Wildlife

The wrens that nested by the back door fledged last week. They headed straight for the dense scrub beyond the fence. I see them only occasionally now, hopefully the family is still intact.

Lots of noise from the Kestrel nest in the poplar this afternoon, but no sign of the birds themselves. The owls in the neighbouring poplar started hooting in response.

On a more worrying note, the baby bunnies are still getting into the garden. I'm at a loss to see where they are getting in, even the dogs couldn't find the hole. I'm very worried, as the previous rabbit visitor ruined two young trees in just a few hours.

Woolly aphid

A bad attack of woolly aphid on Orlean's Reinette. In past years they have occasionally congregated on rootstock burrs, but this attack is more extensive. I'll prune the affected new growth off completely and discard, and treat the rest with a cloth soaked in meths.

Cherry ripe: a mystery?

This cherry was sold to me as 'Sunburst'. It is a very weak grower, so in the 10 or so years it's been in, we have had few opportunities to assess it, but I'm now absolutely certain that it is NOT Sunburst. It rarely goes a full red at optimum ripeness, though it is a very nice fruit.

Most of the trees I haven't home grafted came from a well-known nursey on the Isle of Wight. So far, 4 trees have turned out to be not the varieties ordered. This is very annoying, as my plantings are very carefully chosen with pollination and growth habit in mind for a particular site or purpose. If you have any idea which variety this may be, please let me know! (I'm inclined to think Merton Glory, as the colour and season look right).

Front Garden colour

Not really relevant to the technicalities of fruit growing, but I am rather pleased with my potager-style front garden, with red-coloured flowers and foliage mixing with standard and step-over pears. The rose, Scarlet Fire, looks attractive growing into the pear, but I will prune it back hard after flowering to let in some light and air for all the plants around.

Beth: crop

A good crop on Beth this year, having been very light for the last couple of years, rather inexplicably. Lots of healthy looking spurs like this one.

Devoe: crop

A happier sight, a good crop on Devoe now colouring nicely after recent sunny weather.

Conference: crop

In spite of the early scab infection, the Conference cordon looks like it should have a good crop. The scab has only resulted in coarse russeting on the majority of fruitlets, though a few do have deeper cracks.

Pear Scab: Santa Claus

One venture that looks like it may not be a success is my planting of a previously vigourous Santa Claus maiden as one half of an arch in the front garden. Unfortunately it really does not like the situation and has been virtually defoliated by scab for the second year running, with die-back of the growing tip and no new growth to tie in to form the shape. The infection is much worse than suffered by it's partner grown as a cordon in the back garden, in a much more sheltered and humid space. 

The soil is decidedly less good in this situation, barely better than subsoil, even with extra top soil and compost added. Most of the pears don't seem to mind but variety obviously isn't thriving.

Pear rust

Yet another disease that seems to increase in degree with time. I remove all leaves with orange well before they develop their horny fruiting bodies on the underside of the leaves. According to the RHS it has increased in frequency and severity in recent years, and juniper species also play a part in the disease life-cycle (interesting as the neighbours have a a couple of juniper-like dwarf trees).

RHS information on pear rust

Red Ellison's Orange: deleafing

It's worth just inspecting fruit to check that they are not too over-shaded by new extension growth, as fruit in full sun will be better coloured, better-ripened and ultimately nicer in flavour. I've removed the extension shoots and the leaves from the fruiting spur too. Hopefully Red Ellison's will live up to it's name and be well-coloured with full exposure to the sun.