Drove Orchards at Thornham loses plum crop to moths

But one farmer is bemoaning the loss of almost his entire plum crop to a destructive moth.

Andrew Jamieson tends 65 acres of fruit trees at Drove Orchards at Thornham, near Hunstanton.

The orchards were planted in the 1950s by his late father, Maj David Jamieson, who was awarded a Victoria Cross for his bravery during the D-Day Landings.

Andrew Jamieson in his orchards at Thornham (Image: Ian Burt)

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They include three acres of plum trees, which have been the scene of an unwelcome invasion for the first time in the farm's history.

"We have a very light-touch regime, we don't spray unless we have to," said Mr Jamieson, who is also deputy leader of Norfolk County Council.

"But we monitor it carefully and if a nasty little person turns up, we do something.

A plum fruitlet mining moth (Image: Rob Edmunds)"We've had plum fruitlet mining moth, the little guy just sneaked under the line.

"What it does is it goes into the fruit at petal fall, when the fruit has just formed, he eats the inside and then he pops out."

Mr Jamieson said while pests normally appeared in relatively small numbers, allowing preventative action to be taken the following season, the moths had appeared en-masse. 

While early varieties of plums and damsons have escaped the ravages of the insect, Mr Jamieson said he had lost 90pc of the Victorias, Marjorie's Seedlings and greengages which form his main crop.

A moth-damaged plum with caterpillar inside (Image: Rob Edmunds)While moths such as codling - the cause of maggots in apples and other fruits - are familiar to farmers and gardeners, fruitlet mining moths are less common.

"We've never had it before and our agronomist hasn't seen it before," said Mr Jamieson.

"I hate to blame the changing climate but things are warming up and these things were pretty early arrivals."