Newsletter

November 2025

Hello again from Dan & Henry at Real English Fruit, working on fruit trees with on-site visits and online consultancy. Welcome to the November newsletter!.

Before the updates, we would like to start by saying that we are available for online advice at any time, and that we will also be available for onsite pruning and advice on 15, 16 and 17 November. Contact us by email at enquiries@realenglishfruit.co.uk.

In addition to work on fruit trees, we can also prune ornamental trees. In the photo below, a Japanese prunus, image by Hans, Pixabay.

🌳Garden orchard tasks in November

To invigorate growth, apple and pear trees can be pruned at any time from now until the end of March. Dense tree canopies need to be opened up by taking out large branches. This will improve the air flow through the tree canopy and reduce the incidence of fungal diseases. Any sizeable pruning cuts will have to be sealed with a sealing compound. Watch a video tutorial on how to prune an apple tree.

It is now too late to prune apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries and plums.
If you noticed some dead wood in your trees during the season, check for canker, or for waterlogged soil. Canker has to be cut out: waterlogged soil has to be improved by means of effective drainage.

How to control pests and diseases on fruit trees in November

To reduce the possibility of fungal infection (which can cause diseases such as peach leaf curl, canker, scab, mildew, quince blight, walnut blight, coral spot, silver leaf and brown rot), orchard hygiene is important. Remove all rotten fruit and scabby leaves as these diseases will overwinter and will affect next year’s crop. Use a good rake or a vacuum blower to ensure that you get rid of all fallen leaves affected by fungal diseases. Ideally, do this before mowing, which otherwise would pulverize the leaves. Don’t compost leaves and grass cuttings, because this would give the fungal spores another chance to infect your plants and trees.

If fungi have been a problem, spray the trees with winter wash. Winter wash can also be used to help protect cherry and plum trees from bacterial canker. Apply now, and then again after a couple of weeks, when leaf fall is complete.

If you have had trouble with fireblight on pear trees, now is the time to cut out all infected branches, cutting well back into healthy tissue, until there is no sign of staining. Burn the wood and seal the wounds.

After leaf drop, it is a good idea to deter pigeons and bullfinches who are likely to eat the fruit buds of pears and plums. Ordinary cotton is fine, just wind it around the tree (slip the spool onto a rod or dowel to make things simpler) so that the threads are about six inches apart. What happens is that the bird flies towards the tree, doesn’t see the thread, touches it with its wing, gets a fright, and flies off. No damage to the bird is done, and it helps your tree!

Now the leaves have fallen, canker infections are clear to see. To stop winter spores from developing, cut out all surrounding wood and the wound itself, until no brown markings can be seen in the healthy green surrounding bark and cambium layer. Then paint the treated area with a wood sealing compound such as Arbrex or “Heal and Seal.”

Read more Garden Orchard tips for the month of November.

Winter Wonder apples online

Our unique apple variety Winter Wonder – which, as the name suggests, ripens later than most varieties, and will reach optimum flavour in December – will be ready for sale online very soon. Keep an eye on our website..

 

🛠 Personalised help

If you need help in caring for your garden orchard, or for planning new planting, or for radically restructuring large trees that have gone out of control, send an email to enquiries@realenglishfruit.co.uk. Whether you have just one or two trees in your garden, or a large orchard, we can help revitalise underperforming trees, pruning them and performing specialised operations such as converting a standard tree into an espalier, or grafting a new variety onto an existing tree. We can provide advice online, or with on-site visits. For enquiries, contact Dan at at enquiries@realenglishfruit.co.uk

Further resources

In addition to the information on our website https://realenglishfruit.co.uk/, you can take a look at our video channel for more info.