Kitchen Garden Forum

Are others finding this a top year for fruit? As well as a laden Bramley tree our Quince tree is full of fruit and when we went blackberrying with our grandson we filled four ice cream tubs in no time at all!

Poor year for me but expected it as last year was fantastic, however my pears are OK. Plums are very poor & what I have all have grubs in them. (Except Plum Beauty but they are already finished). Berries are great, to the extent they have attracted tea leaves to the ones at the front & a very feisty black bird to the one at the back!

Westi

It has been quite varied here. The wind and rain when the early cherries, plums, pears and quince were in full flower meant hardly any got pollinated, but the later plums and apples have been very good.

All the berries have done very well too

Everyone around here have had problems with shriveled diseased looking leaves on the cherry trees this year as well. The recommendation is to try and remove the diseased leaves - which is easier said than done on a large tree. There don't seem to be any sprays or anything else suggested, not that I spray chemicals about anyway. I'm just hoping that a good feed and mulch next spring and removing what I can reach might improve things next year. Otherwise it will be firewood. Has anyone else had this problem?

Not me Plumpudding by my neighbour on the allotment has had the same trouble with her cherry. The tree is now bare of all foliage but she like you has decided to wait till next spring and if nothing happens then it will be grubbed up. Cherries I think were particularly hit hard if left standing in all the water we had last winter.

I was lucky and my cherry is on higher ground and I had a superb crop.
Soft fruit was very good but over quickly, my blackberries have been finished now for several weeks but an excellent crop. Victoria plums have the brown rot but I have managed to save quite a few, no Plum Beauty again this year and apples Rev Wilks have the worm but again I am using them quickly. One bed of strawberries Malwena didn't produce a single berry, they have been dug up. Pears are very heavy on the trees and looking good as are the grapes. Few figs but not as many as last year.

Can't complain, I think it is a case of swings and round a bouts again.

Beryl.

Beryl.

Forgot to say, Blueberries are very prolific.

Beryl.

I agree about the blueberries, they have been great this year. The Blue Gold has finished now, but the Top Hat still has a few more handfuls for breakfast and the Herbert which has the best flavour and fairly late to start still has plenty on.

My cherry tree is at the top of the garden so wasn't waterlogged over winter, but I wondered if it was the mild winter that didn't kill off the spores, followed by so much rain that caused the leaf problem.

The strawberries were very good, but a couple of weeks earlier than usual and all ripened while I was on holiday, so my partner just put them all in tubs in the freezer (probably 30 lb). I've been making ice cream and jam with them this week to free up some space for everything else.

I think you are right about the mild winter. Most tree fruit benefit from a cold dormant winter. Hopefully your cherry will survive.

Beryl.

Poor cherry crop, lots of apples, damson and victoria plums, pears are on a dwarf stock so its only a small tree, but got a fair few pears on it.

I don't have any tree fruit but others on our allotment site do and their trees are laden.

My soft fruits, blackcurrants especially, have given bumper crops and the raspberries are just starting up. We grow our strawberries at home and the crop wasn't as good as last year but we had some whopping big berries!