Q&A - Fruit

Q. I have had a miniature apple tree now for 6 years and still it bears no fruit at all, not a single apple. It comes into beautiful bloom every year, but the flowers just fall off and I'm left with no apples and back to square one. I am fast losing patience with the wretched thing, as I was told when I purchased it, that it would bear fruit within 2-3 years.

A. Your tree is most probably not fruiting as it needs another apple or crab apple tree that flowers at the same time to pollinate it. There could also be a potassium deficiency and you could try spraying the leaves with a seaweed extract and forking in a potash rich fertiliser into the soil around the roots.

Q. I've just moved into a new house, and there is a large black currant bush in the garden, which produced a good crop of fruit this summer. The bush is very large and takes up a lot of the garden. I want to trim it back quite a bit, but don't want to ruin any chance of fruit next year. What do you suggest?

A. The fruit of your blackcurrant develop on older wood so you should not
remove too much at once. You can trim branches back a bit but should then remove a third of the old stems right back to the ground. If you do this every year you will keep the bush to a more manageable size and get plenty of fruit each year.

Q. I have a 6 foot, 2 year old to me, Cherry morello tree and it flowered in abundance this spring, however all the buds dropped off as the fruit started to form.

A. Most fruit trees drop a proportion of their fruit as they develop. However as most have dropped it may be that they got too dry early in their development, which prevented their further development. Next year make sure the plants are watered well once the fruit have set. Also feed this autumn with a general fertiliser such as bonemeal or Rooster.

Q. Could you please tell me when and how hard to prune a damson tree. I live in North Wales and this year we had a good crop of fruit but the tree is getting rather tall.

A. Established Damson trees should be pruned in June-late July to reduce the risk of silver leaf disease and should really be kept to a minimum. Remove dead, broken or diseased branches and remove any that are overcrowded or crossing into the centre of the tree. You can then cut back all of the current years growths to about 4 buds from where they started. If you then do this each year you will keep the tree to a manageable size and still get plenty of fruit. If you need to prune back harder because the tree has got too tall you can cut back main branches to another branch but you will need to paint any cuts with a pruning compound such as Arbrex to reduce the risk of disease.

Q. I have a large fig tree which I grew from seed about 10 years ago. For the first time this year it has fruited but the figs don't look too happy now. They seem to be discolouring and one has fallen off. I'd be grateful for any advice.

A. Figs are usually green in their first year and then ripen in the next. They need plenty of water and this may be the problem. They also need a high potash fertiliser such as tomato food when the fruits start to swell and fruit better if their roots are contained in a small bed or large pot.

Q. I have an apple tree that has a fairly heavy crop of fruit. Recently, the smaller apples (about 1 inch in size) have been dropping off. What is the cause and what do I need to do to prevent this.

A. Many fruit trees drop about a third of their fruitlets especially if there is a particularly heavy crop. In dry conditions a higher number of fruit may be aborted so it is wise to water well in such circumstances. Also selectively rubbing off some of the fruiting buds early in the season can effectively thin out the crop, which results in larger fruit. Pruning some of the lateral branches has a similar result.

Q. Can you let me know how to proceed with caring for some apple and nectarine plants I have managed to grow from seed. They are both about 6 weeks old at the moment and are just on my kitchen windowsill at present. I live in the North East of England and my kitchen gets the sun in the morning and most of the day and my sitting room gets it in the early afternoon into evening time. Will these plants bear flowers/fruit if I manage to bring grow them on?

A. It can be fun growing plants from seed but the results are unpredictable for fruit such as apples and nectarines and there is no guarantee that the fruit will be any good. You will also have to wait about 5 years before the plants are big enough to see any results. You should keep the plants both cool and slightly moist during the winter. They may well drop their leaves and take a rest during the winter and in the spring start to grow again when they would be best grown outside to receive higher light levels.

Q. I have a conference pear tree which stands approximately 10ft tall, and I only had one big pear off it last year as all the fruit grew to about the size of a pea and then turned black. I thought it was just a one off so I put a grease band around the lower trunk thinking this would do the trick, but it did not work, all the fruit on the tree now are turning black again.

