Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
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Fruit Forum is a web space for anything and everything to do with fruit: we aim to celebrate fruit in all its fascinating diversity.
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
1y ago
Nana, sour cherry
This year, again, we are very grateful to Lorinda Jewsbury for the flowering dates for the apples, pears, cherries and plums growing in the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale in Kent, UK
27th April 2023
The cool spring weather has produced a bit of a slow start to the flowering at Brogdale this year, with a touch of frost damage seen on the early plum varieties. However, flowering in the orchards is now underway (the plums are mostly over) and, with the temperatures on the rise for the coming Bank Holiday weekend, it will be a busy time out there in early May.
Ear ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
2y ago
Josephine de Malines
21 April 2020
The warm weather over the past couple of weeks has made walks through the orchards very enjoyable and it has encouraged flowering a week to 10 days earlier than in 2021. However, the level of flowering this year appears patchy across the orchards, with light flowering particularly noticeable in the pears and early apples.
Of the varieties on my pear recording list, around 70% have light/very light/too few flowers to record. A number of factors could be at play here and it may be that these varieties cropped heavily last year and are in a ‘re ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
3y ago
Cherry tree showing enhanced vigour after black fly infestation
I have noticed something rather interesting which I’m sure one of your readers would be able to explain: super-enhanced vigour of a cherry after infestation with black fly. Last year we had two grafted trees of the same variety on the same rootstock (I’m sure), one year old at the time, and one was heavily attacked but the other (only a couple of yards away) was not touched. As last summer progressed and the black fly disappeared that tree put on a huge spurt of growth, really thick new wood with a bit of a kink where the new grow ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
3y ago
Apricot blossom will have suffered this year in the spring frosts and hence potential crops.
I’m looking for organically grown or un-sprayed apricots in Kent. Any leads please? Thanks!
Annie Nichols ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
3y ago
Merpet cherry
Following the exceptional developments of the past year, and a necessary break from recording in 2020, it’s good to be back in the orchards recording the blossom once again. However, the weather this year hasn’t been too kind and, walking through, it was obvious the late frosts had taken their toll on the blossom. The plum blossom, in particular, exhibited a high rate of frost damage, with the damage on some trees estimated at up to 80%. Quite a number of cherry and pear varieties were touched by frost, too, though the apple and quince, blossoming later, appear ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
3y ago
Thomas Andrew Knight, a Herefordshire squire, who raised the Croft Castle pear in the early nineteenth century
Can anyone help with the hunt for two ‘lost’ cultivars – a pear called Croft Castle, listed in Hogg (1884), but elusive since then and an apple called ‘Northern Dumpling’, which originated in Gordon Castle gardens up in Morayshire and which they are keen to reintroduce.
Jo Miles ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
3y ago
Opal plum
I want to plant apple/plum trees in our small sloping south west facing paddock. 2 eaters – 2 cooking – and 2 plums. What type do you recommend please.
We live in Ripponden South Pennines.
Krystyna Demkowicz ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
3y ago
Lane’s Prince Albert apples; a culinary variety raised before 1841 by Thomas Squire and introduced by nurseryman John Lane c 1850
I am researching the Lanes who were nurserymen in Berkhamsted (c1780-1960) and competed against Paul, Bunyard, Laxton et al through the 19th and early 20th centuries. Have you come across Henry Lane, John Edward Lane, or even Frederick Quincey Lane in your researches? If so I would like to hear from you. Thank you and happy wassailing.
Louise Keil ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
3y ago
Ancient re-worked pear tree in Kent
Kent has fruit growing areas on suitable soils in North Kent, the High Weald and along the Greensand (Kentish ragstone) scarp slope which runs east / west through the centre of the county. The Greensand slopes are currently being planted with extensive orchards and soft fruit as it is on the spring line and irrigation reservoirs are easily formed to catch the spring water.
I have been helping with the restoration of an ancient farmhouse and its grounds for four years or so and a lot of earth moving has been necessary due to soil slip on the ..read more
Fruit Forum | A webspace for fruit enthusiasts
3y ago
Tombstone of Richard Dummeller, Shackerstone churchyard, Leicestershire
The gravestone of Richard Dummeller in Shackerstone Churchyard in the village of that name near Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire is of interest to fruit enthusiasts because Dummeller raised the well culinary apple Dumelow’s Seedling and there has long been debate as to how to spell his surname. In 1884, the eminent Victorian pomologist Dr Robert Hogg spelt it ‘Dumelow’s, but he also wrote that ‘This excellent apple was raised by a person of the name Dumeller (pronounced Dumelow), a farmer in Shakerstone’ in his Fruit Ma ..read more