Missing apples, nibbled pears and shrivelled plums...:(

[Kellybean]

Hi all,

Well, I've been keeping an eye on my fruit trees as described in my previous thread ("What's my apple, and what's my pear?" - not sure how to link threads together on here). The apple tree has only one apple on the whole tree that I can see, and the blossom quickly withered and went brown. There are now dry, brown patches all over the leaves, so I'm guessing it's not very happy. I'm worried that if it's some kind of disease then it will affect my other apple trees. Will try to take some photos if I can.

The pear tree produced about 15 pearlets, most of which were blown off during the recent high winds. The remaning few got to about one and a half inches long and looked suspiciously like Conference (long, pointed and mid-green, with a reddish-brown russet covering). When I checked a couple of days ago, the remainder were lying on the ground with the blossom end distinctly chewed. There are grey squirrels around, so could they have done this? And if so, how do I stop them?

Finally, over at my Mum's house, the young plum tree had produced a few plums but they appeared distorted and shrivelled. These have now turned black and are falling off. On closer inspection there was a steady stream of ants marching up and down the trunk, so are they likely to be responsible? Again, if so, how can we stop them?

All in all, not a very good year for fruit! Any advice much appreciated!

Thanks for your help once again

[FB.]

Whenever talking about a fruit tree problem, it is very helpful indeed to state which variety (and rootstock) as certain varieties are know to have certain problems with disease or climate - or certain tolerances of disease and climate.

Brown dry patches on the leaves is probably the fungal disease "scab" to which some varieties (usually the common ones) are especially prone. Which variety do you have?

The other possible cause of brown dry leaves is too much fertiliser which is drawing water out of the plant and into the soil - causing the plant to shrivel as it dehydrates.

The pears "blown off in the wind" were most probably not pollinated. It takes a lot to cause small fruits to be blown off. Mature fruits can certainly be blown off.

I'm not sure about those which appear to have been "chewed". Picture?

Also not sure about the plum - could be frost damage, poor pollination, disease or insect damage. Picture?
Greasebands will stop ants marching up and down the trunk, although it won't stop aphids (which is most likely what the ants are "farming" for their sweet excretions - but aphids usually attack leaves and not fruits).

[orangepippin]

Regarding the pear tree, I am surprised if squirrels are eating fruitlets at this time of year, there would surely be tastier food around, so it may be that they have just dropped. How old is the tree?

I agree with FB, I have never seen aphids or ants attacking plum fruitlets, the aphids will be sucking sap from the leaves - a really bad attack might cause the tree to drop its fruit, but plums are naturally vigorous and that would be unusual.