Devoe

Dissapointingly small crop of Devoe, but the quality was better than in some years. Picked on August 5, as a couple had started to split after heavy rain attracting wasps. This was too early, as they shrivelled a little before softening. Skin texture better than in some years, thinner, less papery. Flavour very good, sweet, juicy and perfuned. Foliage very badly affected by scab, absolutely no extension grown on either cordon, but fruit completely unaffected.

Irish Peach

Picked and eaten straight from the tree today. Unlike early windfalls, just ripe. Skin okay, flavour sweet, acidity, very 'appley'. Crop 1.5kg this year. Crop 2-3 weeks earlier than 2010.

Beth/Morettini windfalls

Enormously surprised to find Beth crop starting to yellow and fall so early. This is still July for Heaven's sake! Ate the first one, not great quality, dry, little juice, none of the usual buttery quality, due to poor sun levels and leaving too long on tree. Picked all those with signs of yellow - 1.8 kg picked so far.

Decided to pick the whole crop a couple of days later, the additional crop was a further 2kg, meaning the total was a bare 4kg. Last year was a bit better 5kg, but way short of the 7 kg in 2009.

The Morettini were also starting to fall, creating a wasp hazard on the pavement outside, so I decided to pick any that were a decent size or flushed. These weighed in at 4kg. Flavour has been poor, due to lack of sun. Will be interesting to see of the ones left on the tree improve in the few days of sunshine.

Pear scab

A terrible year for pear scab, mostly affecting foliage. The usual suspects all succumbed, but to a worse degree, and others varieties suffered for the first time. Worst affected are Santa Claus and Devoe, but Fondante d'Automne and Beurré Gris d'Hiver Nouveau have also showing a lot of yellow/blackened foliage. I think the explanation lies in the very warm spring, which encouraged a lot of soft growth which has succumbed during the colder, more humid months of true summer. Only the fruits of Santa Claus are affected, and only in a particularly dank corner.

Codling control - the results

Slightly disappointing results for codling moth control. Picked several bored fruits off Pixy and Orlean's Reinette. I've come to the conclusion that the worst affected varieties are those where fruit is bourn in clusters that are very tight, sheltering the caterpillers sufficiently to bore into the fruitlets hidden from predators. I think the nematode treatment was worth doing, as I haven't found any on varieties other than these two yet. In future, I think I'll try spraying these varieties individually, using pheromone traps to identify when the adult moths are on the wing.

July horrors

This is turning out to be a very strange season. Fruiting times are very unpredictable - some varieties are ripening extra early, catching me unawares. St Edmund's Pippin is a whole month early, as I discovered when my cockerels ate all the fruit they could eat near the ground, plus the blackbirds had made some holes further up. I left Irish Peaches far too long on the tree, with the result that they were all pithy and flavourless when I tried them, with the inedible, leathery skin I'd expect in such a dry season. Meanwhile, my early pear Morrettini shows no sign of ripening yet. Most of the fruit appears undersized, pears in particular, and I suspect will have unpleasant skins. Meanwhile, we picked our earliest ever greengage yesterday, and the crop on both our standard plums is heaviest we have had to date.

Record earliness?

Small crop from Vista Bella (having a partial biennial year off), but having any sort of home-grown apple before the middle of July must be a record. Very nicely ripened, considering these were on the shady side. Nice balance of sweetness and acidity, slight 'strawberry' flavour, flesh and skin soft, with no trace of bitterness found in some summer reds.

Whinham's Industry

Not a lot to say other than I always look forward to my desert gooseberries, which come just after the currants and strawberries have finished, and fill the 'hungry gap'. I should grow more desert varieties, I'm sure there are bigger, juicier and even sweeter cultivars than Whinham's, but it's reliable and easy.

Plum dressing

Plum blossom looks very promising this year. Coe's Golden drop seems to be covered and even the usually blossom-shy Denniston's Superb seems to have more than usual.

Usually I forget to lime the plums early enough. Too early, it will just all wash out of our thin, open soil; too late and there won't be enough readily available to the roots by the time the fruitlets are forming. I'm sure this is the reason that plums are so disappointing here. The wild plums only produce prolifically when they reach 12' plus; local sloe bushes hardly produce any fruit at all.

Limed the area around both about a month ago, and spread calcified seaweed around the root area liberally today. Fingers crossed for a better year for plums in 2011.

Last Pixies

Tidying away the fruit boxes, came across some more Pixies which were surprisingly good. Most of the acidity has gone by now, slightly dry but now very sweet with a strong flavour of pear drops, certainly these well-ripened ones hadn't lost flavour, just acidity. Really ought to plant another one, or top something less good with it.