THE foremost Christmas tree expert in the UK might just be grower Colin Palmer of Coddington, near Ledbury, and he has national awards to prove it.

One of his key strategies, which has grabbed the imagination of his industry, is to encourage wild birds to eat pests, rather than the grower having to resort to insecticides.

Remarkably, he has used red tape to identify trees infested with aphids, and it seems as if the birds are attracted to the trees with red tape and can rid a tree of aphids in one week flat, at most.

Mr Palmer, owner of Coddington Christmas Trees, was recently honoured with an award “for outstanding service to the Christmas Tree industry” at the annual British Christmas Tree Growers Association Competition Day, held

near Wakefield.

Mr Palmer described the award as "a real feather in my cap".

A spokesman added: "Colin has been the technical lead for the UK Christmas tree industry for over a decade, during which time he has developed strategies to improve tree quality through improved nutrition, and refined methods of pest and weed control.

"He is particularly keen to foster a close partnership with nature by a better understanding of the way in which beneficial insects, aided by birds can be encouraged to reduce damaging aphid populations. As part of this process, he developed the 'red tape' solution for the control of the Giant Fir Aphid without the need to use insecticides. As the name suggests this aphid is very large and can produce large black colonies which look highly threatening."

The spokesman said: "Detailed field trials indicated to Colin that if the colonies were identified by tying red tape to infested trees, then on re -inspection in five to seven days, the colonies would be found to have disappeared, and no further action was necessary, largely due to the voracious feeding of aphid loving tits, linnets and goldcrests; so a spraying operation was avoided, to the benefit of the environment - and the grower."

But Mr Palmer's inventiveness does not stop there.

The spokesman said: "Another notable development was the ability to control cones in Fraser Fir using an organic acid. The Fraser Fir is a lovely highly scented Christmas tree, which has origins in the western states of the USA. However, it is quite finicky about the types of soils it likes, and if the ground dries in the summer, then it is liable to react by producing hundreds of cones which have to be laboriously picked off by the grower - a truly mind blowing task which has deterred most growers from growing this species.

"However, Colin noticed on his own plantation at Coddington, that the cones were formed some three weeks before new foliage was produced in the spring, providing a window of opportunity to dessicate the tiny newly formed cones cones using an organic acid."

The needles themselves were not affected.

The spokesman said: "The process was confirmed to be viable through field trials conducted in Herefordshire and Worcestershire."

Mr Palmer is already working on a programme of studies for 2018, including work in partnership with Harper Adams University.