Category Archives: Pruning

Pruning espaliers

Posted on

It’s April 1st and the cold continues. We’re still pruning and it’s been espaliers today. Our pruning will bring on the fruit buds and the strong lateral horizontal branches growing along the existing trellis.

Take the scene of three apple trees in a line trying to grow outwards and up to the sky. The idea is to train them along your wires or bamboo trellis (or whatever material you are using). By removing this years top shoots and outward growth this encourages growth along the supports and more fruit buds within that growth. 

Espaliers are therefore fantastic trees for borders and boundaries and alongside paths. Where space is limited they can be incorporated efficiently and at stately homes in the kitchen gardens, you will normally see a line of espaliers in front of a brick wall providing a sun trap for early ripening fruit, and natural protection against frosts, as well as being sheltered from wind.

Despite it being overcast in the pictures below, hopefully you can see the general idea of removing unwanted growth by pruning using standard secateurs. In the spring with the sap rising, nutrients from the rootstock will flood the remaining fruit buds and branches, encouraging growth in the direction of the supports.

Pruning Talk at local garden centre and pruning of 60 year old village apple trees

Posted on

Well the UK is properly snowed in currently! Traffic chaos, gale force winds and boilers breaking down seem to be the order of the day. We’ve had some wonderful opportunities at Fruitfields to share our Worcestershire apple juice story.

Firstly, to 60 south Birmingham allotment holders at Fresh Burcot Garden Centre. Our pruning talk appeared to muster a good amount of interest and provided the basics on pruning for growth and health in your trees and pruning for vigour and fruit.

We were extremely pleased to have the opportunity to engage with Fresh at Burcot. It’s a huge thankyou to the Burcot Garden centre team for having us and we look forward to engaging with them later in the year to demonstrate some Worcestershire apple juice processing and pressing and sampling!

Today, the 2nd March, 2018 we’ve been pruning 60 year old apple trees in the neighbouring village. This was a fantastic opportunity to carry out some restorative pruning. It’s very important that we don’t kill off the tree by the strength of our pruning. So with that in mind, we removed all the water shoots, obvious crossing branches and upright shooting spurs at the canopy level which was too high. This will bring on growth lower down, and particularly on the existing lateral branches showing strong fruiting buds.

Book review & chill time pruning

Posted on

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…

Say hello to The Apple Orchard

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

 

Fruitfields Pruning Courses for 2018: A perfect Christmas & New Year present!

Posted on

www.fruitfields.co.uk are delighted to offer 2 practical outdoor pruning courses on Saturday January 20th and Saturday March 3rd, 2018.

The sessions will run from 10am until 12.30pm and cost £25 per person. The group size is strictly limited to a maximum of 10 people and the course will cover the following topics:

  • Why we prune
  • Practical sessions
  • How to prune & pruning techniques
  • The history of pruning
  • A tour of our orchards
  • Developing your pruning strategy

To book your place, and avoid disappointment as places are on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, call Greg Hunt on Tel: 07860 937 469

Aerial view of our orchard where the pruning course will take place

Come and learn some practical pruning techniques within the heart of the North Worcestershire countryside. Wrap up warm and enjoy learning about the best ways to reduce the risk of disease, why we prune at all and the ability to enable a good harvest. Vitally, practical sessions will ensure everyone has the confidence to understand the best ways to prune, and to remember what they have learnt. 

Whether you have one fruit tree or several, or just want to expand on your existing knowledge, then this course will introduce you to best techniques. We strongly believe the best way to learn is to do it yourself.

With more than 650 fruit trees and separate coppices requiring pruning across our 7 acres of orchards in the glorious North Worcestershire countryside, you will feel refreshed and armed with your newfound knowledge to give you a better and stronger fruit crop in the future.

A tour of our orchards and hot drinks are included.

We will also give you an understanding of our pruning strategy and how we are to progress the position over the next few years. This will allow you to understand the options available to you, and to develop your own position.