rugbymatt

You can do what you like to the fig and it will just keep growing, I have ripped them out of gardens before only to go back a year later to do more work on the garden and see another fig growing where the last one was... they are tough plants and if you have ever been to India and seen them growing in and around whole buildings you will see what I mean... you won't kill them.
Let me know when you prune the peach and I will send you a really simple pruning diagram for fruit production, as you may know, to get the most fruit from your fruit trees they need to be pruned in a specific way, its not rocket science but it really does make a difference.
I personally don't agree with the idea that if you have stone fruits in your garden then you will always have pests.... if a plant is healthy and strong it can fend off any amount of pest they are likely to have to deal with on a day to day basis, its the arrogance of men who think that they have more power over growing things than nature does.... trees were fighting off pests long before we ever learnt to walk upright and bash each other over the head, and I'll wager will do it long after we are gone...

bil

I dunno, some pests are just beyond belief. Plus of course when we upset the natural balance, especially with senseless use of indiscriminate pesticides....

Here, we get a beautiful beetle, looks like some kind of very shiny cockchafer, they home in on damaged or ripe fruit, and come in black or greenish gold colours.

Unless you are super vigilant and keep on top of every single fruit, they will be all over the trees, with scores of the damn things flying in from all over.

Matt, do you know anything about nisperos? The local loquat? The fruit on some trees gets brown/black spots which can in its worst stages end up with the fruit remaining small, inedible and completely covered with a hard black skin.

rugbymatt

Not 100% sure but it sounds a bit like brown rot, it tends to mummify the fruit which sounds a bit like what you are describing... sound about right? Generally though you will see some spots on some of the leaves as well. If thats what it is you need to get rid of ALL offending materiel, burn it, bin it, whatever, but don't compost it... hit it with a good anti rot , something with phosphoric acid in it and hit the leaves with it, its a perfectly safe chemical, its in almost all cola based drinks and it works fantastically, and.... and you will hear me say this LOADS, hit it with some seaweed extract.... its a miracle cure mate it really is!

Isn't the nispero the south american one? I'm sure thats come up before on here hasn't it?

bil

Yeah, mummify is a pretty good description. Brown spots on the leaves too, even some small trees.

Should I make up the anti rot with cola then? (joke.) God knows where the tree comes from. The really wierd thing to me is this. The roots (they are grafted) are radically different from the fruiting stock, as different as if you had grafted an apple onto a citrus.

There's a two sachet treatment for vines and garlic based on metalaxil and mancozeb in the first, and copper oxychloro in the second.

Would that do it? Also, when would you suggest using it during the year?

rugbymatt

Mancozeb is a BRILLIANT product, I rarely advise people use it because its just so hard to get hold of for most people but yeah, go for it.
Yeah thats normal for the scion to be grafted onto a completely different stock, most horticulturists and plantsmen use a stock that is aggressive, these quite often have thorns, take pears for example, a vast majority of pears are grafted onto Quince stock, when the scion gets stressed or goes into terminal decline then the quince takes over and throws up thorny shoots from the base, I have seen people cut the main pear stock or scion down and "hope for the best" with the rootstock... and no amount of explaining will tell them they are wrong....

bil

I did wonder if it wasn't quince that was being used on the nispero.....

That Mancozeb is pretty standard issue here. They advise it on almost anything. Garlic, roses, geraniums...

rugbymatt

Almost certainly mate, quince is so often used because, like most thorn bearing plants it is a vigorous grower.

bil

That explains it. It just surprised me because the root stock seemed so different from the fruiting stock.

Is it OK to use Mancozeb so freely?

rugbymatt

I would not use it on or near fruit you intend to eat and so long as you take all the usual precautions then yeah its fine... remember our friend Paracelsus?

bil

Yeah, there's the usual 30 day toxicity......

Paracelsus? Not quite sure how he fits in there, unless it was down to sticking to the correct doseage?

rugbymatt

Yep... everything is poisonous, just the dose that kills ya... (I know, I am paraphrasing)

bil

Paraphrasing paracelsus perchance?

rugbymatt

Are you on the wine already mate? Yeah I was...

bil

No, but I will be after my starters of deep fried crunchy grasshopper.....

rugbymatt

Ha!