A laissez-faire approach to summer care for apple trees: a step-by-step guide with Abbie and Mark...

8/8/2019 A laissez-faire approach to summer care for apple trees: a step-by-step guide with Abbie and Mark Jury

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Friday, January 7, 2011 T ARANAKI D AILY  NEWS 11

G ARDENING www.taranakidailynews.co.nz

A laissez-faire approach to summer care for apple trees:a step-by-step guide with Abbie andMark Jury.

Photos:ABBIE JURY

1Apple trees cansurvive andcontinue to crop

despite total neglect,but you will getmuch better resultsif you give themsome attention.This huge oldGranny Smithapple tree has notbeen touched formany, manyyears andshows why it isbetter to startwith graftedapples ondwarf rootstock. Thistree is

destined tobe cut out in

favour of oursmaller trees,

which areeasier to care

for.

2Apple trees are currently sporting their new growth, which shows as longleafy whips. It is this growth that will give replacement fruiting spurs nextsummer. Ideally, you should be replacing all fruiting spurs on a two- to four-

year cycle – cutting out old clusters and allowing fresh ones to take their place.3

Trim the long whips back to about half their length to encourage the fruitingspurs to develop. Surplus whips can be cut right back to a bunch of fruit.You want to keep the tree open and uncluttered to allow the fruit to ripen

well.

4If your apples are looking too bunched up, it is best to thin out the fruit sothose that remain will be better quality. The tree will drop some surplus fruitbefore it is ripe, but thinning ensures you keep the best specimens and

s the weight of the fruit from breaking branches. Cut off very small orrmed fruit, reducing bunches to between two and four fruit. Some peoplemmend taking out the centre apple from a bunch to give those around it

m to develop fully.

5Codling moth is the single biggest problem and the caterpillars can take outan entire crop if infestation is left unchecked. They burrow into the apple,leaving nasty black tunnels. It is too late this season to try organic controls

(pheromone traps and collars on the trunk of the tree). You need to start in earlyspring. We are resorting to insecticide spray this year to try to break the cycle.December to February is the time for spraying. It is recommended that it be done

fortnightly, but we will only spray once or twice.

6We do not carry out a rigorous spray programme, so our trees show black spot, mildew, leaf curl and various other afflictions, but we still get cropsof apples. Traditional practice is to spray with both insecticide and

fungicide every 10 to 14 days after the blossom petals have dropped untilharvest – ask at your local garden centre for appropriate sprays. Spraying willgive heavier crops of more attractive fruit, but we are willing to trade that off byhaving additional trees and not spraying much at all. The leaf curl shown hereis caused by a tiny orange midge and is easily dealt with by cutting off the tips

of the branches and burning the leaves.

ma wallichii subspecies

nhae(probably)

on a bit of a search for the accuratename of this tree in flower, trying

out whether it was Schima wallichiima noronhae. The naming of plants

fluid affair and reclassifications often, but schimas are more likeand than fluid. They are describedmost recent authoritative tome onNew Trees) as simply a mess. What

now is schima are a somewhattree family from subtropical and

Asia and this particular specimenr large. We live in a two-storey

with reasonably tall gables and thislose to a third storey level.

ittle white five-petalled flowers arenough en masse this week, but it is

w growth at the end of October I likehe fresh young leaves are bright

een and it is like a large beacon inance. Soon after the new leavesit drops all its old leaves in a

h. It is an evergreen – it is never

totally bare – but most evergreen treesgently shed old leaves all the time, not inone hit.

We have a number of schimas here (S.khasiana is even larger) but as far as we

can make out, this one is S. noronhae.They belong to the theaceae family and aredistant relatives of both camellias andgordonias. Schimas are commonly raisedfrom seed; there don’t appear to be named

clones yet, though in time, no doubt, therewill be selections made to be grown bypeople with plenty of space and very mildconditions.

– Abbie Jury