Trees planted in an already established orchard are curiously enough slow to make headway, and therefore in such cases I always advise grubbing.
For instance, a disease known as Silver Leaf in plums, and maybe in other top fruits also, may be cured by slitting the bark with a pruning knife right down the main branches and stem, preferably on the north side.
The cut is made deep enough to go right through the cambium layer and into the wood. Fruit growers have for some years been adopting this method for curing trees which appeared to be ‘bark bound’ but it is not generally known that it is a cure for silver leaf as well and on some farms 90 per cent of the trees affected with silver leaf have recovered when treated in this way and borne naturally two years later.
The work should be done in May or early June, if possible, and if the tree is seriously affected with silver leaf, it may show some sign of the disease next year. In this case, the bark should be re-split from top to toe and that should do the trick. In very bad cases one may have to continue this bark cutting for four years.
Soft fruits, however, grow comparatively quickly and come into cropping in the matter of a year or two. Apples, pears and plums, on the other hand, often take six or seven years to settle down before they start fruiting seriously.
The work took forty hours. This method, I understand, does definitely prevent bird damage.
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