The Journal gives a weekly update on events in our English apple orchards, using pictures and video clips to follow seasonal activities and giving the consumer a level of detail not available from any other source.
All aspects of growing, harvesting, storage, grading, packing and marketing are included enabling consumers to understand the challenges English growers face in supplying our sophisticated market place.
So sorry to my readers my Journal for 12th June was scuppered!
On entering the website ready to write the Journal, the password entry point would not allow me in!
Having tried unsuccessfully several times, I tried my administrator but could not make contact!
So no Journal!!!!
As we enter June, a plethora of pests launches into 'action' in our apple and pear orchards!
Mowing, Tying tree tops, thinning, dealing with 'early season pests' - Rosy apple aphid and Pear sucker are high on the list. But spraying to control apple scab and mildew are a vital part of our routine 'pest control'
Below: AC Goatham & Sons - Tractor Driver mowing looking down on orchards at Gore Farm Upchurch
Operative at AC Goatham tying the tops of trees in one of their orchards. Trees are kept at 3m high and right. Ladybirds making love while feeding (predation) on rosy apple aphids
Below: Left and right. fruitlets are now growing beyond the stage where fruit thinning sprays are effective (8-12 mm)
The English Apple Man Comments
I intended to deal with these "Pesky Pests" but scrolling back a year, I found a comprehensive version which matches well this time of year so instead of writing it all again, this week I draw readers attention to ................
Organic apple production is a challenge but Paul Ward has not only succeeded but built a large business over a 30 year period.
I first met Paul Ward back in 1996, just two years after he launched his organic business. With my Fruition Group colleague Graham we visited Paul hoping to arrange a supply of Organic apples to Waitrose who were a 'high profile' customer with a determination to support 'home grown organic produce'
Our relationship has continued and I have watched Paul build his business into the biggest organic apple farming business in the UK with 110 hectares of organic production. Mole End Farms is by nature 'a labour hungry operation' with circa 50 personnel (Trustees)
History
Mole End Farms Ltd was the brainchild of Paul Ward and Sara Rowan who, in 1994, decided that the time was right for a complete career change. Passionate believers in organics, they bought Mole End Farm in Chart Sutton and became the sole directors of Mole End Farms Ltd. This was followed by the purchase of Hartley Lands Farm at Cranbrook which they proceeded to convert to Soil Association organic standards and gradually over the years further holdings and organic orchards have been added.
In June 2017, after a long period of thought, deliberation and soul searching, Sara Rowan decided that the time was right to leave the business to pursue new challenges. Sara is an accomplished artist and had several commissions that she had been asked to do - she also hoped that weather permitting, she would have more time to ride her beloved Harley!
Mole End Farms grows top fruit organically on approximately 110 Hectares across 8 sites in Kent at Cranbrook, Marden, Goudhurst, Sandhurst and Chart Sutton. We grow, store, pack and market our own produce.
Mole End Farms is the biggest Organic Top Fruit Farm in the UK
WOW, The weather's turned 'ever so hot all of a sudden;
What's going on in our apple orchards?
I start with a caterpillar invasion. A call from my grand daughter alerted me to an invasion of caterpillars in the Espalier Apple trees in my son' garden. Now I have been growing apples for more than 60 years and I don't remember seeing these little 'critters!
Of course, at my age the memory is not so good!
In truth as our industry uses less chemicals, pests which would have been removed by a green cluster 'broad spectrum' insecticide would rarely be seen, now emerge...........
At this time of the year, apple and pear growers are busy assessing the 'fruit set' and deliberating the need for thinning.
What we do not expect are hailstorms!
We are always looking out for frost and there has been frost about, particularly worrying for our UK vineyards.
This week there has been some nasty weather about and hailstorms in some areas.
Hail is something that used to haunt me when I was a grower; back in 1978 after three 'testing years' I walked my orchards on a Monday with my agronomist and we marvelled at the potential crop, he said your Dad would have been so pleased and proud. That week I enjoyed the prospect of my patience and determination over the last 3 years finally 'coming good'
But Friday at around 5pm it 'hailed'
That year 60% of my apples were damaged, and the worst damage was on the outside of the tree where the potentially best apples wuld be in the sunshine!
Friday 24th April The English Apple Man together with circa 250 fellow mourners attended the Funeral of a Dear Friend.
Richard Frank Barnes was a wonderful friend to so many. Most of all a 'family man' with his wife Patricia, children Alistair, Catherine, Susannah and Mathew. His personality made such an impression on so many people and they were there to share their memories of him.
To say he was loved by all, is not an understatement!
Richard Frank Barnes was born in Sandhurst, Kent on the 11th of March 1944.
His parents were Stuart, a lifelong Arsenal fan and frugal tenant farmer, and Constance Barnes, a nurse, as was her daughter Richard's elder sister Janet. Home was Maplesden at Hole Park Estate in Benenden, Kent on a mixed farm, with a focus on flax (for silk) during the war, and hops after.
