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To most gardeners, it's a matter of planting out the young leeks a foot apart, watering them in, and keeping the weeds down; on rich land this is all that most of us would do. Leeks do occasionally get the rust disease, not much one can do about it, and the leek moth too sometimes attacks the leaves, but leeks generally are easy to grow and a valuable vegetable to have, along with the carrots, Swedes and meat to make that stew.
How many Rudston residents grow their own vegetables these days? Very few I would guess, we use our deep freezers for various items, most of which are bought, a sign of the times. As a boy in this village, I, like most other lads, had to help in the garden to plant the potatoes and to share the digging. Most households grew veg, and some kept a few chickens, and a few kept a pig or two. A healthy pastime, and a big saving on the household budget, but then, few of us could afford a car; how things have changed, some for the better, some not!
Bark ringing the apple and pear trees is one way of helping to bring shy bearers into cropping. There is nothing more annoying to the fruit grower, than having trees that, year after year, fail to produce blossom. One man I met recently said that if his apple tree didn't crop this year, it was for the axe! To bark ring, one simply removes a ring of bark, quarter of an inch thick from completely round the trunk. At this time of year, the bark removes easily; once done, the ring is then covered with tape to keep disease from entering the open wound. Bark re-grows, and seals the ring in a season, and the tree is not affected, except that the extra carbohydrates formed in the twigs encourage the flower buds, and next year the tree should blossom, followed, if pollinated, by a crop. After this operation, all should be well in future years, and no more bark ringing needed.
Do not ring stone fruits such as plums, gages, damsons, peaches, nectarines and apricots; to make these flower, chop down and cut a few roots, this is known as root pruning. It's noticeable after gales that rock fruit trees, and often break the roots, that the trees start to bear a crop; this is nature carrying out its own root pruning!
Dick Robinson
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