Fruit trees - Newbie

My wife recently bought me two dwarf fruit trees which i planted and they are now in blossom. Must have planted them correctly for them to blossom so im happy i appear to have got that bit right.

Due to the frosts we have had in the south east of england recently i wrapped the main part of the trees in a fleece sock that i saw at my local garden centre.

As said the trees are in blossom so should i remove the fleeces and expose them to the current stong winds rain and occasional hail or should i leave the fleece on for a few more weeks until the weather is better.

The blossoms are touching the fleece fabric so im not sure if its doing any damage to the trees.

Thanks for your advice.

 

I'm amazed that they are in blossom VP. Are they under cover anyway because I know we aren't sunny Berks here but this is very early. mine are just coming into bud. I would certainly leave the fleece on because there is still a few weeks left for potential frosts.

 

John - our mature apple tree is just coming into bud itself (quite glad, given the winds, that it hasn't blossomed yet). And as we're within the M25 (so generally get milder weather than outside the M25) I'd have thought we'd have blossom earlier than Berkshire! Suppose it's all a bit random.

 

John, They are not undercover all i have done is wrapped the main part of the tree with the white fleece sock.

The flowers on both trees are pink and im sure i saw some buds as well. I forgot to mention what the trees are, I have one peach and one nectarine.

I thought it may have been a little early for blossom as i have not seen any blossom any any other trees as yet, Fruit or otherwise.
I did give the plants a bit of feed a couple of weeks ago so im not sure if this had anything to do with it. I will keep the fleece on for a few weeks as per your advice, I take it the fleece won't damage the buds etc?

Thank you for your advice.

 

As long as it is loose enough just to keep the frost out but not to strangle the buds you should be OK. My peach (full size) is not even budding properly yet. Just go with the flow.

 

As long as it is loose enough just to keep the frost out but not to strangle the buds you should be OK. My peach (full size) is not even budding properly yet. Just go with the flow.

 

Oh boy. Pipex strikes again. Should have got rid of them by next Monday.

 

Thanks everyone. The fleece is loose enough as its just tied to the stake and the trunk of the tree, not tied in between so fingers crossed all will be OK.

 

VP - I think it would be an idea to uncover the trees on warm days to let the few bugs that are around do their job of pollenating, otherwise there will be very little fruit later in the year.

You could do the bugs job by brushing the pollen from flower o flower using an artist paint brush.

 

Glen. I think the blossom is not covered. Which is why I am not too sure it will do anything anyway.

 

It is covered where the blossom/buds are the trunk of the tree is not. The covering is that white fiberous fleece you use to prtoect plants from frost. I don't believe any bugs can penetrate through the fleece. Maybe when the high winds and heavy rain stops i will take the fleece off. Thanks for the tip Glenw.

 

like sarra said though, i'd keep it under wraps at night. a bit of a pain, wrapping and unwrapping but a late frost will be as bad us none pollenated flowers.

 

My peach trees are in flower at the moment

This was last week.
Peaches and nectarines do flower earlier than most.
A tip I got from another GC member last year was to spray the flowers with water at mid day on sunny days, it distributes the pollen.
This I learnt after years of going around with a paint brush.
I've known peach blossom survive quite bad frosts, its not as tender as apple in my view.

 

Cheers pete, there goes my 'pollenbrush' business venture, I was lining up for a crack at the next series of Dragons Den!!! :D

 

:D :D