In your fruit garden in November 2011

Things to do in the fruit garden this month

• Download Garden Organic’s free Fruit Growing Manual

  Initially produced for schools as part of the Food for Life Partnership, this manual is full of practical fruit growing advice for everyone. Pruning and planting are the sections of particular value this month.

• Continue harvesting and storing sound fruit. Apples and pears should be stored in a cool, mouseproof,  place to reach their peak of perfection. Only store healthy and unblemished fruit. Not all varieties will store for long; check in a good fruit book if you are not sure.
• Check apples and pears in store and remove any that are rotting. If they are stored in a shed or garage, leave the doors or windows open for a few nights to bring the temperature down. If you see signs of mouse damage, try to make the location more mouseproof, and set some mousetraps.
• Hanging baskets make a good place to store apples for a month or two.
• Garden Organic members can see our factsheet Storing the harvest for more information
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• Continue to remove mulches from around fruit bushes and trees. Add the material to the compost heap.
  
  An over-tight tree tie or rabbit
  guard will damage bark, reduce
  growth and can, ultimately,
  kill a tree.
• Check tree ties, stakes and rabbit guards on fruit trees. An over-tight tree tie or rabbit guard will damage bark, reduce growth and can, ultimately, kill a tree. Trees growing on dwarfing rootstocks need to be staked for life; remove stakes from more vigorous trees after 3 years or so.
• Make sure fruit trees have an area, of at least one square metre, free of any weeds or grass around them. Grass in particular is very competitive, and can reduce cropping and may even kill young trees.
• Remove protective bird netting to allow birds in to help reduce overwintering pests on bushes and trees, and in the soil.

• This is a good time to lift soft fruit bushes that are entangled with couch grass, bindweed and other perennial weeds.
  
  Water well if necessary, then carefully dig up the plants. Remove all weed roots and stems from the rootball and the surrounding soil. Replant the bushes after first applying a good spade-full of well-rotted garden compost into the planting hole. Water well.
• 
  Begin planting fruit trees, bushes and canes as soon after leaf fall as possible. As root growth will  continue during the winter when ground is not frozen, this allows the plants to establishgood roots before top growth resumes in the spring. To help new plants establish, add some 'friendly fungi' in the form of 'Rootgrow' when planting
  Rootgrow is available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue
• Buy fruit trees and bushes now.

• The new  2012 Organic Gardening Catalogue lists a good selection of organic soft fruit plants - strawberries, raspberries, black and red currants, as well as organically grown fruit trees. http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/
  
  Garden Organic members benefit from a 10% discount on all purchases from The Organic Gardening Catalogue.

  Garden Organic members can see our factsheets:
  Fruit tree suppliers and Planting fruit trees and bushes
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.

• Prune out blackberry canes that have fruited this year. Cut them down to soil level and tie new ones into their place. Very long canes can be trained back down towards the soil or trained as sinuous snake to fit the space.
• Remove any plants, formed where cane tips have rooted, that are growing where you don’t want them.
• DON’T  cut down autumn fruiting raspberry canes now. Leave them till February.

• 
  The oldest of the grapes in the
  vine house at Audley End Organic
  Kitchen Garden were planted
  over 100 years ago, and  are still
  going strong.

  You can use the prunings as  'eye' cuttings to propagate more plants:

  • Select prunings that are about the thickness of a pencil, and well ripened (woody). Cut into sections about 3cm long, each with  a bud or 'eye'.
  • On the opposite side to the eye, make a shallow sloping cut just below the level of the bud.With the bud facing upwards, put the cutting into a small pot of well-drained cutting compost, with the bud just above the level of the compost.
  • Keep in a propagator at a temperature of 24°C until the roots have formed.
  • After the roots have formed, gradually accustom the young plants to cooler conditions and plant in the greenhouse or outside in the spring.
  Garden Organic members can see our factsheet on Organic grape cultivation, diseases and disorders
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• 
  Rhubarb
• Propagate rhubarb by lifting a sizeable root with a spade or fork. Divide the root into smaller pieces, with each piece having at least one bud. Replant the divided sections  90cm apart in soil that has been improved with organic matter

Apple and pear tree pruning

• Winter prune apples and pears between now and next March

  For more information on how to prune these trees, Garden Organic members can access the relevant advisory notes in the members area (requires members' password).

