Q & A

13 thoughts on “Q & A”

1. thanks for the email about pruning cordon fruit in august – great service and really useful

   sorry to be thick but do i prune my other fruit trees now as well?

   cheers
   nige

2. Nothing thick about it. The thing to remember with cordons, espaliers, fans and forms like step-overs is that one is trying to keep them relatively small. The ideal shape is tight/compact with loads of fruiting spurs.

   When a tree goes into dormancy in the autumn, the sap falls back into the roots where it forms an initial food supply for the plants growth in spring. Fruit trees grown as cordons are on semi-vigorous root-stocks the ensure they have enough ooomff to crop heavily on a small frame. Pruning before the sap falls makes sure the tree does not have too much energy in the spring and so prevents it from outgrowing its shape.

   By contrast you want bush and standard forms to grow big; therefore they are pruned in winter when removing top-growth does not reduce the food supply of the tree. By the way I looked up your order with us, and unless you have other fruit trees nearby, you may want to take a look at our guide to Fruit Tree Pollination to make sure you have the trees you need for everything to crop….

   Best
   Julian

3. Thank you for the advice on pruning my cordon pears – I had just asked a
   gardener at Harlow Carr and your advice was better!! However I do have a
   problem with a disease or fungus on a Comice which bears no fruit.
   The Conference has fruit and has now also got the dreaded black spots.
   The Comice also seems to be plagued by aphids!

   I hope that you can offer advice for the remedy.

   Thanks
   Margaret

4. Thanks for your email and pictures.

   I have a couple of pieces of advice, but also a question or two.

   It has been a terrible year for two things on fruit – fungal conditions and insects – the rain is wonderful for fungi and bad for the small birds that prey on insects….

   So:

   1. It is necessary to practice good hygiene if you have a pest. In autumn, rake up and burn or otherwise destroy (but do not compost) the leaves off your pear trees. Also burn any prunings. In early to mid-winter, on a dry day when the temperature is above freezing, spray your pears with a tar oil wash. This will kill most/all overwintering bugs and eggs. In spring, keep a close eye on the new foliage as it emerges and be ready to spray with an insecticide containing permethrin or pyrethrum is you see the aphids coming back. Do this early before their numbers have built up.1

   2. As far as the spotting on the leaves is concerned, from the photos this looks fungal. Spray with a fungicide such as Bio Dithane 945 (containing mancozeb). Do that on a dry day now, and repeat when the new leaves are out in the spring.

   Now a couple of questions about fruiting.

   A Conference will pollinate a Comice and vice versa, so there should not be a pollination problem. Since the Conference has fruit, it clearly flowered – did the Comice?

   (Trees often “sulk” in the year they are planted).If it did not flower, it ought to next spring, and there will be fruit in the summer.

   If it did flower, did any baby fruitlets set? If not, the most likely explanation is that, because a Comice starts flowering later than a Conference, the appalling wet weather we had in the spring simply washed the pollen away from the Conference before the bees could do their job. The next possibility is that (you may have seen on the news) – this has been a catastrophic year for bees. There have been very few about and there are complaints from fruit farmers all over the country about poor crops…. We also have a couple of fairly severe late frosts – these can damage blossom and cause pollen to fail.

   I hope this helps, please let me know if there is anything else we can do.

   Best
   Julian

5. i have in march 09 planted a one metre high conference pear tree and the small leaves produced on it are turning inward on the edges and turning black around the outer edges,what could it be and can it be treated or would it be better to remove and replace it as i have plum and apple trees near to it.
   des

6. Hi Des,

   Without a photo, I can only guess that the tree is stressed – plants came out of their winter dormancy early this year and your tree may be objecting to being moved while it was half awake. Make sure that it is watered well but not constantly drowned – a thorough soaking once or twice a week is better than a daily drink.

   If this is a newly bought tree (one of ours?) it is extremely unlikely that it has fireblight. Have a search for fireblight images to see how it looks.

   Please do email us a photo so we can give you our opinion.

7. Email Julian: julianREM@ashridgetrees.co.uk (remove the letters in capitals in the email address before sending).

8. Help someone!

   Rightly or wrongly, my neighbour has dug away roots of a dividing Lawson Hedge between our respective properties. This has caused major unleveling of the hedge and also exposed what seem like dead hedge branches. It is my thought that this is because it was previously deep in the hedge, away from sunlight and that in time, the evergreen will recover. Can anyone confirm this?

   Regards and thanks in advance,

   Paul

9. You will be lucky. You thought is almost certainly right – most conifers lose branches that are out of the light too long, for example when they are used in hedging. Very few however (yew is the best exception) grow back. It will be close to a miracle if your Lawson’s Cypress does.

   Sorry

10. what is the minimum distance from a wall that a beech hedge can be grown. I’m think about planting one along side my garage wall that does not have a great deal of space between it and the pavement
    thanks

11. I recently purchased 10 mature Taxus Baccata Yew trees (8ft high conical shaped). The trees were planted in reasonable, well draining soil which had been improved with well rotted manure, etc four weeks ago and I have watered them well during dry periods.

    The trees appear to be doing okay and each one has lighter green new growth coming through. However, each tree has developed some sparodic ‘browning’ on the tips of isolated branches.

    I would be grateful if you could give advice on whether (1) I should be concerned with this? and (2) is there anything I should be doing to combat this?

    Many thanks in advance.

12. Hi Ann
    This business about “how close” a tree can be planted can get a bit complex. It all goes back to trees that like lime putting their roots into the mortar in house foundations and trees that like something completely different doing the same with drains.

    IF (I emphasise the IF) your garage is relatively modern (built within the last 40 years or so) the probability is that its foundations are concrete, not brick. IF that is the case, you can plant your beech hedge as close as you like – but for the good of the plants I would suggest not less than 12″. If the foundations are brick and mortar then go no nearer than 4 ft for a beech hedge. What you could do if you have to go closer, is to put a barrier down between the hedge and the garage to stop the roots getting to the mortar. Dig an extra deep trench – at least 2’6″ and drape the heavy plastic that is used as a damp-proof barrier under concrete floors (available at any builders merchant) like a curtain down the side of the trench nearest the garage. Return the soil until the trench is about 6″ deep and leave it to settle for a couple of months. Return a bit more soil and plant your beech.

    The same guidance and instructions apply if you are planting any kind of hedging close to an older building or near a drain.

    Good luck

13. Hi Sarah

    Assuming your soil is well drained I would relax. Evergreen plants lose a few leaves all the time, so there are usually some brown leaves around and Taxus baccata are no exception. If it gets worse, I would begin to suspect drainage – July was enormously wet and poor drainage would mean the plants got waterlogged – which they hate. Definitely let the people you bought them from know what is happening and take pictures. That size of plant was not cheap and I would expect a reputable supplier to guarantee their plants for a sensible period of time.

    Hope this helps

    Julian