Apr 17 2011

Little Nasties

A quick inspection of a few trees has brought these issues to my attention.

First up are woolly aphids on a Scots Pine. Only on one pine at the moment but I have given it a spray. I think this is the earliest I have ever had them on any tree in my garden.

A few trees were showing signs of mildew. A crab Apple and a Wild Pear.

All have now been treated. I keep a few spray bottles of insecticide and fungicide at hand for some spot spraying. On the bright side, I checked all my Maples and there wasn’t a black fly/aphid in sight 🙂

Apr 6 2011

It’s back!

Every year my Common Juniper gets it’s usual flowering of rust fungus. It usually occures in February. Last year it got a major dose of fungicide and I had crossed my fingers for this year.

This was it yesterday. 😦 It’s just starting and hasn’t got to that jelly like state yet. I have kept it in the tunnel and on the dry side. It usually goes nuts after a heavy shower.

The general health of the tree is very good. It was repotted in the Autumn and spent the Winter in the poly tunnel. The problem with the rust is that it seems to cause the tree to throw the odd branch. Here’s an example.

Guess I’ll keep trying different fungicides and keep my fingers crossed.

Apr 5 2011

Hawthorn Muncher!!

I lifted a few hawthorn out of the Poly Tunnel today to check them over. They had been repotted this year and tucked away out of reach. I was very pleased with the new growth. Both had basic branch selection and wiring last year. I removed the tips of the elongated growth before it thickens. I did this last year on a small one at this time of year and the amount of ramification that resulted was fantastic.

I lifted the next one in and was amazed by the back budding on the trunk.

I set about doing the same process as with the first one and noticed one branch that looked weak. No buds had opened and I just assumes that it had been knocked and a crack had dried out causing it to suffer and die. On closer inspection I realised that I had a visitor! Little fecker was helping himself to the nice new tasty leaves.