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Help identifying fruit trees (and their problems!)

infoxKVuUoSpinfoxKVuUoSp Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
Hi,

First post here!

I've recently bought a property that has a small orchard of ten or so trees that are quite well established, but i'm not 100% sure what they are!

I suspect apples (no idea of variety but something I could make cider out of would be amazing) and I think, Damson trees.

They are however in a sad state of affairs, the leaves are getting eaten alive, and i'm not sure how to tackle it. The trees are too big for any sort of manual pest removal, so i was going to look at a pesticide such as Decis Protech as that can be used on apple trees, and tackles problems such as caterpillars etc. Has anyone any experience of this? Does anyone have a better guess than me at what these trees are (and their problems!)

Is that mossy bark type texture 'normal'?

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

Posts

  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    The plums/damsons could be having their young leaves eaten by pigeons...they do that in our orchard.
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    Mostly plum or damson, some Apple trees.  I  agreed with prev posts. If you want to reduce the size you could try a program of renovation pruning. Prune in summer to reduce growth. Take no more than 1/3 at a time or you will just stimulate more growth. You will lose some fruit but that's the price for getting them in control. 
    AB Still learning

  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    I can only see one real issue there and that's on picture 4, there is a mummified plum, those should all be removed from the tree and any that are dropped should also be removed from underneath every autumn.
    I think picture 5 and the last picture are both pears.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    As has been said … no real problems other than the need for a little renovation pruning … but make sure you get an orchard-man or woman who knows what they’re doing … it’s a specialism … ordinary ‘pruning’ will result in a thicket of ‘water shoots’ and ugly bushy trees which bear little fruit. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    You could always begin a regime of putting grease bands around the trunk of each tree in the autumn and hang feromone traps from the branches during the Spring/summer.  
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