Fruit Garden Advice

Raspberries
All your raspberries should be dormant by now. However, if ours are anything to go by there are probably still some green leaves about. Now is the time to prune out old canes and tie in the new growth that arose during the summer. When removing old canes use a good secateurs and cut right back to soil level leaving as small a stump as possible. You can remove some new canes also so as to leave the healthiest ones spaced at about 4” (10 cm) apart. Tie in these canes firmly to their supports.


Strawberries
Strawberry plants are now dormant. Little is now required although the mild autumn has meant that weeds continued to grow, and these may need attention.
When the leaves have died off and gone brown, they can be removed to help prevent the spread of diseases into next seasons crop.



Apples
Apple scab, which causes black scars on the apples, and black spots on the leaves, was quite severe this year. The simplest way to minimise it next year is to rake up all your apple leaves now, and place them in the compost heap, preferably then covering with other leaves or garden or household material. In doing this, you are breaking the life cycle of the scab, which infects new leaves in the spring from infections on old leaves lying under the apple tree.
If you are planning to prune your apple trees, you can do so from now on. There are many manuals and books on pruning, and as it is difficult, it is worth getting one of these, perhaps in the book section of your local garden centre.
As a general guide, if there has been a lot of new growth in the past season (more than 40cm added to each branch), then only a light pruning will suffice, as pruning such trees will stimulate even more growth next year, at the expense of fruiting. On the other hand, if very little growth has occurred in the past season (less than 10cm added to each branch), then the trees need to have more wood removed, to stimulate extra growth and good quality fruit. Remember, when pruning, do not cut a branch half way back. Either remove it fully, cutting back to where it forks or meets the stem, or let it remain.

Plums
At this time of year you can assess whether your plum trees have Silver Leaf disease. Those that do will have many little toadstools (up to 1 inch in size (2.5cm)) growing from the trunk or main branches. If the tree is badly infected it should be removed to prevent spread to other trees, although if you only have one tree it can be left in place in the hope that it may recover.
Do not prune plum trees at this time of year, as it facilitates spread of silver-leaf. Wait until May, when the disease is not active.