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Unidentified tree has holes in leaves and only two blossom flowers
Hettie
Posts: 9
We have just moved into out first house and have inherited a little tree in the back yard. I have no idea what it is. It had only two blossom flowers on it in May and sadly no sign of any more. I have noticed that the majority of the leaves have little holes in, some have gone brown, shrivelled and died. The bark and trunk look healthy and I've not seen any little critters that might be responsible for this... I've popped some photos below in the hope that someone might be able to ID the tree and maybe able to suggest what might be causing the leaf problem and what if anything I can do. Thanks
0
Posts
It's not an apple tree is it?
I did wonder if it might be an apple. Neighbours don't know. They say it's never blossomed or given fruit (and they've been there 15-20 years...)
It looks like an appletree to me. I bet it's never been fed poor thing. I'd rake all that gravel away and give it a good feed of Fish Blood & Bone (as directed on the pack) and a couple of buckets of water, then a good mulching with well rotted farmyard manure (not touching the trunk). In the autumn another feed of FB&B, and between now and then a couple of buckets of water every couple of days in hot dry spells.
That'll make it feel happier and more able to fight off any pests/diseased that are about.
Hopefully someone else more knowledgeable than me about pruning fruit trees will be along soon with some ideas about thinning the branches out .
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Cheers for the advise. From the state of the garden when we took it on I'd guess the previous owner (been there 6 years) was not much of a gardener so yes I suspect it hasn't had any TLC for years. I'll try feeding and mulching it and I'll move all those pebbles from around the bottom (gives me another area to plants some nice flowers)
I think it could do with a good prune, there are some thin dead branches tangled up in there.
Thanks again!
You can cut the dead branches out now I should think, together with any diseased ones. Apple trees are normally pruned in the winter to shape the tree and encourage growth but if you want to restrict its growth now may be the best time (but I'm not any sort of authority on summer pruning. In fact I hope I can learn about it here). The tangles will have to go, as will any branches growing into or across the middle. It might take two or three years.
I'll cut out any dead bits now. There's quite a lot of growth coming from the base of the trunk, over 1.5m below the main part of the tree. I'm guessing that needs to go too. Can i do that now or should I wait til the winter?
Take that out now
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Okey dokey. I'll get sawing. Cheers for all the advice, lets hope I can save it from further decline
Bumping up for pruning advice for Hettie's tree.
I hope I'm right and people agree it's an apple tree
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.