My wife Julia and I envisioned, planted and manage the Fruitwise orchard in Durley, Hampshire, United Kingdom. I am interested in heritage apples. Valuable old apple DNA is being lost and we can’t afford to lose it. The most reliable way to stop and reverse this loss is for people to become interested in preserving the heritage of apples which comes down to us from our ancestors. This can best be done by planting, celebrating, preserving and using local orchards. We are commited Christians.
A look at just a few of our rare apple varieties. The genetics of these important food plants are non replaceable if lost, we cannot trust the government or big industry to safeguard them, and with an uncertain global future food supple they may come into their own again. Please consider whether you can keep perhaps one rare old fruit tree’s genetics alive in your backyard orchard.
Plums should be pruned in full spring-late April to mid May. Don’t prune them in winter as this increased he risk of serious microbial disease.
Renewal pruning of an established apple tree, variety Sunset, a 20 year old tree on MM106 rootstock. It was trained a an open centre dwarf bush, currently somewhat overgrown, hence the slightly more aggressive than usual pruning. i will return to this tree later i the year to show what effect pruning has had on it. I may leave another one nearby unpruned for compare and contrast. NB this is a FINE tooth Silky Gomtaro 300mm pruning saw, the one I recommend (no financial interest).
Not a good year for pears due to cold weather at blossom time and then a somewhat cool summer although it has been very hot at times. we did not spray at all, hence bad pear scab-except the Concorde. Once again, the Concorde has significantly outperformed all the other pears, including Conference, Beurre Hardy, Doyenne du Comice and a few others. I heartily recommend this variety based on its consistent performance-I know a few pears that taste better, but none that crop more reliably.
An update on some grafting I have done, Bramley over to Cider apples Morgan Sweet (this year) Bramley to Yarlington MIll (4 years ago) and Orleans Reinette over to 5 rare Gloucestershire cider apples (thank you Nick Wilton) this year. around 85% success.
Bumzer!!! Today I planned to top work over this large old cooking apple tree, grafting it over to a quality eating (dessert) apple. I am quite certain that I cut the scion wood from Queen Cox and bagged it up with a label. I WAS sure that I had put it in the fridge. But it is not there. I even searched through all the odd bags of leftover scion wood from my scion wood send out that I did earlier this year, not there either. If it had been, there is slim chance it would have worked anyway, this wood is in the garage which isn’t very cold and much of it is sprouting.
First of several videos about the wildlife pond we are developing. I started digging this in 2015 just before I had a nasty fall that put me seriously out of action for a long time. We were both fascinated by the varied soil-stone, sand and clay-that we found. More later.
Sorry about the wind noise, today was the only day we could make this video. It’s less bad later in the video. I prune 2 large overgrown apple trees using the Silky Gomtaro Apple saw.
Finally! ‘Tales From an English Orchard’ priced $5 or £3.77 is now live to download from Kindle with 130,000 words plus many images and hyperlinks to my videos and other resources. It is a mix of storytelling, apple history, practical advice and autobiography. Important sections include descriptions of the apples, pruning, grafting and an extensive bibliography which reviews all the important books that influenced us. Some controversies addressed, the most contentious material is in appendices so can be avoided. Full table of contents. I hope my subscribers will buy this, all profits will go to Tree Aid which helps poor Africans improve their circumstances and the local environment by growing trees along the southern edge of the Sahara. If you like the book, please post positive reviews and share via Facebook and any other networks. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Englis…
