1: KICK OUT CODDLING

My pipfruit are in full blossom, which means I need to arm up against the codling moth. I am pretty relaxed in my orchard, with a ‘live and let live’ attitude to most and allowing nature to balance itself out, but codling is the exception. Though we have released several predators in New Zealand, none are prolific enough (yet) in my area to control it, and the codling multiplied and multiplied until there was barely a single apple without the telltale brown hole and rotten core. It was then I declared war.

I tried every folk tale and remedy short of chemicals, and now count the damage in one bucket. My successful strategy? I spray with a biological insecticide at 80% of petal fall. I use one called Madex 3 which contains a natural pathogen of the codling moth. Less specific but more economical for a tree or two, is a caterpillar biocontrol from Kiwicare containing Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil-dwelling bacteria that kills a range of caterpillars, including (although it is not listed on the packet) the codling moth.

2: TREAT YOUR CITRUS RIGHT

Packed with vitamin C, citrus is my winter mainstay. Juicy navel is the tastiest of my fruits, even though Waikato is borderline cool for citrus. I munch on mandarins in autumn, juice the masses of tangelos and blood oranges, have grapefruit breakfast cocktails and cook with masses of limes and lemons. And now is the time to show my appreciation. All dropped fruit is collected up. Bugs and disease can flourish in forgotten fruit so it is removed and destroyed. I have very obliging cows who cherish this task and I am sure nothing will survive their four stomachs. Weeds are cleared to promote airflow and remove root competition and a good dose of compost given to each tree. I note what needs pruning, but I won’t prune yet as I don’t want to open any wood up until after the lemon tree borer moth stops flying in late summer.

3: BERRY HOLEY STRAWBERRIES

I discovered I should have done this weeks ago when last week I threw a net over my strawberries and found peck holes all through them. My old strawberry patch

4: GIVE YOUR COMPOST A SPRING CLEAN

I am not a big one for compost piles. Weeds are used in situ as mulch and compost made in place wherever possible but I do have two bins to take the excess, and now is the time to empty out the first. A: Because everything is growing and needs a nutrient fix and B: Because everything is growing and needs weeding out and throwing somewhere.