Last year we had to fight the slugs off the beetroot, this year the slugs are not as big a problem, so the birds have been pecking and eating them instead. Solution – netting. But we practically lost a whole row of beetroot before the nets went down. On the other upside, the wild rocket has self seeded, and obviously appreciated the newly turned earth from beet planting, and now I have a new line of rocket coming, with the occasional beetroot in between.
Here in the westcountry we had a sharp frost in April. Not unusual to get frost that late at all, but not usually that hard, and I think that might be why we have such poor blossom and setting from our tree fruit. There’s hardly any blossom on the pear at all, although pears can be biannual. There are far less apples on the trees and my son’s little tree only has one little apple.. and we have not had the June drop yet!. On the upside, I reckon this will be a brilliant blackberry year, as the bramble blossom is all over and the fruits setting well
you win some you lose some.
We have planted 15 fruit trees this year but have taken the fruit off all of them to help them establish well in their first year. It was hard to do but I’m sure we’ll benefit with better crops in years to come (weather permitting).
we planted ermm 3 new trees this year.. pout some in last year and inherited some old ones with the place
we didn’t have to remove the fruit.. which they say you should for the good of the plant… as it all failed to set anyway… oh well
I guess we were lucky ‘up north’ as our cherry tree is yielding more fruit than ever before. It’s absolutely packed. It’s our one and only fruit tree (no room for more) so I’m thrilled with the way it’s going at the moment.