I’ve had fun pruning time this morning but it was cold and I felt like a ‘chill unit’ by the time I had finished!
I’ve just read Pete Brown’s ‘The Apple Orchard’ and this is a cracker of a book & not just because I received it as a Santa present! I would heartily recommend this novel. It takes you through the journey of the apple and to current apple orchards. It discusses the magic of the apple, the images it conjures up. The mystique surrounding this celebrated fruit and a few of the festivals associated with it during the annual cycle.
Pete doesn’t love morris dancers. Being a morris dancer, some of the comments made me chuckle. By the end of the book he has learnt to put up with morris dancers, as generally wherever there is an apple festival, morris men (& ladies) are not that far away! Thanks for putting up with us…
So turning to ‘chill units’. The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale & the East Malling Research Centre (both in Kent) describe that for an apple tree to reach proper dormancy it needs at least 1000 ‘chill units’ A chill unit being an hour below 7 degrees. If this is achieved then the apple tree has properly rested and the likelihood of a good crop much increased. With global warming we’ll see if the regularity of a good crop is reduced as dormancy is likely to be achieved less and less.
As our trees are still young (the oldest are coming into their sixth season) we are pruning for growth. This means we’re removing a good amount of wood. We’re creating the ideal wine glass/goblet shape and ensuring that no branches are touching or crossing, that no shoots are growing inwardly towards the centre of the tree, and that we’re encouraging as much growth as possible.
Later on in the year we’ll look at light summer pruning, between the end of July and the start of September to encourage more fruit buds in