New plantings at West Bradley Orchards

In last month’s newsletter we mentioned Neil Macdonald’s trip to a nursery in France to see how our order for 3000 Idared maidens was coming along. We are now preparing the ground at West Bradley Orchards to receive the trees, which should arrive in February.

Edward Clifton-Brown, the owner of West Bradley Orchards, is once again using the post and wire system that was so highly commended in the summer, when West Bradley won the award for the Best Cider Orchard in the South West at the Bath & West Society Show. 

In addition we are trialling the large scale use of compost produced to BSI PAS 100 specification. 

Recent results have shown that compost can increase the organic matter levels in the soil and improve its structure. It replaces fertiliser in the form of NPK, provides sulphur, magnesium and trace elements, and protects against adverse weather conditions, such as cold and wet.

When used as a mulch it has been shown to bring significant benefits to newly planted apple orchards as well as established ones.

We are sure this will improve the quality of our heavy Somerset soils, giving the young trees the best possible start in life and offering natural protection against diseases such as canker.

A study visit to a major French nursery

In August Neil Macdonald was part of a group of English growers who were invited by J R Breach, suppliers of fruit trees and root stocks, to visit the nurseries and orchards of Pepinieres du Valois at Villers-Cotterets in Northern France.

Neil reports “PdV is one of the largest apple nurseries in the world and the scale of the operation was absolutely amazing. The company is part of the International New Varieties Network (INN), founded in 1995, which specialises in the development of new fruit varieties worldwide. The membership of INN accounts for around 18 million finished trees and 38.5 million rootstocks annually.

I was pleased to be able to see some of the trees they are growing for us and very happy with progress to date.

It is always good to step outside the box and see what is happening elsewhere in the business. The rest of the group came mainly from Kent and the east of England and it was valuable to see things from their point of view. 

The area of french cider orchards is not going up and production is pretty much static, unlike ours. This year they are expecting a fair crop, with 80% of all cider fruit going through one processor.”