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


Planting a hedgerow and fruit trees

We tended to concentrate on growing vegetables in our field during the first year because we could not afford to buy fruit trees.

A few of our members gave some soft fruit bushes and herbs which were planted in the area adjacent to the tool hut and social area in the first year. The ground was cleared of weeds first, but persistent weeds such as couch grass, convolvulus and nettles were not eliminated and these have persisted among the roots of these perennial fruit bushes. We have also learned that if fruit bushes are planted they should be planted into clean ground where perennial weeds like couch grass and nettles have been removed. Otherwise you will be forever fighting a battle against them. We have learned that the best way to approach this is to peg down mypex interwoven sheeting on the ground where the fruit is to be grown and leave it for around 12 months or more to kill off any perennial weeds. Then clean stock can be planted into a clean area.



Bank behind the pond before clearing



Bank after clearing

A gift of 450 trees from the Woodland Trust, plus the addition of about another 50 apple tree seedlings in November 2010 enabled us to plant the Foragers hedge to the North of the pond and the Pondside orchard to screen off the Farm yard from the fields. The soil in this area is very gravelly so growth has been slow, but, after five years we are harvesting small quantities of elder flowers and berries, rose hips, sloes from blackthorn, crab apples and apples. As yet we have not enjoyed any hazel nuts, but we have not given up hope.

The fruit trees go in

In March 2011 we began planting young apple trees into an area which had been rough grassland, but had then been bulldozed clear on a sloping South facing bank just behind the pond. These young apple trees, grown by the author of this blog, struggled for two reasons. First they were planted behind the pond which had been created several years early for gravel extraction. The bank behind was also very gravelly with little soil in it. Any topsoil which had developed was destroyed by the bulldozer while it was grading the site. When we planted the small fruit trees we added plenty of organic matter, but this tended to be leached out fairly rapidly. The bank soon became covered with plants from the previous coarse grassland; nettles, burdock and teasels which vigorously competed with the fruit trees for nutrients and there was insufficient manpower at the time to control the weeds. It is well known that fruit trees grown in a meadow lose around 30-40% of the nutrients available to the trees; ours growing on this gravel bank and competing with coarse weeds probably lost more. We didn't actually start a Fruit group within the project until the fourth year, so it was left to one or two keen people to try to manage the trees.

The bank where the pondside orchard was planted



The forager's hedge behind
the Pondside orchard

A patch of rhubarb was planted adjacent to the compost bins in the second year. The ground was cleared of weeds first, but persistent weeds such as couch grass, convolvulus and nettles were not eliminated and these have persisted.



Pressing the apples for juice or cider.

The apple scratter breaks up the apples
into small pieces before they are pressed