Tony Dickerson answers your questions
Q What’s making my fruit trees perform so poorly?
Mr D A Bloor, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
AAt eight years old, your pear and plum trees should be producing bumper crops. To do so trees obviously have to blossom and, if this isn’t happening, then it’s likely you’re pruning them too hard. Plums must be pruned when in leaf to avoid silver leaf infection but, to keep it simple, you can also prune pears in summer – early August is ideal. Cut back new growth on the main branches to about six leaves, and sideshoots back to three leaves. If trees are very congested with many crowded branches then, for the pear, saw some out entirely during the winter and, for the plum, next spring as it’s coming into leaf. Where trees flower but produce poor crops there’s always the chance that frost may be catching the blossom. That’ll only happen regularly if the trees are in a frost pocket. Beyond that, there may be an issue with pollination. Even trees claiming to be self-fertile benefit from cross-pollination. Having said that, plum ‘Victoria’ is usually reliably selfpollinating and fruits from a young age, but trees in shade wouldn’t get visited by bees. ‘Blue Tit’ or ‘Opal’ would make good pollinators. ‘Conference’ is one of the few pears that’s self-fertile but I wouldn’t grow pears without having a suitable variety to cross-pollinate. ‘Onward’ is an excellent one but you could also go for ‘Beurré Hardy’ or ‘Williams’.
Fruit trees need pampering to give off their best. Trees in impoverished soils won’t ever thrive. Clear the area beneath the canopy of vegetation and mulch with 10cm (4in) of garden compost or well-rotted manure.
A general-purpose fertiliser, such as Growmore, should be applied at the end of February over the entire root area to just beyond the canopy. Alternatives include Vitax Q4 or chicken pellets for organic growers.
Plums, in particular, don’t thrive on dry soils, but pears will also benefit from thorough irrigation once a week in dry spells. Trees in containers need watering two or three times a week and repotting every second winter or top-dressing with fresh potting compost each spring. Also, apply a controlled-release fertiliser at the manufacturer’s recommended rate.