A. It is difficult to give a diagnosis without seeing the tree and fruits, but It is most likely pear scab. The symptoms for this are:
Black-brown scabby patches develop on the fruits and similar but more green-grey spots develop on the leaves. In severe cases, fruit becomes almost entirely covered and they remain very small and misshapen. Affected leaves yellow and fall early. The disease is caused by a fungus and is worse during damp springs and where trees have crowded branches, (which prevents air circulating). The disease can be controlled by:
Raking up and burning leaves as they fall;
Pruning out cracked and scabby shoots and thinning out the tree's crown; Spraying with a suitable fungicide that contains carbendazim, mancozeb or triforine with bupirimate.

Q. I planted summer fruiting raspberries this year do not know if to cut the raspberry canes right back.

A. You should tie in any canes that have not fruited this year to your support wires. Any old canes that fruited should be cut back to near ground level. In following years you should select only the best 6-9 canes from each plant and then cut back the weaker canes once the plants have fruited in the summer.

Q. I have autumn fruiting Raspberries and am not sure how I should go about pruning them. They are fruiting at the moment so I doubt if I should do anything now but am not sure as there are a lots of flowerless stems as well that I think may need chopping back.

A. Autumn fruiting raspberries are fairly simple to prune. In February each
year cut down all canes to ground level. Tie new canes to wires with soft
twine as they grow in spring and summer.

Q. I am growing 2nd year strawberries and I seem to have some problems. Firstly they are rotting and I am not sure if this is due to lack of sunshine. I have put straw down on them but this is now damp due to rain. Also at the top of the Strawberry near the stem the fruit seems to be splitting or looks like something has crawled over it, I did see a spider on one, but unsure if this was the culprit, I don't think it is slugs as I put down pellets.

A. I would think the strawberries are rotting because the air around them is damp. Try removing some of the leaves to improve air circulation. The splitting may be due to variable watering. If too much water is applied after a dry spell then the fruits swell very quickly causing them to split. You should aim to water well and often preferably in the early evening or morning.

Q. This year I planted strawberry plants and did not get a great crop but wonder now what to do with the tendrils of the plants.

A. Strawberries often don't produce much fruit in their first year. You should cut off any runners and all the leaves about 7.5cm (3") above the crowns and put them on the compost heap (this is done any time after fruiting until late autumn). Next year if you want to produce more plants (you should replace your plants every 3-4 years to keep them healthy) you can allow 3 or 4 runners to root down by pegging them to the ground in June or July (only select runners from healthy plants that do not have mottled leaves) and after 4-6 weeks you can then dig up and pot the new plants.

Q. Could you please tell me what a "Worcester berry" is.

A. A Worcester berry is a large currant similar in appearance to a gooseberry except that it is purple/black. It is very thorny and should be grown just like a gooseberry and is immune to American mildew.

Q. I have two sweet eating-apple trees [variety not known], which are about 12 feet high, and this season bore a huge crop of apples which we cannot use. Everyone seems to have the same quantity of apples, so they cannot be given away. Can I prune the main branches of the tree hard back at the beginning of next season in order to reduce the crop?

A. Many fruit trees naturally produce heavy crops of fruit every other year. This is known as biennial bearing and can be minimised by thinning the fruit on the tree early in their development soon after the fruitlets begin to swell. Regular pruning also helps. Hard pruning should really be used to reduce the size of the tree and improve its shape as it may affect fruit production for several years otherwise. You can prune back your tree anytime from leaf fall until late February for major work and in the summer for regular work.

Q. I have a plant which the label says is citrus fortunella-perennial citrus tree. It has had a very good crop of little oranges which are very juicy but not sweet to taste. Is it ok and safe to make these into a marmalade to eat?

A. Yes, those oranges are a bit 'tart' (to say the least), but are edible. They cook down quite a lot when you make marmalade and you tend to need quite a bit of sugar, certainly more than you would normally use. Perhaps the best approach is to mix them with other oranges, to give a decent batch of marmalade and reduce the amount of sugar you need to use. This also covers the problem if you don't really have enough to use in one go.