Apple tree planting time

The UK is sitting under an area of high pressure and we have seen a lot of something rather unusual, namely the SUN!


These cold still days with cloudless blue skies are a welcome change after the last few soggy months and the ground has at last had a chance to dry out.  There's no point in planting trees into wet ground because the sides of the hole set like concrete and the poor little tree's roots have no chance.


We are planting lots of an apple called Falstaff and some more of another variety called Red Windsor.  The maiden trees have been sitting with their roots damp but wrapped in straw since we got them way back in January and they can't wait to get into the ground. 

The earth is really friable and crumbly and in great condition to receive the young trees and give them the best start in life. 

If the weather holds we should have them all in in the next few days.

Be brave!

We prune the apple trees to take out dead wood, to let more light into the branches and to encourage the tree to put its strength into making a shapely tree and robust fruiting branches. 

You can remove up to 25% of the fruiting wood, the wood that bears buds, in any one year.  Leave it lying on the ground and you will see that it's quite a lot.  And dead wood doesn't count as part of your 25%, so you can take that out for free.

Take the branch right back to the trunk; you will see a wrinkle where the branch joins the trunk and you make the cut as close to that as possible on the branch side.  The tree will naturally scar over to seal the cut.

What you end up with is a tree with a root system that is working hard to put the energy into the places that you need it, the places where your best fruit will form.

Be brave!  Don't use secateurs except on very young trees.  Get in there with a saw and make the least cuts for the maximum effect.  

And when you have taken out your 25% walk away...no going back and fiddling!

Mistletoe...

is not our favourite thing in the orchard!

The seeds of this pretty but parasitic plant are spread by birds and it quickly saps all the strength from apple trees.  In order to remove it you have to completely remove the branch, right back to the trunk.  If you look at your tree and think "if I remove all the mistletoe I will have no tree left" then you've got yourself a mistletoe tree, not an apple tree.

Mind you, they make good wildlife habitats for some special moths and insects, but you can say good bye to the apples, so it's important to keep it under control.

Pruning

Any time between November and April is good for pruning the trees, but January/February are the best months. Best for the trees maybe, but pretty unwelcoming for the pruners!

We have been working with The National Trust on their Orchard Project, showing their wardens in the South West how to restore old trees and neglected orchards.

Neil Macdonald manages all our orchards, and another 800 acres in the area. He is passionate about the trees, and about the biodiversity they promote. Did you know that an orchard has TEN times the diversity of a plain green field?

A foggy day in the orchard

It's the beginning of February and May time seems a long way off! Today in the orchards the trees were wreathed in fog all day, but if you look at the branches you can see the buds where first the blossom and then the fruit will form. Already it looks like it will be a good year. We are all coming out of hibernation and beginning to make plans for our big celebration on Sunday 2 May - the very start of summer.