On 2014-08-27 22:06:15 +0000, Bob Hobden said:

"Sacha" wrote

Bob Hobden said:

"Ophelia" wrote
"Bob Hobden" wrote
"philgurr" wrote
"Ophelia" wrote
"Bob Hobden" wrote
"Ophelia" wrote
Please advise me on my plum tree which has not fruited this year and
the leaves have holes in them?

The plum tree on our allotments hasn't fruited this year either and
only one of our 4 cherries, the later flowered one, had a decent crop.
I believe it was because there were no insects about when they flowered
they they didn't get pollinated.

Thank you. We did get a lot of bees - which I hadn't seen for a very
long time - but I think they were too late. I do have some apples
(James Grieve) but not too many. Down to weather do you suppose?

I am a beekeeper so no problem with pollinators. I just
didn't get any flowers!


Here there were lots of flowers but nothing to pollinate them.

how disheartening.


One cherry tree had more flowers than it ever has and yet not one cherry.

Sounds like the world needs a few more apiarists. even a single hive
could make a difference for miles around.

Honey bees are notoriously lazy, they get up later than bumbles and go
to bed earlier. It is true that our bee keepers moved from this
allotment site a couple of years ago but one later flowering tree did
have a good crop as have apples on our site so it wasn't the lack of
bees but the lack of bees around at the time of flowering. It wasn't
that cold a spring but very wet and I wonder if that was the reason.

It could be. They certainly won't work in wet weather and they're not
mad about the cold, either. But if you keep bees you'll get honey, as
well as germination, in a half decent year. We have had a lot of
bumbles and quite a lot of honey bees this year. On a sunny day,
bumbles will work in January. But one of the biggest enemies of bees
and other widlife is an over-tidy garden. They all need somewhere to
nest and sit out the winter, too.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk