Nectarine Tree
robert.annroz
Posts: 2
Hi I have a Nectarine Tree that bore fruit for the first time in 2021 10 Nectarines, we were looking forward to a bumper crop last year but lost most of them to ants and white fly which we did not notice until it was too late. Can someone advise please on what to do for this year. Thank you
Robert
Robert
0
Posts
1. Where in the world do you live?
2. How old/big is the tree?
3. Is the tree kept indoors and, if so, when and for how long?
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
1. I live in Spain
2. 5 years old and 6ft approx
3. It's planted in our front garden.
We did try spraying with soapy water at first, then with a specific pesticide spray for white fly, but by then the damage was done. In the autumn we cut the lower branches which I think should have been trimmed earlier. Also at the end of last summer we had hundreds of wasps around it until all the leaves dropped off, which had not happened before?
It's now about to bud again and I want to ensure I take good care of it this year and hopefully get a good crop?
I have attached a photo of it in it's current state.
Hope you can help and thanks again for the contact.
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
I’m afraid I can’t grow citrus where I live not far from the Pyrenees. Well, there is the sad lemon tree against a south-facing wall that occasionally gives us a few lemons, but struggles in our northerly mountain winters and drops it’s leaves due to frost, despite winter protection.
So I am no expert but, I suspect weather has caused the leaves to drop, not the pests, but this is what I would do:
1.Ants love nesting in dry ground and so give a really good deep watering around the roots to flood it (assuming you have the free-draining conditions that citrus prefer, they don’t like being waterlogged either).
2. Fit a grease band around the trunk to stop ants climbing up and farming the aphids.
3. Hang some wasp catchers on your tree or nearby.
4. Make sure you keep watering in hot weather - a couple of large cans at once poured slowly at the roots, then let it dry out a little in between then repeat
5. Give it a citrus feed anytime now, after watering
6. Cross your fingers!
edited to add, all that’s assuming there are any signs of new leaf buds breaking and that it’s still alive!