  • Any secondary growth on summer-pruned apples and pears can be cut back to mature wood now.
  • Formative pruning of cordon and espalier apples and pears can be done now. Next year, start summer pruning them.
  • Tip young tip-bearing cordons with poor vigour now. Just cut back a few centimetres. From next year, tip them in summer.
  • Prune out any diseased wood (scab, mildew or canker infections for example). If any trees are regularly troubled by diseases, it may be wise to rethink your choice of variety.
  For more advice, download our Fruit Growing Manual

 
Blackcurrants

Currant and gooseberry pruning

• To keep black currants cropping well, prune the bushes any time from now to late winter.
  The aim is to maintain a supply of new (pale coloured) stems. These are much more productive than the older, dark coloured stems. Cut out around one third of the older stems each year. If there are plenty of new stems growing up from ground level, cut the old stems back to the ground. If not, then cut the old stems back to a vigorous new, low, side shoot.
• Take cuttings from healthy currant and gooseberry bushes.
• Prune gooseberries, red- and white-currants at leaf fall. If bird damage is likely, pruning can be left until spring. Take cuttings following instructions for blackcurrants.

Propagating currants, gooseberries and other bush fruit

Currants, gooseberries and other bush fruits are easily propagated from hardwood cuttings.

• Use vigorous, dormant, shoots from the current season's growth, about pencil thickness
• Cut into lengths 20-25cm. For blackcurrants, leave all buds in place. For other fruits, remove the lower buds, leaving 3-4 healthy buds at the top of the cutting.
• Trim lower end just below a bud
• Insert up to half the length in an outdoor bed. On heavier soils, make slits in the soil and fill with coarse sand
• Leave for one year, watering and weeding when necessary
• Transplant the following autumn

Other activities

• In cold areas bundle together fig branches and cover them with straw or matting. Also protect around the base of the tree with straw.
• Pick up all windfalls and compost them if you can't eat them all. If you have a lot of fruit to compost, try making a separate heap. Chop fruit roughly with a spade and then layer with some rough compost. Worms will soon move in.
• Overwintering plants in pots, such as apricots and peaches, may need extra protection from hard frosts, so take indoors if possible. Insulate pots that are too large to move with bubblewrap or hessian sacking.

Pest & disease watch

• 
  Brown rot on apple
• Apply sticky barriers  to apple, pear, plum and cherry trees to prevent female winter moths climbing up into the trees. These moths, whose caterpillars can cause extensive damage to blossom and foliage in the spring, do not have wings, which is why barriers are effective. Remember to put a barrier round tree stakes too – below the tree tie.
• Apply ready-to-use Glue Bands, or use Insect barrier glue or Fruit tree grease. If trees are less than 3 years old, do not apply glue or grease directly to the tree as it can damage the bark. All these products are available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue
• Compost windfall and rotting apples and pears in a ‘worm heap’. Fill a compost bin with alternate layers of fruit and old straw, autumn leaves or rough compost. Within a  year or so, worms will have converted it all into beautiful compost. Alternatively, bury them in a compost trench.
• Pick every last fruit off fruit trees. Fruit hanging on trees over winter is one of the main sources of brown rot infection in the spring. The other main source is infected shoots and spurs. Infected fruit can safely be composted.
• Garden Organic members can see our factsheet on Brown Rot
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• Prune out cankered shoots on apples and pears. Disinfect tools between cuts, and burn prunings.
• Garden Organic members can see our factsheets Apple Tree Pest & Disease Management & Pear Tree Pest & Disease Management for more information
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• Check fruit in store for damage and diseases. Remove and use any fruit starting to deteriorate before they start to infect others and make sure the fruit has plenty of air circulating around it.
• Remove nets from soft fruit and open up fruit cages to allow the birds in to start their valuable work of clearing up pests. Invite birds into the garden by putting food out for them.
• 
  Woolly aphid
  Inspect apples trees for woolly aphids. Look for a whitish fluffy coating where branches join the trunk and cracks in the bark.
  See our Woolly aphid organic factsheet for control measures
  (members' password required to access factsheets)

Top of page

Pickled apples recipe

You will need:
900g Small apples, crabs are good
900g Sugar
600ml Spiced Vinegar

• Cook the sugar and vinegar until the sugar is just dissolved
• Prick the apples all over with a fork
• Simmer apples in the vinegar/sugar mixture until they are soft but not falling apart
• Place the apples into jars, gently
• Reduce the syrup to 300ml by boiling
• Pour the hot syrup over the apples, not too hot or you will crack the jar!
• Replace the lid onto the jars and allow to cool.

This pickle is best left to mature before eating. Consume within six months from making.

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