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Grease/grease bands for apple and pears?
Pete.8
Posts: 11,340
in Fruit & veg
Every year around now I go through the sticky process of applying grease or grease bands on my apple and pear trees.
Is there any need really?
Is there any need really?
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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I've been going through this process for many years and I thought the purpose was as you say to prevent damage from codling moth.
But I've recently discovered that grease offers no protection against codling moths, just 'winter moths' whatever they are, maybe I'll give it a miss this year
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I don't think I'll bother in future either
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I was looking forward to a good harvest this year from the youngish plants.
There were about 40 pears in all.
Went down the garden the other day to find just 6 pears left! and not a trace of the nicked pears.
FOXES!!! grrrrrr
There were just a few pears left at the top of each cordon - most had claw scratches where the foxes are jumping up to snatch the fruits. They've also snapped a lot of the fruiting spurs for next year
So i'm less bothered about moths now - what to do about foxes???!!! 😡
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Foxes here are a long-standing problem.
My neighbour feeds them in the back garden and the front garden every day of the year.
They get sausages, cheese and dog biscuits - every night...
They get so much that the foxes bury the excess in my garden which my dog then digs up and eats.
As a consequence, my dog is overweight and occasionally sick - I can see the remains of the 'fig roll' type of dog biscuits that she feeds the foxes with.
Much as I like to see foxes I don't agree with feeding them and thereby encouraging them.
I think I'd rather send the neighbours to the doghouse 😁
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Such a shame about the damage to your pears ... and to the trees.
We were getting a lot of damage in the garden. I suspected badgers and set up a wildlife camera. Turned out to be both badgers and a cat.
My neighbour recommended Voss Sonic 2000 Animal Repeller which has a cat a badger setting.
I wasn't convinced but thought it worth a try so bought a couple.
I set one to cat and one to badger and they are working well. I've since bought a third one for the soft fruit area.
No damage now for more than 6 months, when we used to have a problem every 3 or 4 days.
They have a fox setting too ... so might be worth a try in your situation.
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime