G&G QT

Garden & Gossip Question Time - very loosely based on GQT

You, the "listeners" are invited to submit your gardening questions to the Panel (all of us) who will share their knowledge and experience and strange sense of humour in their answers. 
The listener will be asked to decide which answer was the most helpful.

Please submit your questions , with photos if helpful, below and the "Panel" will be pleased to help.
Thank you
G&G QTx

Dear Panel

My apple trees are loaded again this year but badly affected by tiny maggots, is this the same as damage by codling moths?

Should I beusing pheromone traps next year?

Thank you for your question Admin
As I know very little about apple tree problems I'll pass this question over to the Panel for a reply.

Can any of the Panel advise our "Listener" please?

Usually I just see a black hole that something has come out of, I never see the something. I find that most of the apple then is still edible as mainly the core is affected which I don't tend to eat. You do need to use a knife to eat them then. If you have lots of tiny maggots, I would think that is something different. If they are very small, it could be a type of fruit fly. I've had fruit fly damage on cherries this year with about 20% of the crop affected, and then some on nectarines. Almost certainly the dreaded Spotted wing drosophila and some of my apples seemed to have similar damage.

Am I worrying too much if a lot of my chiiii's are just at the flowering stage. Is it not a bit late in the year to be expecting chilli's to form? 

My Habaneros are a mass of flower, but no fruit?

Thank you for your question, Vinny
One of the chilli experts on the Panel will be happy to advise you.....................won't you SC

Dear Panel

My apple trees are loaded again this year but badly affected by tiny maggots, is this the same as damage by codling moths?

Should I beusing pheromone traps next year?

Pheromone traps are more for monitoring the presence of codling moths and determining when to spray insecticide, as they only catch the males. There aren't many good organic options for codling moth control: kaolin clay spray (needs multiple applications, it turns the trees white), bagging individual fruits (a faff, paper bags will probably disintegrate in our climate) and insecticidal virus (not available to the public). Thinning fruit to one per cluster can apparently help. This year has been quite bad for codling moth, seems to be a vintage year for pests of all kinds!

Am I worrying too much if a lot of my chiiii's are just at the flowering stage. Is it not a bit late in the year to be expecting chilli's to form? 

My Habaneros are a mass of flower, but no fruit?

Are they in a greenhouse /pots? Habaneros take a long time to set and ripen fruit. If I can I will sometimes bring the late ones into the house and they will still be turning red in November. They are usuallly fine until the first week or so of October here in in the greenhouse.

Dear Panel

I recently lifted some Nantes carrots which were picture perfect but the core was very woody, what causes it and what can I do to avoid it?

At a guess I would say hot soil and drying out. I’ve had swedes be so woody no amount of cooking would soften them, they grew on the allotment so were more sporadically watered, as and when I could get there, and were left in the ground too long. I try and keep the soil damp just below the surface in the back garden, and keep them covered with a micro mesh as that seems to reduce the excess heat directly on the soil. Were these an early sowing that suffered with our very dry and hot spring?