[paul47]

I am looking for some advice. I have purchased 5 fruit trees i.e. cherry, eating apple, cooking apple, pear & victoria plum trees. All are 5-6ft tall on grafted root stock & were planted 6-8 weeks ago & are coming into blossom. The suppliers say that I will get some fruit this year so I have ordered Pheromone Codling Moth Trap for the Apples & Pear tree to lower the risk of Maggot infestation. The first question I have is do I have to order  yet another trap to protect my plum tree which is 2.5 metres away from the apples & pear?
The second question is what protection should I take with the cherry tree which is 5 metres away. I see glue bands provide some kind of protection on some fruit trees but as the stems are no more than 38mm (1.5") in dia & reasonably smooth I do not imaging bugs are waiting to come out of the stems & crawl upwards. I am based in SURREY & my fruit trees are on my allotment where there are some well established fruit trees on nearby plots.
thanking you all in advance for your replies
Paul

[gillie]

My Victoria plum never suffered from plum moth, though the neighbouring Early Transparent Gage was badly affected.  A pheromone trap warned me when the moths were flying and allowed me to spray it at the correct time (a week after I saw dozens of moths in the trap) but was never sufficient on its own.

So unless there is a history of neighbouring  plums being affected I would take a risk on the plum.

Sorry, I don't know about cherries.

Gillie

[corynsboy]

I have two cherry minarets together with two apple two pear and two plumb cordons in a line on my plot.

I notice that you don’t have two trees. Cherry trees need a pollinator.  If one of your neighbours has one close then that will be fine, or perhaps you have a rinky dink new version which are self pollinators.  If you don't, you have to fix this or you'll have no cherries at all.

We use grease bands and wood chips on the floor for all the trees but not too much around the cherry.  Wood chip is essential as it keeps in moisture and stops set fruit from dropping unnecessarily.  Specifically we have pheromone traps for the apples and pear.  The plumbs have yet to fruit in two years.  I have no expectation that they will anytime soon.  Talk about extensive sticks.  The apple and pear have been very easy to deal with and have been infection free so far.  General bug spray and general feeding (as directed by in this case Ken Muir) has been good enough.

We have nothing specific for the Cherry trees.  The cost of cherries is constant vigilance!  Cherries are a tricksy breed at the best of times.  Look out for leaf curl and aphid infestations around this time of year and onwards and get them quick. Don’t ignore ants either.  If you have ants in the tree you have aphids.  Kill them.  Kill all of them.
Cherries are a nightmare to grow.  They drop set fruit if they are under watered they drop fruit if they are over watered as they hate having wet feet.  One good thing is that we had a really harsh winter which they like.  The only true way to really protect the cherry is keeping an eye on them.  They like a dressing of Blood Fish and Bone at the end of winter or early spring but don't over feed them as they don't like that either.

And finally, if you do eventually get fruit, if you have ornamental trees like mine, then make sure you net the tree from the birds.

It's a fuss.  A big fuss.

[paul47]

Many thanks for the info, I do have my reservations about the cherry (which is self pollinating) but in theory it came free (well thats what the ad said!). it looks like the pheromone moth trap  is not what I thought i.e. a trap to protect but rather a warning device which tells one to spray. Time will tell though there has been plenty of blossom but perhaps I have missed the boat as the general bug spray says do not spray the blossom. I will watch carefully & spray when I spot the little blighters.
Regards Paul