Orchard Work – Notes From The Orchard

How to: Pick Apples and Pears

Top fruit harvest season is here, so it’s time for a guide to picking apples and pears the safe and careful way.

There are a few of the usual problems to keep an eye on in the orchard this year.

Fruit thinning is an essential operation to carry out to improve your chances of better quality fruit this year and more fruit buds next year.

A grey but dry and hugely enjoyable Sunday afternoon was well spent on helping to finish off this year’s winter pruning work.

Here’s how I went about the first phase of restorative pruning on a mature apple three that has been sadly neglected for a few years.

Here’s how I pruned three stepover trees on our allotment plot, leaving them until January rather than pruning in late summer as usually advised.

On a grey and drizzly afternoon I spent a happy few hours helping to winter prune a few of the trees in Holly Mount community orchard.

In which I attempt to save our damson from the ravages of an aphid infestation.

In which we remove the lower branches to create space for the tree’s owner to move around their garden.

A day of pruning tuition and practice at Platt Fields community orchard with the Orchard Project.