This year has seen a fantastic glut of fruit – well from most of our plants. There are two particular trees in our garden that have not been too fruitful this year.
The first is a cooker/eater apple tree, variety long forgotten, that my parents bought for use when we first acquired the extra land. It has never done well and a friend has suggested that we prune it back hard, possibly move it and maybe turn it into a family tree by grafting new wood into it. I have successfully grafted this tree onto new rootstock and will be trying it out in other projects. The idea of a family tree is very attractive to me as I am a genealogist, and the tree was from my parents. This year it had fantastic blossom but not one fruit 8-(
The second is a russet pear which I am growing as an espalier against a south facing fence. Last year we had amazing blossom but a late frost meant that we lost almost all the fruit. This year we again had a fantastic blossom and I made sure that I covered it with a fleece when there was any threat of frost. Unfortunately, although we got loads of tiny pears they all dropped off suggesting that we had poor pollination this year. I have one pear!
The really bizarre thing is that the tree has started to blossom again, in October!
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