Tree fruit ripening early

[nickdub]

Just a quick suggestion to have a look at any fruit on your trees particularly plums, to see if any seem to be ripening earlier than the others. If so pick a couple of these early ones of and cut them open, 90% of the time they will have some sort of maggot inside.

Obviously of you don't find anything suspicious, leave the rest of the fruit alone, but if there is something unwanted inside it pays to pick off all the infested fruit to prevent the insects completing their life cycle and coming back again next year. If you do have to dispose of infested fruit either bin them, or cut them open and squash the maggots, in this latter option the remnants can then go on your compost heap.

[BUFFS]

our plums will be late, but then the maggots have to wear overcoats til the summer finally arrives, so we get less problems, they are about 4-5 weeks behind so should be just right for the village garden show, the last time I entered plums, I got a first, as I was the only one to have any in the show, but its still a first..

[burnie]

My Apples are further forward this year and so far dodging the scab, lost a guzzgog to mildew though, lost the entire crop, yet another bush not 2 feet away is perfect.

[Jungle Jane]

Something happened to my Victoria plum I used to have,the fruit went from green to red really fast,I checked it out & there was a crack in the bark low down in the tree,I cut a section off & revealed silver leaf disease dark patch within the cut. But talking about maggots,my sister was eating one of her plums once & there was something wormy inside it,I think it was from the plum moth. Sometimes I don't check or wash things but I do slice things that are marked to check if there's something in there. I found a caterpillar inside a sweet pepper once

[nickdub]

not much you can do about silver leaf once its started on a tree sadly.

You'd be right about the plum moth maggot I expect - I use a pheromone trap to try to keep on top of the problem a bit.

[nickdub]

gooseberry mildew is unpredictable, but its definitely the case that some varieties are more resistant - you can still use the mildewed berries for cooking BTW - they just look unsightly and a bit stunted.

[burnie]

gooseberry mildew is unpredictable, but its definitely the case that some varieties are more resistant - you can still use the mildewed berries for cooking BTW - they just look unsightly and a bit stunted.

Now you tell me, went to the council for composting........................

[nickdub]

Sorry - most things you don't know about, are potential learning experiences - the pain of the mistakes are the reminders - I can speak from experience of making many myself :-)