There are a good few snowdrops plus some primroses out, mainly in woodland edge and hedgerow shelter. Some of the sloe buds are just swelling and will be blossoming probably in very early March.. Seeing these very early flowers is one of the benefits of working outdoors in the orchard.
We are making some progress digging out the Bramleys to make space for pears, I have put something up on youtube about it. Having recently discovere youtube and had some positive comments and a fair number of viewers, I thought I would presume to put up an orchard diary with short films from the orchard to chart the seasons. I'll put up a short film of buzzards next, then hopefully when we plant the pears. Looking forward to blossom time, only 10 weeks or so to go, God willing.
Look forward to seeing the seasons progress in your orchard.
--Gill S, Devon
I was absolutely delighted to see your videos on YouTube, and have found them very helpful. I look forward to seeing more as you orchard progresses over the summer.
About a year ago I started planting a number of fruit trees in my back garden. Although the garden is a reasonable size (for a residential estate), the soil quality isn't very good. The estate was built on a marsh, and is close to the sea. The top soil is only about one-and-a-half feet deep, and below that is clay. Although there are no obvious pools of water on the ground during heavy rain, the soil still holds up quite a lot of water, and we get a considerable amount of rain being near the sea. Of the trees I planted, one of them appears to have canker, at a number of the branches. I now try to pick varieties that have some disease resistance where possible. Living near the coast I also get salt-laden air. All that aside, I'm not giving up.
Anyway thats my situation, and I have a few questions for you (if you don't mind):
I have read that I should cut out the area that Canker is present. I pruned the trees over the winter following the instructions given in 'The Fruit Expert' book (cutting strong branches back to half their length, weaker branches to a third), and am afraid that if I cut more wood out, I'll have little or no tree left at all. Should I leave it as is or still cut more off?
The tree is on M26 rootstock and will be three years old this year I believe. I feel I should have gone for MM106 because of my poor growing conditions. Would you agree? (Ideally I'd like an 8 foot tree once it is mature).
Although it's a young tree, I am getting about 100 buds which are soon to burst, should I thin these out by much?
Finally, can you recommend a good brand of spraying mixture for me that I could buy from my local garden centre? I want to prevent any new canker from developing.
Thanks you in advance for you help,
Alan from Cork.
--Alan
<mailto:alanmathewlong@hotmail.co.uk>
