In your fruit garden in October 2011
Apples
Damsons
Apple day
The fruit harvest is coming to a close now, with many bumper crops. Fortunately many apples and pears can be enjoyed over the coming months if stored in a cool, dry, mouse proof, place. And there are all those jams, jellies and fruits from the freezer to add a taste of summer to the winter months.
Don’t miss Ryton Gardens Apple Weekend – 15th and 16th October. With organic growing advice, apple identification, tastings and an apple themed menu its an event not to be missed. And of course, Garden Organic members get in free!
Storing apples and pears
If you are using last year’s crates and boxes to store fruit, give them a good clean first. A citrus based disinfectant is a good choice.
Click here for information about storing apples and pears
It is best only to store sound, unblemished fruit for eating. Keep some less than perfect fruit too, to feed to the birds over the winter. They won't mind a bit of rot, and will appreciate the treat.
- 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.
- If you are planting fruit trees, bushes and canes this autumn or winter, it pays to prepare the ground well first. The plants will be cropping for many years so good preparation will pay dividends. Check out the Garden Organic factsheet Planting fruit trees and bushes for organic advice.
Buying new fruit trees and bushes
Although planting pot grown fruits can be very successful, and gives an ‘instant’ plant, ‘bare root’ plants sold in the dormant season are the best way to establish fruit. Plants have time to produce a good root system before starting to crop. There is also usually a wider selection of varieties available bare root, and the plants may cost less.
For a good range of organically grown fruit plants, try the Organic Gardening catalogue.
- If you are not sure which fruits are be suitable for your garden, the ‘Fruitful choices’ factsheet will help you choose.
Garden Organic members can also use our Organic fruit growing manual
Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
- Apple, pear, plum and cherry trees all come as grafted plants. The fruiting variety is grafted on to a ‘rootstock’, which controls the final size of the tree. Click here to find out more about rootstocks and help you choose the one suitable for your situation.
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Tidy up strawberry beds Remove dead and yellowing leaves from perpetual varieties. Mulch with compost or manure. Remove any plants showing signs of disease. A wide selection of strawberry plants are available in The Organic Gardening Catalogue
Young blackcurrant stems are
much paler than older wood
- 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 bushes. See below for instructions on taking hardwood cuttings. - 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, unless growing to a framework and spur-training.
- Continue to remove mulches from around fruit bushes and trees. This is so that any pests that are overwintering in the mulch or the soil will be exposed to birds and other predators. Add the material to the compost heap.
- Take any hard wood cuttings from healthy fruit bushes after leaf fall to increase your stock.
- Clear all weeds around fruit bushes and trees. Weeds aren't growing as quickly now, but many are seeding!
- Prune any hybrid berry fruits such as loganberries and tayberries. An easy way to manage the pruning of these fruits is fan training. To achieve a fan trained bush, immediately after harvesting cut out all of this years fruiting canes to the ground. Tie new canes onto wire in a fan shape.
- Lift and divide existing rhubarb sets and replant up until November.
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Pear 'Warden' at Audley End
Cobnuts - Now is the time to gather remaining apples and pears still on the trees before the frost gets them. Test to see if ripe before removing, fruit should come away from the tree with little effort if it is ripe. If not, leave it for a few more days to catch the last of the October sunshine. Pears are a different matter they are best picked before they are ready to eat. Pick the pears when they are hard and ripen undercover. This avoids pears having a brown centre and losing their juicyness.
- Pick any nuts that are ripening. Cobnuts and hazelnuts are ripening when their husks begin to yellow. Store them somewhere dry to ensure a winter feast.
- Remove netting from soft fruit and the fruit cage to let the birds feast on the last of the soft fruit. They will act as excellent pest controllers, picking off pests from the bushes, and in surrounding mulches and soil.
- Fruit netting is expensive but it will last for many years if you take care of it. Don’t leave it in place over winter, when a heavy fall of snow can break it, and the fruit cage. Remove the netting now, and spread it out over the lawn. Mend any tears, and remove leaves and twigs before storing.
Pest & Disease Watch
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Greaseband on tree trunk - Apply greasebands to apple, pear, plum and cherry
trees to prevent wingless female winter moths and March moths crawling up the
tree and hibernating or laying their eggs in cracks and crevice of the branches.
Fix the bands about 30cm (1ft) above ground level, completely encircling the
tree. Cut any long grass or weeds that may reach above the band, you don't
want to provide another route for their upward migration. Also, don't forget to
grease any stakes too as they often an alternative route into the tree for the
pests.
Glue bands and fruit tree grease available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue
- Collect up fallen leaves from beneath fruit trees to remove diseases spores. Either rake by hand, or mow fallen leaves with a rotary mower after spraying them with liquid seaweed. This helps worms to digest the leaves and destroy any scab spores they may be carrying.
- Prune out canker on apples and pears and disinfect tools.
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Brown rot on apple - Collect all fallen apples and pears that have brown rot. Also
remove any infected fruit still remaining on the tree as this is a possible
vector for infection of next years fruit.
Garden Organic members can find more information in our factsheets: Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
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Inspect apples trees for woolly aphids. - a
whitish fluffy coating on bark.
Wolly aphids live under a
layer of white ‘fluff’See our Woolly aphid factsheet for control measures
Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
Hardwood Cuttings
Hardwood cuttings are taken from mature wood at the end of the growing season, and is a suitable method for propagating currants, gooseberries and raspberries
Method
- Use vigorous shoots from current season's growth, about pencil thickness
- Cut into lengths 20-25cm and remove lower leaves
- Trim lower end just below a bud
- Insert up to half the length in a nursery bed, making slits in soil filled with coarse sand
- Leave for one year, watering and weeding as necessary
- Transplant the following autumn
back to - What to do in your garden now
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