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
Pear midge was particularly bad for us this year. Normally only a couple of varieties are affected but this year about half my pears succumbed, despite all the measures I have taken to prevent the problem in previous years.
We also had a bad attack of some sort of fruit-boring moth larvae for the first time, solely affecting the pears, and unprecedented serious attacks of gooseberry sawfly and blackcurrant aphid.