It’s smoky out there
Gidday out there. I think I've been putting off writing this week's blog because there’s so many different things going around in my head/heart/world this last month. Usually its me on high alert for bush fires and I am regularly leaving my home during summer...
What are those brown marks on my apples?
We had a great question from one of our Grow Great Fruit members about what causes russet on apples, which describes both the yellow marks (as you can see on the side of this Cox's Orange Pippin apple), and the rough brown marks around the stem end of the apple. A...
Netting options for backyard fruit trees
Fruit damage from birds, bats and possums is high on the list of complaints from home fruit growers. This week we look at various netting options, and how they can protect your crop from most of these problems. The birds left us the stems! The cherry trees we planted...
Making something from nothing in permaculture
The concept of "no waste" is one of the permaculture principles that makes the most sense to us, because it's how we've always tended to live on the farm. Wasting as little as possible seems obvious to us (and probably to you, too), so it's absolutely staggering that...
10 ways to prevent sunburn on your fruit
In the crazy weather we've been experiencing lately, sunburn on fruit is a very real risk. It's different of course to the type of burn damage trees and fruit suffer in an actual fire (as many parts of Australia are currently experiencing), but if you live in a hot...
When should you pick your fruit?
One of the biggest mistakes we see people make with their fruit is picking it at the wrong time, usually under-ripe. Peaches that are almost ripe - but not quite! It's a bit of a tragedy, because fruit tastes SO much better when allowed to fully ripen on the tree —...
Top 4 tips for getting rid of tiny bugs
The Rutherglen bugs are back—have you seen them on your fruit? Rutherglen bugs covering a nectarine A few years ago we (and everyone else trying to grow fruit on the east coast of Australia) had a plague of these tiny bugs, but we've seen very few since then. Well,...
The Fruit Fly Story
Mount Alexander Shire Fruit Fly Officer Tracey Watson at the Maldon fruit fly workshop We're always trying to learn more about fruit tree pests and diseases, and learned a lot of new stuff about Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF) at a recent workshop by Andrew Jessup...
4 steps to keep your worms happy in a heatwave
Do you have a worm farm? Hugh explaining how to care for your worm farm at a workshop Worms are wonderful workers and are the best (and cheapest) way to produce quantities of fabulous organic fertiliser for your trees, but like all workers, they'll give you their best...
Which apricots make the most delicious jam?
We get a lot of questions in apricot season about which apricots are best for jam. There are dozens of different varieties of apricot available to grow, so it's a fair question! Ripe, juicy Moorpark apricots Old Australian favourites include Trevatt and Moorpark...
Apricot bottling and a recipe for berry tarts!
Have you done any fruit bottling this year? Never tried it before? It's really easy, and a great way to preserve the summer bounty to enjoy through winter. Cutting up apricots for bottling (Photo: Biomi) Our farm is a demonstration of how you can grow and preserve an...
There’s slugs on my fruit trees!
Have you seen these critters on your fruit trees? Pear and cherry slug These are pear and cherry slugs, and as you can see, they eat the leaves on pear and cherry trees. The first question to ask yourself when you see these creepy looking slugs (as with all pests and...
