Plot #79

The orchard allotment plot that I help look after is triangular in shape and slopes down quite sharply from the row of five apples and medlar beside the road to the quince at the bottom end.

The site is also quite exposed, leading to some of the trees developing in a rather wind-blown manner. This exposure does mean that the trees receive the maximum benefit of available sunlight throughout the day, with hardly any shading, even from the neighbouring veteran bullace (seen in the pic below, bottom right).

Image via Google Maps, Jan 2021 (most likely recorded in summer 2019, based on the apparent canopy sizes and tree-shadow extent.)

The plot was cleared and prepared over the winter of 2017-18 by myself and Mike (a fellow Langley Allotments plot-holder) and then we planted the initial 20 trees in January 2018. An existing strip of fruit bushes belonging to Christine, the third member of our group of orchardeers, was retained and provides additional lures for pollinating insects.

This is the current layout of the orchard. Click on any tree-number (i.e. Ma1) for information and record-keeping on that particular tree.

Cy1
Quince
‘Meeche’s Prolific’
Pr4
Cherry
‘Morello’

Py2
Pear
‘Nouveau Poiteau’
Py3
Pear
‘Double de Guerre’
Py4
Pear
‘Doyenne d’ete’
Pr1
Gage
‘Cambridge Gage’
Ma1
Apple
‘Jester’

Ma2
Apple
‘Kiddes Orange Red’
Pr2
Damson
‘Shropshire Prune’
Pr3
Plum
‘Burbank Tangerine’
Ma3
Apple
‘Wareham’s Russet’
Ma4
Apple
Saturn

Ma5
Apple
Reinette du Canada
Ma6
Apple
‘Beauty of Bath’
Ma7
Apple
‘Worcester Pearmain’
Ma8
Apple
‘Grandpa Buxton’
Ma9
Apple
‘Lord Clyde’

Ma10
Apple
Red Miller’s Seedling‘ (?)
Ma11
Apple
‘Monty’s Surprise’
Me1
Medlar
‘Nottingham’

The original Py1 tree, a Pear ‘Beurré Sterckmans’ was removed and replaced by the Cherry ‘Morello’ in 2020, following the death of the rootstock in the previous winter.

The original Ma10 tree, meant to be a ‘Red Miller’s Seedling’, was decidedly un-true to type and, on investigation, turned out to be an out-grown MM106 rootstock tree. The top growth was cut back and an attempt made to top-graft with 4-6 new varieties, to make a ‘family’ or ‘Franken-‘ tree, but sadly the rootstock succumbed to apple canker and the all but one of the grafts failed.