ここ2日間よく雨が降りました。今日の夕方散歩の時間になって、やっと雨が止んだのでリンゴの様子をチェック。７月に入って以降、葉っぱがかなり落ちてしまいました。
It rained a lot over the last 2 days. The rain ceased by evening, and I wanted to check how the apple trees were doing. They lost a lot of leaves since the end of June.
葉の数が少ないこと自体 光合成の観点から深刻なのに、残った葉っぱがハダニの害で銀色です。
Having fewer leaves itself is serious enough in terms of photosynthesis, but the surviving leaves have gone silver caused by spider mites.
今年の夏の間に、ニーム系の自然素材のスプレーを１回、ネットでみた手作りの重曹系のを２回スプレーしましたが、あまり効果を感じていません。
夏は高温多湿の東京の住宅街で、リンゴ栽培は難しいと感じています。温暖化で東京のクライメートゾーンは現在9bにまで上昇しているようです。9のレベルなんて、かつて大実グアバに熱を上げていた昔、憧れていた水準です。
During the current summer, I have sprayed the leaves 3 times - once with neem-based natural spray, and twice with baking soda mixture. Each time, spider mites came back soon afterwards.
I feel it is a losing battle. To grow apples in a residential area in Tokyo, where summers are hot and humid is very difficult. Due to the global warming, Tokyo's climate zone classification has gone up to 9b currently. The level 9 was something I used to dream of when I was keen on growing guavas many years ago.
As to the young fruits, since putting the bags on, I have not lost any of them.
This is a Granny Smith young fruit.
グラニースミスに高接ぎしてある紅玉。
グラニースミスに高接ぎしてある紅玉。
Kogyoku variety, grafted onto Granny Smith.
もう１本の苗は果肉が赤くなる「紅の夢」。うち２,３個の実の軸近くの部分の色が薄くなっていることが、袋を通してでも分かる状態でした。去年の今頃は、１個だけ生った実が日焼けして、そこから黒く腐り始めました。
This is the red-flesh apple called Kurenai-no-yume. A few of them seem to have gone lighter in colour near the stem and I could see it even with the bag on. This time last year, there was just one fruit on this tree, and it got sunburnt without a bag. The sunburn began spreading and almost a quarter of the fruit turned black and mushy.
日焼けかどうか、袋をそうっと外して確認してみると、腐ってはいないようで石のように硬かったです。9月に入って少し涼しくなり次第、袋を外そうと思います。
I removed the bag carefully to see if it was indeed a sunburn. No dark spot, and the light-coloured area was hard as a rock. I will keep the bags on until the weather turns a little cooler in September.
