Produce > Pests & Diseases

Has another foreign pest arrived?

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Vinlander:
I've suffered maggoty cherries for at least 3 years - if you wait for Stella to go that delicious deep maroon then not only will they all be maggoted out, the process will be accelerated by ants going in.

The only way to get a clean crop is to pick them as soon as they go past pink - so now I'm reduced to producing cooking cherries - and I'm not keen on cooked fruit.

I might try and find a partner fruit for them so I can make 2-fruit lollies next year (I'm just about to try blending blackcurrants with canned pears - I could freeze them while awaiting real pears but I need them right now).

Even worse, last year I lost 90% of my red grapes to something that looked suspiciously identical - I grow hybrids like  V. viniferea x labrusca - especially for reds ('cos they ripen much earlier for a fuller flavour outdoors) and it may be paranoia but I've been recommending them (and Sable from the shops) on the basis that "they have a unique flavour with an intensity closer to a cherry than a normal grape". They also have thicker skins - and sadly that's one of the things that won't protect them from suzuki moth (ironically I've always hated 2-strokes).

Hope an organic control becomes available - if I have to spray I'm certainly not using any of the modern poisons (mostly nerve agents - I regard anything that hasn't been around for 50+ years as totally untried). But obviously not Lead Arsenate - that was always completely bonkers!

Made myself glum now... Time for a Beer.

Cheers.

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