Spring comes to an East Midlands Orchard
Adrian Baggaley, who is well known to readers of Fruit Forum for his prize winning fruits, reports on the opening of the fruit year in his orchard.
This last winter, as everybody knows, started in November 2010 and went on to well into the New Year, tapering off with some blistering frosts in late March. These frosts would have put paid to the apricot blossom had they not been covered with fleece; the outcome of the Japanese plums Methley and Shiro is less certain.
The very early onset of winter certainly caught me out with my late keeping apples still on the trees; I would normally pick the first week in November. Most Winston and virtually all the Crowngold never got picked. The Winston on close inspection still showed some signs of the devastating hail storm of September the 28th. They looked fantastic, but unfortunately they appeared better than they tasted. I suspect the season is far to short around here and I have never had any success with them trained as a cordon.
My favourite apple Crowngold became winter fodder for hundreds of redwings, field fares, and blackbirds, not to mention the odd pheasant, woodpecker and magpie. All this bird activity attracted the attentions of the sparrow hawks, which on occasions visited the orchard several times a day. The larger female is slower but has the ability to stop or change direction instantly. The smaller male came in very fast and low; blink and you missed him. A gap of less than eighteen inches (45 cm) between a chicken shed and hawthorn hedge presented no problems to him and I frequently found a pile of feathers where they had made a kill.
Spring 2011 is around a week early here with numerous ladybirds already active and blue, great and long-tailed tits everywhere. I suspect that the Robin I feed is in fact several Robins. The forwardness of the pears in the middle of February was alarming, some were showing blossom buds, fortunately they slowed down as the days were still short and temperatures bitterly cold, around 35 to 43 degrees F. The plum Jefferson's Gage started to blossom at the end of March, as indeed it has done in the past, and it was joined by the local plum Johnny Roe, Canadian plum Valor, Shropshire Damson and Merryweather Damson. I cannot remember this happening before. By the 2nd of April virtually all plums, damsons and gages were well into blossoming, only the usually tardy Count Althan’s Gage was yet to open.
The very excellent Italian pear Beurré Precoce Morettini was fully out by the end of March, but in the two following days others have joined it. I think the word Precoce refers to the blossoming not when it is in season ( mid-August ). This pear has Williams’ Bon Chrétien in its parentage and is grown commercially in the States. Last year’s crop on my one and only oblique cordon was excellent, crisp, sweet and juicy, absolutely spot on. I found out that it will even keep a short while in the fridge. The season lasts around two weeks and makes a nice run up to Beth in early September. Indeed, I was so please with it that I have reworked one of my existing pyramids.
Last spring, as a trial I cleared up all the dead leaves in the orchard and fruit cages in an attempt to reduce scab infection on the apples and pears. Scab infection is directly related to the amount of rainfall and my trial was negated by the dry spring so it was difficult to draw many conclusions as to its efficacy. However, two varieties that have been veritable scab factories year on year had no scab: the apple Falstaff and pear Onward. It could be that I broke the cycle of infection and re-infection. I intend to carry out the same trial this year coupled to a programme of garlic washes on selected trees.
After a long hard winter spring has finally arrived by the first week in April. Trees have been straining at the leash since mid-February and now pears, plums and cherries are flowering with apples showing pink buds. This is where my fruit year all starts again. Spring is repetitive but never boring.
Adrian Baggaley
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