Disasterous rainfall

Morettini

The non-stop rainfall we have been experiencing for the last couple of months has had a disasterous effect on the pears. Cultivars that are usually fairly robust and reliable have been affected by scab for the first time, and pollenation has been very low. Morettini is usually very healthy in growth, but nearly every fruitlet is completely covered with deep scab lesions. Beth is affected in both leaf and fruit, Winter Nelis and Josephine de Malines don't have a single fertilised fruitlet on the whole tree. Fondante d'Automne has just a couple that I could find. By contrast, Bishop's Thumb, Comice and Conference so far have bumper numbers of fruitlets, but overall I think it will be a very bad year for pears at least. A lot of the apple blossom was by contrast spoiled by unseasonably hard frosts but so far the fruit seems to have set. Fingers crossed that the season isn't an entire washout.

Pollination?

Having checked a number of my apples against the relative pollination dates given in The Book of Apples, and the absolute dates on the Brogdale website, I have to say that there are a lot of discrepancies in the sequence of flowering periods between varieties (all growing as established cordons of fully-identified variety). It's not of any practical importance, as there are so many different varieties growing in close proximity here to ensure good pollination, but it does make me realise that the dates given by the authoritative sources may be more variable than might be assumed. Part of the aim of my blog is to record data for each year and compare the variability over time.

I was surprised to see how much later the Brogdale/Kent dates are compared to apples growing here in Oxford. I thought this was an exceptionally late season; even so, the majority of apples are in full bloom in the third week in April, rather than the mid-May dates given by the guides.

A pollination mystery?

Some years ago I grafted a multiple variety pear tree for my parents, the idea being that three varieties on a single tree would cross pollinate efficiently and give a succession of fruit. The varieties were Bristol Cross (as South Wales is very wet compared to Oxford, so a particularly scab-resistant variety seemed a good idea); Dr Jules Guyot and Concorde. The first two are in the same pollination group, and Concorde is slightly later; both Concorde and Dr Jules are reputed to be partially self-fertile, whilst Bristol is self sterile.

This tree has been in about 8 years, but has never produced any fruit. This year it has set a small number of Dr Jules only. For once I was at home to observe flowering, and all varieties did flower, though some of the Concorde blossom did appear to be later than the other varieties. Even so, the Dr Jules should have provided pollen for the Bristol Cross (it obviously flowered this year, as it has set fruit).  Frost shouldn't be a problem as the climate is much milder than here. 

I think the problem with this tree must be some sort of incompatibility between these varieties. I did quite a lot of research before grafting the tree, so I'm quite annoyed the combination has worked out so badly.

The only solution will be to add an appropriate pollinator, either as graftwood or by squeezing in another small tree. It seems a shame as the tree is growing well and healthily and the three varieties seem very well matched in vigour, which can often be a problem on 'family trees'.