Planning for the future - the next generation of cider apple orchards

Ensuring that cider apple orchards can continue to flourish in the future by anticipating and planning for changes they may face in the years to come is at the heart of an ambitious five year project set up by the NACM’s Pomology Committee.

Started in 2007 at the instigation of distinguished Somerset cider make and orchard expert, John Thatcher the project identified the need to look into the future and consider how cider apples may be grown taking into account possible legislative changes, climate change and the need to reduce cost.

The result has been ‘The Next Generation of Cider Apple Orchards’ project that is taking place in three orchards across the South West.

‘In the past Orcharding practise has evolved from traditional, standard orchard production, still common throughout the south west, to the current practise of bush orchards, using planting densities of up to 300 trees to the acre, but we recognised that there were likely to be significant changes in the years ahead and we wanted to be ready for them and have plans in place to respond,’ said current Pomology chair Chris Fairs from Bulmers.

Current methods of spraying and harvesting may be questioned in the future, i.e will the use of air blast sprayers be banned, will chemical usage be reduced and will the risk of pathogens on fruit harvested from the ground, be too great? The trial orchards have been designed to overcome these concerns and reduce the cost of growing cider apples under such constraints.

Three sites have been selected, two in Somerset and one in Hereford, to establish trial orchards for cider apple trees at 600 trees per acre. Five varieties were selected, two established varieties Dabinett and Katy, and three new varieties bred by Liz Copas at Long Ashton; Lizzy, Tiny and Angela. The new varieties are all early maturing cider apples, Lizzy and Tiny are both medium bittersweet, maturing mid September, and Angela is a full bittersharp, maturing late September-early October.

The trees were grown on a number of rootstocks, some with interstems, to provide a good cross section of growth characteristics. Plantings are in nine tree blocks, five feet between the trees, fifteen feet between rows and the trees supported by high tensile wires.

The orchards were designed by a statistician so that the results from the three sites can be compared without any factor influencing one more than the others.

The objectives are
•    Reduce Orcharding costs
•    Assess the varieties and rootstocks to establish the best type of tree suited to the style of orchard
•    Prune the trees so that they are no more than seven feet tall.
•    Achieve an apple yield of greater than 20 tonne per acre.
•    Develop a system so that the apples can be harvested by a shake and catch machine.
•    Trees will be sprayed using a tunnel sprayer to deliver a minimum amount directly onto the tree.

The trees were pruned soon after planting and the apples were removed in July.
The first crop was harvested during September and October 2009, the fruit from each block of nine trees was collected and weighed. The results of this will be published when the information has been analysed by the statistician.

Work will carry on the winter evaluating the growth by each variant in 2010.

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