apples

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submariner
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I have two apple trees. One a Lord Derby cooker, which is behaving as it should. However, my James Grieve eater, is shedding apples so fast it's not funny. Also, this year, there seems to be more brown rot than ever before. I have always had rhincitis (?),but that is OK because it is only skin deep. I put pheremone traps out but do not take any other precautions. Usually this works well, and I get many good apples. Why is the tree shedding. It looks as though I am going to have very few good apples this year.
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Jenny Green
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It could be shedding a lot because it set a lot. There seems to have been an extraordinary amount of blossom and fruit set across the country this year from what I've heard. I know my fruit trees set an awful lot and have lost at least half of what they set, yet I still had to thin them so the remaining fruits would grow to a good size.
Another factor is the very dry summer. It took a lot of watering to keep the fruit set on my trees. They will drop whatever they feel they can't sustain in their current growing conditions.
Can't help you with the brown rot, except to say that most diseases and pest attacks are exacerbated by stress to the trees such as lack of, or excess, water and/or nutrients. If your tree is feeling the drought it'll make any of its usual problems (such as brown rot) worse.
submariner
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Thank you Jenny. Makes a lot of sense.
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Jenny Green
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You're welcome Submariner. :D
It's also true that different varieties are more and less susceptible to different things. (Thinking of the difference you've noticed between Lord Derby and James Grieve.) Maybe cookers are tougher than eaters? I don't know. Something like Cox's Orange Pippin is notorious for pest and disease susceptibility.
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vivie veg
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Hi Submariner,

I too grow a Lord Derby (I prefer the apples to other cookers) and find that this hardly drops any apples, even if it has set 4 or more per cluster. I have to remove the smallest apples to leave one or maybe two per cluster. I know I should only leave one, but it breaks my heart to be so ruthless and also a single apple could grow to over 1 lb in weight and is often too big for cutting into slices. I also eat this apple uncooked once it's ripe, so I want smaller apples.

I haven't grown a James Grieve, so don't know how these perform.
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Vivianne
submariner
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Hi, Vivi Veg. My Lord Derby is also prolific. I usually leave the tree drop apples naturaly, and never thin. I find that doing it this way the apples don't get too big. Otherwise, as you say they grow to about a pound in weight! They are, as you say, a lovelly eater also. Mine was grown by accident! I bought, years ago, what was labelled as a Bramley! When I allowed it to bear fruit, the result certainly was not a Bramley. I sent a couple of apples to the Hereford apple society, who named it for me. I am so glad that it was a Lord Derby, because, I really think it is far better, and of course it is an old English tree, whose fruit you cannot buy. That is important.
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vivie veg
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Well Ken, with both of us recommending it, we should be able to get other interested in this old variety.

The only problem I have had with mine is Thrips for about 3 years when we had very mild winters, the first and second year I thought we must have had a late frost, that I had not noticed, but the third year I know there hadn't been a frost and looking closer I found some recently severed buds still oozing sap, so looked it up and found the culprit to be thrips. As I could not find an organic solution that year I just left the tree and the following year it was back to normal after a hard winter.
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Vivianne
pillbug
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Submariner
What is the address of The Hereford Apple Society,We`ve got 2 remaining trees,have been to some apple occasions but they`re usually in sept/oct and 1 dessert apple is ready about now and does not keep. We`ve got early windfall from this tree and the birds are moving in so they are almost ready,copious,despite the june/july drop and thinning,but smaller fruit this year.
The other tree,some sort of cox I think has just done a mass drop and again needs a bit of thinning,this is a fab apple year.
submariner
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Sorry Pilburg. It was a few years ago. What I did was use the internet. There are several apple societies around that are willing to help.
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peter
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The RHS used to provide an apple naming service, is it now a members only service?
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Allan
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It looks as if anything to do with Hereford apples is now handled by the Marcher Apple Network (MAN). It seems that there is a presence at the cider museum opposite Sainsbury's not a mile from here. I could look in on my way to town, the truth is I haven't bothered in the 18 years as I don't go for anything alcoholic.
I have nearly an acre of apples and other fruit at the farm, seriously neglected as there is never the time to do anything about it.
We have a copy of The English Apple here. It is very good for identification of apples as far as it goes on varieties. We had one of ours identified at Wisley but as far as I know they will do anybody's apples at a premium. What about Brogdale, worth a check there.
Allan
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peter
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http://www.brogdale.org/html/fruit_identification.html

£18.80 for non-members, full instructions on web page cited above.

Hope this helps.
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