Autumn is said to be “a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, but in Australia it can also be a time of destruction.
Here we can get the odd storm and heavy rain and the trees that can suffer most are fruit trees, particularly those still carrying fruit.
Lemon and other citrus trees have a special vulnerability, partly because the fruit is so densely clustered and also because, though small, it can be heavy.
A combination of rain on the foliage and a gust of wind is enough to break slender limbs and it can be a distressing sight to be confronted by vertical, swinging branches laden with fruit still attached.
It’s not as bad as it looks. For a start, almost all lemons can be harvested, even small ones.
Despite being as hard and juiceless as stones, these lemons will not only store well for weeks but gradually soften and become wonderfully juicy as rinds become thinner. Even small hard lemons can be used for grating purposes to flavour various dishes.
It’s the same with many late-bearing apple varieties such as Granny Smith, Mutsu, Pink Lady, Sturmer, Red Fuji and Jonagold.
Most of these varieties can still be found hanging on leafless trees as late as June, or even July in many home gardens, especially in cold districts.
They tend to be borne on the tips of fairly thin, non-flexible branches that not only droop but break, especially during gusts of wind.
They, too, can be repaired in exactly the same way as other trees, simply by cutting off the branches if possible, right back, almost to main trunks.
The great mistake made by many people is to apply some kind of splint to badly cracked or shattered branches. They don’t work.
All they do is act as a wonderful hiding place for a range of pest insects and fungal disease organisms, especially beneath securing tapes or string.
It’s far better to first cut off a branch on the inside of the damaged area and harvest any fruit.
Apples, too, at this stage of maturity will remain in perfect condition in baskets or boxes under cover, in any cool place.
In fact, it is of some interest that the variety Sturmer should be planted and grown far more often because, despite tasting quite sour when first picked, it develops the most extraordinary brisk freshness and tastiness, as good as the very best dessert apples, after a few weeks’ storage.
I should add that the Sturmer apple variety (named after an English village) is one of the few which has almost total resistance to the woolly aphid pest.
Whenever a branch is cut off close to the trunk of a tree it must be done in a special way.
Where they emerge, most branches are surrounded by a slightly raised area known as the crown.
This part is full of dormant growth buds and healing substances. If it is cut off, it not only slows down the healing process, but leaves a much larger wound.
So, any saw-cuts are made at the narrowest point just above crowns to allow a healing callus to rapidly form.
Here’s a point of special interest that may appal some old gardeners.
The days of applying sealing paint or other substances over large tree wounds have long since gone.
Someone must have noticed about 30 years ago that many tree wounds that had been sealed with paint had failed to heal properly. The so-called sealant had prevented proper calluses from forming and the bark had peeled away from the edges of wounds, in many cases making the situation worse.
All I do is rub a little grease, even Vaseline, in the centre of the wound as a deterrent against water pooling there and always making sure that all cuts are as near to vertical as possible.
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