For the first time we've almost had a full house of fruits that are usually hesitant or fail altogether viz. apricots, peaches and figs, the only party poopers were aprium and pluot both of which decided to stay away. I imagine citrus will do well this year too, unfortunately our lemon was attacked by Mealy Bug and failed to recover.
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Two factors came together this year to work in favour of more tender fruit. The weather at flowering time allowed a good set and the weather at the critical ripening time has enabled the fruit set to reach their potential. The dry weather also reduces the incidence of diseases such as peach leaf curl.Originally posted by gradus View Post
I've just remembered two fruit incidents from years past. When my son was about 5 he came with me to do an afternoon visiting a village open garden event. There was a picture book cottage with elderly couple that had a huge apricot tree trained on the wall. It was smothered in ripe fruit and my son was fascinated. The lady of the house gave him one to try and on seeing his reaction picked a dozen or so for us to take away.
Some years later I went on a trip organised by our allotment society to visit Elgoods Brewery in Wisbech and spent time wandering in the gardens rather than doing the brewery tour( their beer is a favourite of mine but I didn't want to be indoors on a lovely summer's day) and found a large mulberry tree and a wall trained peach, both of which had fruit dropping off. Blissful foraging ( I didn't pick fruit, just collected what had fallen), sun warmed fruit and stained fingers. I apologised to a member of staff later for taking advantage and he just laughed and said it was good to see it being enjoyed as it wasn't collected or used, which I found astonishing and sad.
Does Aynho village still have apricot trees trained on the house walls? We went through there about 30 years ago when the fruit was colouring up, an astonishing sight.
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