Category Archives: Planting

Winter & Spring 2021 at Fruitfields

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We have had a proper Winter with good amounts of snow. Due to the Global Covid Pandemic we have not been able to host our annual Wassail in conjunction with Barnt Green Parish Council or progress our Fruitfields stall at any Farmer’s markets or events. All retail outlets have been closed through to April in line with Government guidelines.

However, positively, the local community have been extremely supportive of our direct delivery of apple juice & honey on Fridays and as the restrictions ease, events are to recommence externally from May 17th and normality should resume from the 21st June (but we will see!).

We managed to prune all our trees from January – March and all but one of our beehive colonies survived the winter. We have re-planted replacement trees where they have succumbed to deer and rabbit damage. We are now enjoying the first of the 2021 blossom and have made a start splitting our beehive colonies and on our ‘bee experiences’ which are proving popular.

We look forward to the summer and seeing the effects of the pollination of the blossom and the fruit buds coming on.

 

Winter Tree Planting & Ongoing Pruning

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We were pleased to plant two new rows of ‘Red Devil’ apple trees today. We also planted some replacement Egremont Russets, Bramleys, William Crumps and Tickled Pinks.

The Red Devil apples have a pink flesh all the way through them and produce a lovely tasting pink apple juice.

The trees were from Frank Matthews nursery in the beautiful Teme Valley just outside of Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire and had really good looking healthy roots. We’ve planted them as maidens (first year trees) and they’re on MM106 root stock. Subject to our pruning, they would naturally grow to 3-4m high and similar width.

Having help from family and friends meant the planting only took a couple of hours. There was time for pruning of the Ashmead Kernels (early 18th century Gloucestershire dessert apple) and all of the Gladstone apples (dating back to the 1780s but reintroduced in 1868 by Blakedown nursery, near Kidderminster as Jackson’s Seedling and renamed Gladstone in 1883).