there are people in the orchards all the time.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Amazing quality there, shows what can be done when trees are looked after properly. and no bird damage anywhere.
Thank you but you are wrong about the bird damage. Not much of a percentage but there's quite a few with small holes. I think it is birds but it could possibly be mice/voles up the tree.
The bird damage I have is from small birds and mostly by the hedges, Blackbirds can become a pain but usually later on when there's less food about.
Jackdaws and Magpies are the biggest potential threat and I had a very big cull of them in the spring.
 

ladycrofter

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
I haven't grafted for years and want to do some smaller apple trees with the grandkids this winter. I think I used to use MM111? for roughly 10' trees and they worked well up here (Highland). High producing most years and strong trunks.

Looking at buying rootstock :D help! Lots of new stuff with disease resistance etc, but also plenty of weaknesses - brittle, low producing, insect resistant but poor to take the graft, etc.

What would you guys recommend for making small-ish trees, not technically dwarfs, probably remaining in large pots in a protected garden? I see gb-online have a G-series, some from Moscow breeding and also Romania. Advice needed!! Thanks.
 

TheTallGuy

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
I agree that M26 is probably the right way as they are a known quantity. I have seen MM106 work in very large containers, but restricting the roots will reduce the vigour so you don't get the benefit over M26. I'm not convinced that the newer rootstocks are any better overall & are a bit of an unknown quantity in the longer term.
 

ladycrofter

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
Where do you buy scions? I tried gb-online, ordered from them in the past, but there's a lot out of stock on their shop just now, ones that I want. No luck phoning or emailing.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Where do you buy scions? I tried gb-online, ordered from them in the past, but there's a lot out of stock on their shop just now, ones that I want. No luck phoning or emailing.
I may be able to help, which were you after in particular? Can't promise to have them but no harm asking, I certainly don't have the range they do.
 

aidan

Member
Location
Ireland
digging up an old thread. its spring time now and I have the pruning done. Chainsaws are a great invention.

Things are just starting to grow, wont be much growth for next 2 weeks as its supposed to be nice and cold.

I was wondering what type of fertilizer should i use on the trees., and indeed on some blackcurrant bushes, the blackcurrants were v small last year.

Do I summarize correctly that it is a fertilizer high in potassium is the preferred type for fruit trees. I see this tomato food is 4-3-8 which might fit the bill............ https://www.glanbiaconnect.com/shop/product/Levington-Tomorite-Liquid-Tomato-Fertiliser-1L/9091370


I guess I also need to think about spraying if anyone has any suggestions..............
 
Last edited:

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
I was wondering what type of fertilizer should i use on the trees.

I guess I also need to think about spraying if anyone has any suggestions..............
I don't put fertiliser on mine and they do well enough. A spray of Epsom salts is about all the nutrients they get, that one makes a big difference to my trees.
As for spraying, I think I wouldn't bother on a garden scale. Scab is likely to be the biggest issue and if you want to spray for that you need to do it every 10 days until July, too much effort in a garden imo. Mildew can be physically removed, just pinch off any infected bits and burn them.
Codling can be an issue, I would get one or two Codling traps from the garden centre and hope they do enough to protect the trees.
Aphids may come in, depends which sort you get whether it would be worth treating. Woolly aphid are quite horrid things, treat with methylated spirits, just brush on where you see them.

In a garden I think the trees are best left to fend for themselves, quite often spraying can result in the situation being worse than when you started. Spray aphids with the wrong stuff and you will kill all the ladybirds that were eating them, you get more aphids as a result.
 

aidan

Member
Location
Ireland
I don't put fertiliser on mine and they do well enough. A spray of Epsom salts is about all the nutrients they get, that one makes a big difference to my trees.
As for spraying, I think I wouldn't bother on a garden scale. Scab is likely to be the biggest issue and if you want to spray for that you need to do it every 10 days until July, too much effort in a garden imo. Mildew can be physically removed, just pinch off any infected bits and burn them.
Codling can be an issue, I would get one or two Codling traps from the garden centre and hope they do enough to protect the trees.
Aphids may come in, depends which sort you get whether it would be worth treating. Woolly aphid are quite horrid things, treat with methylated spirits, just brush on where you see them.

In a garden I think the trees are best left to fend for themselves, quite often spraying can result in the situation being worse than when you started. Spray aphids with the wrong stuff and you will kill all the ladybirds that were eating them, you get more aphids as a result.

This is what we had last year, years of no maintenance the cause i think, I would like to do something to improve things


Epson Salts gives a magnesium boost I see, which sweeten things
 

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