Orchard and Fruit cage

March
  • Dust wood-ashes around fruit trees and soft fruit especially the older ones, cooking apples and gooseberries
  • Hand pollinate first blossoms with a soft paint brush, or a cotton wool ball, as few bees are about so early
  • Spray young peach trees second time with Bordeaux mixture to prevent Leaf Curl if they have not been kept bone dry
  • Re-plenish, or make, sticky bands round trunks of fruit trees to stop pests climbing up to attack opening buds
  • On still cold nights protect blossoms and young fruitlets from frost damage with net curtains or sheets
  • As soon as soil workable plant soft fruit
  • Check ties, stakes and wires before growth obscures them
  • Thin apricot and peach fruitlets on walls as soon as there are any set
  • Spread sieved garden compost and organic fertilisers under soft and tree fruit to be washed in by rain