The Grounded Orchardist

2022 has been the driest year since I’ve been a fruit grower. Admittedly this is an obvious statement being that its been the driest year for everyone.

I wrote a post about when to water your trees, perhaps that tempted fate. We’ve started to irrigate the orchard now as it’s just a bit much. The fruit is smaller than usual and although I would like rain for the top fruit. We still have Damsons that haven’t ripened yet, I don’t want it to rain on them as they’ll split with the sudden injection of water that will swell them. Its a little fickle this fruit growing lark!

I have noticed our beneficial insects have lulled a bit. I’ve only seen the odd Earwig or Ladybird recently. Hopefully they’re just hiding from the sun, I must do more research into this. Our irrigation would be providing water so I think some carefully made bug hotels at appropriate heights will help in future.

The big Bramleys have a fantastic crop but I have had to pick the crop early for storage as they have been dropping. Sunburn was limited as I left some branches above them to create shade. These branches will be pruned out in a few weeks. One of the worries with the weather we’ve been having and these big open centred trees is the threat of them splitting/dropping limbs. So we will be pruning back the main limbs with a chain saw to ease the pressure and weight on these impressive trees.

I have to mention that the scab is better than I’ve ever seen it this year. Apple scab spreads its spores using wind, rain or splashing water. My plan is to really clean up after the susceptible varieties such as Royal Gala and Tentation have cropped. I will clear up those leaves and dispose of them hopefully that will lessen the scab blow next year.

The leaf quality on most varieties has been fantastic regardless of the weather. I’m actually very pleased. We are getting a fair amount of apple windfalls but this is too be expected in such conditions and we are using them in the Kitchens for various culinary magical things.

We are lucky we don’t have new trees in and all our trees are established and hopefully…the trees have dug a little deeper in their search for water and nutrients. Meaning we have stronger, well rooted trees for next year.

It’s a difficult one because we’re told we are going to get more springs/summers like this. It makes sense to be prepared and learn from this year. I met up with John Guest (www.theenglishappleman.com) this week and he said that fruit farmers have found that if they waited until it was critical to put the irrigation on, it wasn’t as effective as if you had already kept the ground damp…even if you technically didnt need to. This makes sense as the water has nowhere to go and will evaporate off in a heatwave before it has time to sink in. It’s a hard one because we also need to conserve water. So watering when you don’t need to seems a waste! However, watering for the precious resource to evaporate and barely touch the soil or for it to water the soil and not get into the roots is probably worse…there’s a lot to think about for next year!