Posted in Fruit Questions on April 25, 2008 | 3 Comments »
The pictures below are of a tree in an community orchard in Harston, Cambridgeshire.
The bark has been shed completely on all of the main boughs, which have died as a result. There are extensive beetle larvae galleries on the affected areas.
Has anyone else experienced this sort of damage? Does anyone know what has caused it?
Bob [...]
Posted in Fruit Questions on April 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I am researching the feasibility of planting a community orchard in North Wiltshire.
Orchards are not a typical landscape feature within the region which until quite recently was used primarily for dairy farming. Anecdotal evidence is that most farms had an orchard and that many of these have been grubbed up.
Does anyone know about this? I [...]
Posted in Fruit Questions on April 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Can anyone help with recommended pruning for closely planted Gisela 5 rootstock cherries. Distance is approx 2m and we are considering between bush (are our spacings too close) and pyramid.
Liz Dentith
Posted in Articles on April 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Any expectation that it was going to be an early year for fruit blossom has almost been reversed. As Howard Stringer predicted, our fickle climate has brought snow, frosts and hail in April. The damage to commercial crops of plums in Kent is reported to be serious in some areas and pears may also have [...]
Posted in Articles on April 16, 2008 | No Comments »
The origin of the dwarfing Gisela rootstocks for cherries, recounted by Howard Stringer on the Fruit Forum main web-site, has drawn the following comment from Malcolm Withnall.
May I compliment Howard on his informative essay on the origins of the Gisela series of cherry rootstocks. Milestones are rare in fruit culture, but Dr Gruppe’s inspired work [...]
Posted in Articles, Fruit Questions on April 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I am trying to find any information on the Copmanthorpe Crab, an apple named after a village outside York. Although Hogg and others record it as a synonym for Dutch Mignonne, Lindley questioned how a local apple grown outside York could be mixed up with a well known continental variety and called for closer comparison. [...]
Posted in Brogdale, National Fruit Collections, News on April 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Taynton Squash perry pear blossom in the National Fruit Collections
The new arrangements for the management of the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale came into operation today. On 1 April the curatorship of the National Fruit Collections under the Defra contract passed to the University of Reading and responsibility for their day to day [...]
