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Orchard Fruit Growing: Methods, Research, History & Culture

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Category: Orchard Work

Winter Pruning Cordon Apple Trees, ‘Short Spur’ Method

I’ve been winter pruning my cordon apple trees; here’s the general method I used and details of how I pruned each tree.

Published March 3, 2023
Categorised as Feature Articles, Orchard Work, Top Fruit Pruning Tagged apple, cordon, Courtois method, long-spur, pruning, short-spur, winter pruning

Seedling Apple Trees – Let’s Give ’em a Go

In the face of all the best advice to the contrary, I’ve decided to try growing a new apple variety or two from seed.

Published April 15, 2022
Categorised as Feature Articles, Orchard Work Tagged experiment, germination, herefordshire russet, propagation, seedling

Plot #79 Orchard Year in Review, 2021 Edition

We’ve had a mixed year on our allotment plot orchard. Here’s a round-up of the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Published November 28, 2021
Categorised as Feature Articles, Orchard Work Tagged 2021 update, apple, apple canker, codling moth, fireblight, medlar, pear, pigeon, Plot #79, plum

The 2021 Ordsall Hall Medlar Forecast is: ‘Very Good’

One of the most reliable fruits in the heritage orchard has a very long history and a very unique flavour.

Published October 9, 2021
Categorised as Feature Articles, Orchard Work Tagged heritage, medlar, Ordsall Hall

Robert Donald, on Clamp-Storing Apples

A nurseryman provides details of a common method for storing apples, pre-fridges.

Published October 4, 2021
Categorised as Orchard Work, Quotations Tagged apple, C19th, storing

Rescuing Grandpa Buxton, the Leaning Apple of Plot #79

Excess apple loads can cause serious problems at this time of year; a leaning tree is one of the easier ones to remedy.

Published August 6, 2021
Categorised as Feature Articles, Orchard Work Tagged apple, grandpa buxton, staking

Thinning Apple Fruitlets in our Air-Pot Mini-Orchard

Now is a the best time to hand-thin apple fruitlets, particularly on smaller trees and definitely on any that are growing in pots.

Published June 6, 2021
Categorised as Feature Articles, Orchard Work, Top Fruit Thinning Tagged apple, fruit thinning, fruitlets, hand thinning, thinning

Time to Check Grafted Trees for Rootstock Regrowth

As leaves start to grow on your top-fruit trees it’s a good time to check your grafted plants for unwanted rootstock bud-break.

Published June 3, 2021
Categorised as Feature Articles, Orchard Work, Top Fruit Grafting Tagged grafted trees, pruning, rootstock

‘John Downie’ is the Star of the Spring Show

We’ve had a really good year for blossom in the back garden, with crab apple ‘John Downie’ putting on a splendid display.

Published May 17, 2021
Categorised as Orchard Work Tagged blossom, crab apple, John Downie, Malus, spring

Grafting Advice and New Cultivars from SkillCult

A shout out for Steven Edholm’s superb SkillCult blog, where he’s been offering grafting advice and talking about his apple breeding project.

Published April 26, 2021
Categorised as Linking Out, Orchard Work Tagged breeding, grafting, scions, SkillCult, Steven Edholm

Posts navigation

Page 1 … Page 4 Older posts
  1. Darren T on Decision Time For My ‘Air-Pot Mini-Orchard’ Apple TreesNovember 26, 2023

    Nope, absolutely perfect timing :)

  2. Darren T on Decision Time For My ‘Air-Pot Mini-Orchard’ Apple TreesNovember 26, 2023

    Wow. Amanda, thank you so much, that is *amazing* advice. I was planning to spend hours and hours researching the…

  3. Amanda on Decision Time For My ‘Air-Pot Mini-Orchard’ Apple TreesNovember 26, 2023

    sorry- that was just a tad late

  4. Amanda on Decision Time For My ‘Air-Pot Mini-Orchard’ Apple TreesNovember 26, 2023

    Also, regarding planting in pots and exhaustion of nutrients and deterioration of soil structure, I'll share what I've done with…

  5. Darren T on My Fruit Harvest Highlights – 2023 EditionNovember 22, 2023

    You're welcome Russ! Best of luck with your grafting experiments, please do keep me posted.

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