Store apples and pears
in a cool place for
best results

What to do in your fruit garden in November

Start preparing for Christmas! Although fruit in the garden may now be scarce, make the most of the last of your fruit crops by preserving them for winter use.

There are many delicious recipes for preserving fruit including pickled apples, an alternative sweet fruit pickle see below for a recipe for pickled apples.

Things to do this month

• Continue harvesting and storing sound fruit. If you have a cold store, ventilate it at night to bring the temperature down. Apples and pears should be stored in a cool place to reach their peak of perfection. Only store healthy and unblemished fruit. Some varieties are best eaten soon, while others are better stored for a while. Check in a good fruit book if you are not sure.
  Garden Organic members can see our factsheet Storing the harvest for more information
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• Check tree ties, stakes and rabbit guards on fruit trees before the winter gales.
• Begin planting fruit trees, bushes and canes as soon after leaf fall as possible. Root growth still continues during the winter when ground is not frozen. Trees and bushes can concentrate all their energy into establishing the roots before top growth resumes in the spring. To help new plants establish, add some 'friendly fungi' in the form of 'Rootgrow' when planting.
  Rootgrow is available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue
• It is okay to do some tidying up at this time of year, but leave a few areas undisturbed for overwintering beneficial insects and hibernating mammals.

• Order your fruit trees and bushes now.

  The new 2008 Organic Gardening Catalogue has a wide range of organically grown fruit.

  Garden Organic members can see our factsheets:
  Fruit tree suppliers and Planting fruit trees and bushes
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• Prune out blackberry canes that have fruited this year to soil level and tie new ones into their place. Very long canes can be trained back down towards the soil or trained as sinuous snake to fit the space. Cane tips can also be layered to root and form new plants. Bury the tips in the soil, pegging them down if necessary.

• 
  Begin pruning grape vines
  after leaves have fallen
  Begin pruning grape vines, immediately after the leaves have fallen. Cut all fruited shoots back to one or two buds from the main stem.

  It is a good time to take 'eye' cuttings from the prunings.

  • Take cuttings about 3cm long, with each having a bud or 'eye'.
  • On the opposite side to the eye, make a shallow sloping cut just underneath the bud
  • With the bud facing upwards, put into a small pot of cutting compost.
  • Keep in a propagator at a temperature of 24°C until the roots have formed.
  • After the roots have formed, gradually accustom the young plants to cooler conditions and plant in the greenhouse or outside in the spring.
  Garden Organic members can see our factsheet on Organic grape cultivation, diseases and disorders
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• 
  Rhubarb
  
  
  Bramley's Seedling
• Propagate Rhubarb, by lifting a sizeable root with a spade or fork. Divide the root into smaller pieces, with each piece having at least one bud. Replant the divisions 90cm apart in soil that has been improved with organic matter.

Apple and pear tree pruning

• Between now and March is the time for winter pruning of apples and pears.

  For more information on how to prune these trees, Garden Organic members can access the relevant advisory notes in the members area (requires members' password).

  • Any secondary growth on summer-pruned apples and pears can be cut back to mature wood now.
  • Formative pruning of cordon and espalier apples and pears can be done now. Next year, start summer pruning them.
  • Tip young tip-bearing cordons with poor vigour now. Just cut back a few centimetres. From next year, tip them in summer.
  • Prune out any diseased wood (scab, mildew or canker infections for example). If any trees are regularly troubled by diseases, it may be wise to rethink your choice of variety.
  For comprehensive instructions on pruning, check out the HDRA Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (Editor Pauline Pears. Dorling Kindersley 2001, ISBN: 07513-33816)

 
Blackcurrants - before and after pruning

Blackcurrant pruning

• Prune blackcurrants any time between now and late winter. Aim to remove about one third of the bush each year. Cut back low down to encourage new shoots from the base of plants. Take cuttings from healthy bushes. See below for information on taking hardwood cuttings

• Prune gooseberries, red- and white-currants at leaf fall. If bird damage is likely, pruning can be left until spring. Take cuttings following instructions for blackcurrants. See below for information on taking hardwood cuttings

Other activities

• In cold areas bundle together fig branches and cover them with straw or matting. Also protect around the base of the tree with straw.
• Pick up all windfalls and compost them if you can't eat them all. If you have a lot of fruit to compost, try making a separate heap. Chop fruit roughly with a spade then layer with some rough compost. Worms will soon move in.
• Overwintering plants in pots, such as apricots and peaches, may need extra protection from hard frosts, so take indoors if possible. Insulate pots that are too large to move with bubblewrap or hessian sacking.

Weed watch

• Continue to remove mulches from around fruit bushes and trees. Add the material to the compost heap.
• Clear all weeds around fruit bushes and trees. Weeds aren't growing as quickly now, but many are setting seed!

• This is a good time to lift soft fruit bushes that are entangled with couch grass and other perennial weeds.

  Lift them and remove all of the often brittle underground stems from around the plant's roots. Raspberries probably won't tolerate this treatment, but gooseberries and currants will bounce back.

  Replant the bushes afterwards, first applying a good spade-full of well-rotted garden compost into the planting hole.

Pest & disease watch

• 
  Brown rot on apple in
  the Garden Organic Ryton orchard,
  yes it happens here too!
• Apply greasebands to apple, pear, plum and cherry trees to trap female winter moths and March moth. Don't forget to grease any stakes too. Apply the grease below the tree tie.
  Tree grease available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue
• Gather and dispose of all fallen fruit suffering from Brown Rot, but do not put them in your compost. Pick any affected fruits which remain on the tree, as if left, the fruits become mummified and act as vectors which could re-infect your fruit next year.
  Garden Organic members can see our factsheet on Brown Rot
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• Prune out canker on apples and pears, burn prunings and disinfect tools.
  Garden Organic members can see our factsheets Apple Tree Pest & Disease Management & Pear Tree Pest & Disease Management for more information
  
  Access to factsheets requires members' password. Find out more about Garden Organic membership here.
• 
  Check for problems
  in stored fruit
• Check fruit in store for damage and diseases. Remove and use any fruit starting to deteriorate before they start to infect others and make sure the fruit has plenty of air circulating around it.
• Remove nets from soft fruit and open up fruit cages to allow the birds in to start their valuable work of clearing up pests. Invite birds into the garden by putting food out for them.
• Inspect apples trees for woolly aphids. Look for a whitish fluffy coating where branches join the trunk and cracks in the bark.
  See our Woolly aphid organic factsheet for control measures
  (members' password required to access factsheets)

Hardwood cuttings

This method is suitable for propagating currants, gooseberries and raspberries. Take hardwood cuttings from mature wood at the end of the growing season. If propagating blackcurrants, leave all the buds in place, they will root better.

• Use vigorous shoots from the current seasons growth, about pencil thickness
• Cut into lengths 20-25cm, remove lower buds and leave 3-4 healthy buds at the top of the cutting
• Trim lower end just below a bud
• Insert up to half the length in a nursery bed, making slits in the soil filled with coarse sand
• Leave for one year, watering and weeding when necessary
• Transplant the following autumn

Top of page

Pickled apples recipe

You will need:
900g Small apples, crabs are good
900g Sugar
600ml Spiced Vinegar

• Cook the sugar and vinegar until the sugar is just dissolved
• Prick the apples all over with a fork
• Simmer apples in the vinegar/sugar mixture until they are soft but not falling apart
• Place the apples into jars, gently
• Reduce the syrup to 300ml by boiling
• Pour the hot syrup over the apples, not too hot or you will crack the jar!
• Replace the lid onto the jars and allow to cool.

This pickle is best left to mature before eating. Consume within six months from making.

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