Orchard Diary: Buds buds and more buds

This weekend though the weather was nice I didn't get the remaining trees covered in manure. I may get it done in a week. I checked on the trees and found a couple had been damaged by rabbits. In all the cases its' not fatal. One is more damaged than others and thats one of the damson trees, pictures and more detail below.

The other pictures show the buds on the trees. I have included buds from the almonds cherry apple plum and pear. This time I have taken them from my digital camera rather than my mobile phone. I'm sure you'll agree that the quality is much better or perhaps I'm not very good at taking pictures on my phone.

You can clearly see, the differences the cherry buds are getting fatter the pear ones are long and pointed and apples are in the pictures very well developed, and the plums are still very small.

Most of the other trees were initially grown in soil at a tree nursery and then moved to the orchard when they were a year or two old and ready to plant.

Almond Tree Buds

The Almond trees are different, I bought these from a Permaculture nursery near the Derbyshire / Nottingham borders and then they were at my parents home in large the pots for upto a year before they were finally planted at the orchard. They seem to be doing well.

I would like to get some Walnut trees in but will wait perhaps later this the year, I need to source them and then decide where to plant them. I know that Walnut trees produce a chemical that can damage apple trees, however I have seen some in orchards in Dorset. I may need to investigate this further.

Plum Tree Buds

The picture of the plum buds show that they are still very small and the buds themselves are just visible. The plum trees bloom late and they fruit very late into the season. This variety produces a very juicy large purple fruit.
At the end you can see a small bud in the shape of a spear that will be where next years growth will be.

The Rabbit damage on the branch.

A couple of branches are low down and though they have been nibbled it the tree should repair itself.

The picture makes it look more serious than it is.

Rabbit damage

As you can see the damage to the underside of the branch is considerable. But as the whole of the branch is not gnawed the branch will have time to heal. This in reality is what rabbits do and through I don't want to encourage it's a natural act. This level of damage on the trunk has the possibility to kill the tree.

I do leave dead wood around the orchard in the hope that the rabbits will gnaw at that but I have read that as the sugars flow down up and down the branches and the trunk of a tree it can attract these rabbits and other types of animals, including deer and sheep.

Pear Tree Buds

This a pear trees and shows the corkscrew effect found in most trees each shoot is at a different angle to the one next to it. The difference is normally around 120 degrees. The next one is then another 120 degrees around. It not extact but its interesting.

Cherry Tree Buds

This is a Cherry tree and the buds are all closely packed together. They are already about a 0.5 cm's in size and growing. Small round buds you can even see where as they grow they will continue and then open to reveal the blossom.