Information on old Yorkshire Nurseries please?

Could anyone tell me where I can get access to a copy of the nursery catalogue of William Perfect of Pontefract from the 1760’s? A hard copy would be best but a soft copy would be fine.

Also, if anyone has any information on the nursery of ‘Mr Warner’ of Warner’s King fame I would be grateful for it.

Mr Warner is described as a fruit tree nurseryman from Gosforth, near Leeds. I have always suspected that he bred his own variety from the very well known King Apple mentioned by Parkinson, rather than simply trying to pass off an existing well known variety to Rivers. There seems to be very little known about him or his business though.

There is no village of Gosforth near Leeds but Garforth is a well known village on the outskirts of the town. In Warner’s time it was a fruit growing area. A number of place names in Garforth also contain the word ‘Gosforth’, so it is possible that a smaller village has now been subsumed into Garforth or, perhaps more likely, that the difference is down to a variation in spelling.

Any help or comments would be much appreciated.

Nick Burrows

Read Full Post »

Can Anyone Identify What is Infesting my Apple Trees?

Upperside of leaf showing infestation; magnification x20

Can anyone identify the following problem I have with my apple trees’ leaves.  These are maiden apples grown in poly tunnels.

The picture above is of the upper side of the leaf and my question is what are the dark red dots?

The red dots only appear on the upper side of the leaf, on the central veins; they are barely discernible to the naked eye and magnified x20 in this image. The fine white threads are hairs on the leaf. There are also some live bugs, however, I don’t think these have any relevance. It is the red dots that I want to identify and which appear sultana-like in the x400 magnification below.

Outside trees have it but are unaffected. Trees in the poly tunnel have it much worse and are bronzing and crisping. I originally thought it was red spider mite but it’s not. It has been suggested that it could be red rust mite, but I googled this and the ‘sultana -like’ blobs are definitely not red rust mite. At x 400 magnification we should see legs and body parts.

Readers of Fruit Forum might be interested to know the pictures were taken with a USB microscope. They cost about £40 and images are shown on your computer screen and can easily be e-mailed or printed out.

Ian Sturrock

Upper side of leaf showing infestation; magnification x400

Read Full Post »

Why has my Autumn Bliss Raspberry produced Apricot Coloured Berries?

Autumn Bliss raspberry bearing apricot berries

The above picture is of one of the canes that has grown up from my Autumn Bliss raspberry plants, but instead of being red in colour the berries are apricot. This cane is about 3″ away from a cane which has red fruit. When I pull on the red fruited cane the apricot fruited cane moves also and is obviously connected
to the same root. Can anyone explain why one cane is apricot and the other red? This begs the question how do I propagate this apricot one?

Adrian Baggaley

Read Full Post »

Any Wild Apples in Your Locality?

BBC Four is currently producing a documentary about apples, to be presented by Chris Beardshaw. As part of his journey, we would like to set Chris the task of seeking out a tasty wild apple. I’d be very interested to receive any tip offs about good foraging spots or any wild apple trees that you know of which produce edible fruit. They can be growing anywhere, in a garden or by the side of the road, but the tree must be wild, and not a variety that has already been named and classified.

If you you have any tips please don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing jess.colmer@bbc.co.uk or calling  020 800 85585.

Jess Colmer

Read Full Post »