Wrong Variety- can I claim a replacement?

Mystery cherry

I have a extremely weak-growing cherry that has rarely produced any fruit. This year it has produced a ‘good’ crop of about about a dozen very sweet fruits of a yellow, flushed red colour when fully ripe. However, it is now very clear that it is not the variety I originally ordered, Sunburst. This variety, together with a number of other trees were originally ordered from a well-known specialist fruit nursery when I was starting my orchard about ten years ago. Of the original consignment of 16 trees, four are very definitely not the varieties requested. I find this very frustrating, as I chose my original varieties very carefully with regard to pollination, suitability for training as cordons etc. Am I entitled to request the nursery to supply replacements, albeit such a long time after purchase? Clearly the ‘goods’ were not as described!

I wondered if my experience is unique. If not, how common is this problem.

Elizabeth Moriarty

Foxwhelp Cider Apple – what is origin of its name?

What is known of the origin of the name ‘Foxwhelp’, the cider apple?  The question is part of a discussion on the Cider Workshop.  In The New Book of Apples it says merely ‘Believed to have arisen near a
fox’s earth.’ Is there background or reference on this?  One reader pointed out that the word ‘whelp’ isn’t normally used with foxes.

Dick Dunn

Leicestershire Apples – help us find them?

The Leicestershire Heritage Apple Project is hoping to promote interest in apples originating and related to Leicestershire.

We are looking for scion wood of French Codlin/Leicester-Burton Pippin and Langton’s Nonsuch. I wondered if any readers can help any please? I’m also personally looking for Api Etoillé, I can only find suppliers in the US thus far of this variety, although it hails from Europe.

Melanie Wilson

Fruiting Loquats?

Loquat shrub

The reports of loquats flowering and fruiting in Britain seem to reflect the milder winters we have had – until the last one! I have assumed that these are seedlings of fruit imported from the Mediterranean regions where there are a number of varieties selected for their fruits. It would be interesting to try out the ones that seem to do well here and Brogdale Farm, home to the National Fruit Collection, is a good place to do this. We are collecting new fruit crops that may do well in our warming climate. With the reported cultivars already fruiting we have a good start for loquats.

My own experience says that loquats must be variable in their response to our climate. I have had one for at least 30 years that has never flowered. I moved it from a wall to an open position about five years ago and still no flowers. It has very large, shiny leaves and typical fawn young shoots as the photograph shows. It has never shown any sign of cold damage even after the last severe winter in Kent. It is very ornamental – but no fruit. Would anyone with a fruiting loquat let us have some cuttings so that we can start a trial at Brogdale? If so, please email me at tomladell@aol.com with your details and we will send you a post paid packet to send them to us at the right time.

Tom La Dell

See also earlier post on this Blog on loquats fruiting in London.

Apple Orchard wanted for Film Location

I am a filmmaker and am in the early stages of researching a film about the story of the English apple. In the film I want to follow a Kent apple orchard/farm through the seasons and weave into this the history of the apple and the myths, traditions and events associated with it. If anyone knows a working farm in Kent who could possibly make a good subject for the film I would really like to know. Ideally the farm should have a long history of growing and selling apples, grow ideally at least 100 varieties of English apple, be knowledgeable and aware of England’s great apple heritage and be opinionated about the current state of the industry and how difficult it can be to keep things going. If you don’t actually know a farm or orchard that fits this description but could point me in the right direction to finding out more that would be great.

Janette Scott

(Fruit Forum can pass any information on to Janette Scott)

Establishing a Cherry Orchard – advice please?

Has anyone had any experience establishing a cherry orchard? Where would one go for advice on rootstock, varieties, suitable regions, tree suppliers, polytunnel suppliers etc.

Would permissions be needed to establish orchards on farm land? Are there any restrictions? Restrictions on putting up polytunnels?

Stewart Duke

Summer Sun Cherry – is it self fertile?

Summer Sun cherry trees are frequently marketed as self-fertile and thus will crop without a pollinator. Some years ago East Malling Research Centre conducted a genetic analysis on the Cherry Collection growing at Brogdale and found the absence of the gene responsible for self-fertility in Summer Sun, thus taking it off the list of self-fertile varieties. I grow this variety and it is a good one, cropping well with good tasting fruit, but unfortunately it is one of a row of 12 different varieties, so I cannot confirm from experience that it is indeed self-fertile. Does any reader grow this in complete isolation from other cherry trees and thus confirm that it indeed crops well?

Howard Stringer

Ants on Cherries – how to get rid of them?

My problem has been ANTS  – the little tiny kind – that crawl up and eat ridges around the ripening cherries! I have heard that the herb pennyroyal planted around the base may help; or using borax there at fruiting time; or soft soap sprays.

Can anyone help me plan for the eventual battle?

G.L. Foskett

See an earlier post: ‘How do I protect my Fruit Trees from Ants?’

Spring 2009 in South Nottinghamshire

Pear leaf blister mite on leaves and fruitlets

No significant air frosts during April means a reasonable plum crop could be in prospect. Certainly the blossom has not been killed off and temperatures were considerably higher than 2008, although we had to wait several weeks for a continued six days of sunshine which could be critical as regards fruit set. Cherry blossom was profuse and the heady scent of Hertford wafted across the path as I walked to and fro; some of its fruit is now as big as large peas. Meanwhile the pears are taking a bit of a hammering. Pear leaf blister mite has made a mess of the new velvety foliage and also attacked blossom and fruitlets. There is also considerable infection of the fruitlets by pear midge. After three years of picking off the infected fruitlets before they turned black I was hoping for a respite, but not so;  there is more than usual and this after a very poor fruit set last year. I may have to revert to chemicals.

I am finding some mildew in my orchard, due to over wintered spores and infection has been made worse by a dry spring. The most affected apples are Cowngold, which is a martyr to everything going, A. W. Barnes and Limelight in that order. I normally break off the affected leaf truss and dispose of it away from the orchard.

Fruit in the poly-tunnel fruit was also unaffected by frost and cordon trained Tomcot apricots have a bumper crop set which has broken small branches; I have already thinned. Cherries, Earlise (Delbard) and Summer Sun have an excellent fruit  set, particularly Earlise, which has not been impressive in the past. Fruit set on the peaches is perhaps slightly down on previous years, possibly due to my less energetic activity with the rabbit’s tail this year at pollination time.

All in all fingers crossed  for a bumper crop this year. Bumble bees were seen in February and by April bees of various colours and sizes were common. At the end of the month Mason bees were squabbling over a 12 mm by 32 mm deep hole in the front of the garden store. A week later still disagreement, but no home building and obviously not a ‘Des – Res’!

Adrian Baggaley

Apple Cosies

Apple Cosie

An apple cosie – isn’t this the cutest thing ever? Knitted jackets for apples to protect them in your lunch box and seemingly part of a marketing campaign in Italy to encourage apple sales by local growers.

The cosie  in the picture was knitted by an Italian friend from instructions in a magazine and the apple is an Ashmead’s Kernel, still sound on 4 May!

Perhaps there is an Italian reader who has first hand experience of this  cosie knitting campaign?

Joan Morgan