I am indebted to Richard's eldest son Alistair and his younger brother Matthew for allowing me to use part of their Eulogy to Richard.
Richard's daughters Catherine and Susannah expressed their love and memories for their father in a joint tribute of their own.
LOVE was at the centre of their memories. Their father's love for them, their love for him, his love for life and the many friends he made through out his life, his love for family gatherings, family holidays in France. Love was central to his life, anyone who met him loved him.
As we enter the month of May, The English Apple Man reflects on events
The weather has been dry for sometime now and while the land was so wet just a few weeks ago making tractor movement in the orchards difficult/impossible for early crop protection sprays to be applied, risking the early infection of apple scab. Now my grower friends are praying for some rain; 'not a deluge, just a nice steady rain'
Setting a crop?
Achieving a crop, e.g. setting flowers into fruitlets is dependent on pollination AND fertilization
Apple blossoms have five petals and numerous stamens, but the ovary consists of five carpels, each of which contain two ovules.
Next comes fertilisation, which can happen very quickly (hours) when temperatures are high, but days when the temperature is cold.
To achieve pollination and fertilization pollen must be passed from the pollen sacks to the style and grow down the pollen tube as quickly as possible. In warm weather this can happen in a matter of hours; in cold conditions it can take days. If the pollen does not reach the ovary in time (approx 4 days) it is too late!
The process is known as the Effective Pollination Period (EPP). The EPP varies by variety and Cox our national apple has a shorter EPP; no wonder it is difficult to achieve consistent heavy crops.
Over the last week the temperature has been favourable for EPP (although one or two reports of temperatures below freezing have been recorded.
It's a 'funny old game' tis fruit growing, we pray for favourable weather conditions during winter months; e.g. chilling. units, then worry about an overset, and start estimating the need for thinning!
In a week or two we will know, and thinning requirements will be decided.
On Tuesday afternoon, The English Apple Man visited an old friend David Budd at Stevens Farm and enjoyed a drive around some of his apple orchards
Below: Braeburn in blossom with a distant view of 'All Saints Church' spire at Highgate in Hawkhurst
I have on many occasions mentioned the fact that when I left school in 1958 there was circa 14 hop farms in the Parish of Hawkhurst, and at that time there was only two proper fruit farms; our fruit farm on the Western side of the parish, just 1/2 a mile from the Kent border with East Sussex, while on the eastern side of he parish, the other fruit farm set just in the parish of Hawkhurst close to the parish of Sandhurst.
As was the tradition back then, other farms grew a few apples, but were primarily hop farms. Now the 14 hop farms have "long gone" but these two apple farms still exist.
My family bought our farm, Ditchells in the early 1920's where my Grandfather ran what was known as "The Moor Game Farm" rearing pheasants, partridges and other game birds, supplying shooting estates across the UK!
During the 1920's and thirties' he planted several orchards of Cox Orange Pippin with Beauty of Bath and Worcester Pearmain as pollinators. He died before the onset of WW2 and after the war Dad turned it into a proper fruit farm. Cox Orange Pippin was very profitable in the post war years and many apple growers enjoyed a period of relative profitability.
On the eastern side of the village Henry Budd developed Stevens Farm and while his son David was a young man, Henry passed the management over to David.
I sold Ditchells to John Collingwood from Benenden in 1991; "I was 49 and concerned about the future, especially as my son and daughter were in established careers and unlikely to join me at Ditchells. A few years later I joined Home Grown Fruits in a quality technical role. Culminating my 'career' as UK Technical Director for Worldwide Fruit Ltd.
As we move into mid April apple blossom is appearing in many orchards. Some modern varieties blossom earlier than the main varieties of the past. For example Gala is earlier than Cox and Braeburn much earlier!
Recently (5th April) I visited my son who has an espalier 'orchard' in his garden. Gala - Braeburn - Scrumptious - Bladon Pippin growing happily along a fence and enjoying the sunshine and protection from cold winds.
Below: Canker branch will be removed
To maintain control of tree vigour, we carry out the 'winter pruning' in late spring. And follow this up with a 'summer pruning' session in late June/early July after the longest day. This controls the vigour and encourages fruit bud initiation. Sometimes it is necessary to bring in a replacement branch. (see below left)
This year the Gala tree has good blossom, but Braeburn, Scrumptious and Bladon Pipping are 'shy of blossom. The probable cause is the heavy crop on them in 2025 (which was thinned, but probably not enough) and not picked early enough (away on holiday? ) leaving trees stressed in the Autumn influencing fruit bud initiation!
This is the classic 'Garden Orchard Scenario' - allowing a large crop one year followed by a small (or no ) crop the next years. Commercial growers prune to retain sufficient bud wood, thin in early summer (June) to balance crop load and often 'quality thin' in August to remove any unwanted fruit (sub standard fruit)
Trophy display for National Fruit Show - Long Term Storage Awards
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