The Fruit Garden

Continue a full preventative spray programme for top fruit at post blossom and fruitlet stages against pests and diseases, NEVER spraying when fruit trees are in flower as this will kill beneficial insects such as bees and ALWAYS check the instructions and restrictions. Soft fruit also benefits from a regular preventative spraying regime. Use a proprietary insectide suitable for edible crops for most insect pests on fruit and a proprietary fungicide for most fungal diseases. Prune wall-trained plums and cherries by removing badly-placed or weak shoots: pruning now deters silver leaf diseases. ‘June drop’ of apples will occur but this is nature’s way of balancing the amount of fruit the tree can successfully produce. Thin as necessary dessert and culinary fruitlets.

Cover ripening soft fruit with netting, especially strawberries, to prevent bird damage. Pelleted chicken manure will give cane fruit a boost and should be well watered in after application. Tie in growing shoots of cane fruit to prevent them from breaking in the wind.  Pull off or hoe up suckers outside the rows and thin the basal shoots of blackberries and loganberries. Keep all plants mulched to conserve moisture and to help swell the fruit. Spray regularly with a proprietary insecticide suitable for edible crops to control raspberry beetle on raspberries, blackberries and other cane fruit. Do this from when the flowers first open, but only in the evening when bees are not active and leave 7days before harvesting.