In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:
On 07/05/2013 13:23, Baz wrote:

How annoying. On young shoots of all my fruit trees.
So many jobs to do.

The reason for that is that you have fed the trees with too much
nitrogen and the new growth is too soft lush and attractive to aphids.
High potash and phosphate fertiliser is best for young fruit trees.

That is not my experience. It often occurs even on completely
unfertilised trees - indeed, pretty well the ONLY thing that I
put around mine is wood ash.

Ladybirds, bluetits and similar small birds would make short work of
them if you encouraged them into your plot. I have a tame robin that
follows me around the garden pinching worms from under my nose.

That is not my experience. Ladybirds have suffered badly from the
winter, and are always late risers anyway, and I live in suburbia
with too many cats - hence damn few birds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.