Creating apple orchards

Spin harvesting our Peasgood nonesuch apples 2016

This blog tells how we come to have around about 250 fruit trees at Highbridge Community Farm of which more than 200 are apples of over 60 different varieties.

The Pondside orchard was planted in spring 2011 by the author with young trees that had been grown from seed or had been grafted onto M106 rootstocks and reared in his allotment. The author was learning about growing fruit from Mr Philip House, owner of Family Trees Nursery in Shedfield near Wickham. At the time Mr House was in his eighties and was interested in clearing part of his 4 acre site, so he allowed members of Highbridge Farm to come along and dig up some his organic stocks that he had been unable to sell because the trees had not been pruned and so had become mis-shapen. Mr House gave us 70 fruit trees which were planted in the Old Bridge Orchard during Autumn 2011 and a further 90 in Spring 2012 which were planted in the Long Orchard. In these three orchards we have about 60 different varieties of trees. 
Andrew and Mr House at the Farm


We have also been given 20 trees by Eastleigh Borough Council which were planted in Spring 2015 in the Farm Car park. This fruit by virtue of its location will be available to all who visit the farm, but the trees surrounding the car park will enhance the visual amenity of the area. We are installing clay pots by the side of these trees which will regularly be filled with water to ensure that the trees are not stressed in dry periods. The remainder are growing in grassland. In order to suppress competition from weeds we have placed a 2m x 2m piece of mypex plastic around the trees in the Old bridge Orchard while trying to mow down the rows in the Long orchard. Neither method is very successful. The long orchard is very exposed to winds so we have been trying to establish an edible hedge to the West of the line of trees, but due to nature of the exposed site and by grazing by horses in the adjacent field the hedge has struggled.


Since acquiring these trees there have been small changes to our orchards as a few trees have died -generally ring barked by rabbits-, and new varieties of pears, plums, cherries and other fruit trees have been obtained. In all there are now approximately 250 fruit trees. A Fruit group was created in the Autumn of 2014 and this has helped improve the management of these fruit trees.

Scything in the Pond side orchard and Spin harvesting the Peasgood nonesuch apples.2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


A healthy tree


Building a soft fruit cage

Currently the Fruit team are creating a new fruit cage measuring 30 m by 12 m for growing gooseberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and whitecurrants.

We began in September last year by spraying the area to kill couch grass and then covered the site with mypex black woven plastic for 12 months to ensure that all plants died. We have learned that when growing perennial fruit crops it is best to get rid of perennial pernicious competitors such as couch and bindweed before planting, otherwise they will be there among the roots for ever.
This autumn we have heavily manured the site with well rotted cow manure and are adding about 15 tonnes of dry hay which will rot down to improve the fertility of the area. Then we will add some blood, fish and bone which is a fairly slow release fertiliser and some eggshells to supply calcium.   

We are using 2.4 m posts x 73 mm round for the basic structure inserted into the ground every 2.5 m apart. This was done by digging holes 30-40 cm deep with a post digger and then ramming the posts down to 50 cm with a post driver. The holes were then filled with stones and compacted with s sledge hammer and heavy metal pole. Battens attached the posts together along their tops and provided a place to attach the netting to. Then we will add the bird protection netting. For this we are buying a role 50 m x 12 m and will cut it down to 34 m so that we can use it to cover the roof and the ends of the cage. We will be using another role 2 m wide for the sides. The netting will be stapled on to the battens at the top and stapled to boards running from post to post along the bottom. The roof netting will be supported by metal wires running across the tops of the posts, and there will be 5 rows of two posts in the fruit cage which will support the roof at 5 metre intervals.

A single gate will be installed and probably a combination padlock to discourage non-members of the project from taking fruit.  We will then re-cover the area with mypex. This will be done as soon as possible to stop any seeds germinating and growing. The mypex will pass around the posts and extend  about 50 cm beyond the cage boundary to prevent couch grass from growing in. It will be taped together. Holes will be cut through the plastic to plant the bushes and then resealed with the

We plan to water the ground to accelerate the breakdown of the manure and hay before returning the mypex to cover the area. When the manure has broken down we will cut holes into the mypex and plant into it.

I plan to post costs when the cage has been completed, and also a planting plan, but estimate that the total cost will be around £550 for the fruit cage.


Anna and Caroline are wearing masks while spreading the hay to avoid inhaling fungal spores