Coming along nicely ... with the exception of my peaches and nectarines
Hoorah! I’m pleased to say that all of my perennial fruiting plants are looking super healthy. All except my peach and nectarine trees. But more on that later …
My fruiting plants have come through a relatively mild winter and are either flowering or setting fruit, or a combination of the two. Cherries, strawberries, apples, pears, gooseberries, plums, gages and MORE!! I will net some of them off from birds this week. The air is ALIVE with bird chatter everywhere you go on the allotment site. New birds of different types (I don’t know my birds!) have joined the robin red breasts that seem to have been around all winter and are here with us in spring. Last year, I learned that some birds eat unripe cherries and currants. I’m not going to get caught our again this year.
Doing well:
Now, back to the peach and nectarine trees. They’re not doing well at all …
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts (see post entitled ‘Fruit trees 2020: Ready, set …! on 29 January 2020), all but ONE of my peach and nectarine trees have succumbed to the dreaded Peach Leaf Curl fungal disease - AGAIN. Not at all happy. Most of the winter protection covers did not hold up for long enough and the trees were exposed to the elements before winter was over.
This is the sad result:
The only option open to me as a gardener is to pick the diseased leaves off in the hope of reducing the fungal load, and to keep the trees otherwise stress-free. I have picked the leaves off in previous years. I find it sets the plant back even more. I hope for a miracle. Maybe the trees will somehow shrug it off and survive. It’s unlikely that I’ll get any fruit. The drastic option would be to rip the plants out and destroy them by burning. I’ve tried to avoid doing this. Let’s see how things go …
