Case study - a pollarded orchard

Owners often ask us how long it takes to turn round a problem orchard and to start seeing a profit from it.  Here is a typical example.

Nick Case farms organically at Bridgehampton in Somerset.  Three years ago he acquired an orchard, six acres planted in the traditional style, which had been pollarded by its previous owner.

“My heart sank” says Neil Macdonald “because I am only too aware of how detrimental that can be to the yield and longevity of the trees. What can happen when you pollard trees is that big sections of them can start to die back because they have come to a stop end.  Over a few years these sections will die back into the trunk and start killing the tree."

"Unless you prune these lumps right back to the trunk where they can heal so that the flow can keep moving, and you can redistribute the energy back to where you want it to be, back into fruit growth and health, the tree may never recover."

"Another problem with pollarded trees is that the tree produces a whole lot of shoots which in turn produce a dense impenetrable mass of leaves, but no fruit."

Orchard Ground Force took on the job of restoring the orchard and over the last three years has brought it back to life, pruning the new growth, redistributing the energy and bringing the trees back to health, as well as planting new trees to fill in empty spaces.

“For the first couple of years I was in negative balance,” says Nick, “but this year we have broken even, so next year we should be in the black.”

Last year the orchard yielded twelve tons of cider apples, up from ten the year before.  This year Neil Macdonald reckons he will harvest well over that, giving Nick a healthy pay cheque.

“In just three years” says Neil “it’s gone from investment to payback and the future is only upward.” 

“You have to do some shock treatment to begin with. Then there will be a little bit of pruning from time to time - just enough to keep the trees in tip top condition - and the orchard will continue to produce well for years to come, making Nick very good money, even from old trees.”