Post by cye on Jan 20, 2012 16:16:35 GMT -5
In my snooker table sized back garden I have been trialling apple trees. Well, more like leaving them to it (in the main) but observing the outcome. i did spray the leaves once or twice with a mix of soapy water, dissolved cigarette butts and a few drops of tee tree oil when there were a few marks appearing on the leaves which in my ignorance i could not attribute to fungal or insect attack, and it seemed to help on some of the trees.
i think some of the trees came from Dunnes and some from Lidl. i have 3 wee trees in total which were labelled james grieve, coxs pippen and medaille d'or, though i wouldn't bet on the accuracy of the labelling. the medaille do'r is useless and after 5 years has produced one apple, and the leaves are always very rusted up, presumably fungal. the cox's pippen looks healthier but manages only two or three apples which fall in sept/oct.
the one which was labelled james grieve is still little more than a seedling, stands less than 4 feet tall, always looks fairly healthy, and this year amazingly produced about two dozen lovely apples on less than ten very weedy branches. the most striking feature of this tree is that, whilst the leaves have been dropped for some time, half of the apples are still on the tree and this is now mid january. what a wonder. i googled james grieve and it seems the apples fall in october, though the web pics do look like my tree. is this the miracle i think it is, or is this phenomenon quite common?
same thing happened last year with this tree, but at the time i attributed the staying power of the apples on the tree to the fact that they were frozen up for weeks!
if anyone wants any seeds i will send them out.
i think some of the trees came from Dunnes and some from Lidl. i have 3 wee trees in total which were labelled james grieve, coxs pippen and medaille d'or, though i wouldn't bet on the accuracy of the labelling. the medaille do'r is useless and after 5 years has produced one apple, and the leaves are always very rusted up, presumably fungal. the cox's pippen looks healthier but manages only two or three apples which fall in sept/oct.
the one which was labelled james grieve is still little more than a seedling, stands less than 4 feet tall, always looks fairly healthy, and this year amazingly produced about two dozen lovely apples on less than ten very weedy branches. the most striking feature of this tree is that, whilst the leaves have been dropped for some time, half of the apples are still on the tree and this is now mid january. what a wonder. i googled james grieve and it seems the apples fall in october, though the web pics do look like my tree. is this the miracle i think it is, or is this phenomenon quite common?
same thing happened last year with this tree, but at the time i attributed the staying power of the apples on the tree to the fact that they were frozen up for weeks!
if anyone wants any seeds i will send them out.