it's that time again

Orchard pruning time is here again - it's a job I find really satisfying.

This time last year, I dragged Mr Asparagus Pea out of bed and into work with me on a Saturday morning, to shoot a video of how to prune a pear tree. The weather was unkind.
It lashed down, and all the shots were spoiled by rain on the lens. 

So one year on, with a sparkly sunny day forecast for Saturday, we thought we'd have another go.

It was a fabulous frosty morning, and I'm really pleased with how our little film turned out. 

Fruit pruning is a big subject - many worthy tomes have been written. 

I wanted to demonstrate the process, and give people confidence to have a go.

(Hopefully without boring the pants off them). 

Massive thanks, as always, to my patient, clever husband for his camera and editing skills.

the promise of things to come

A little warmth, a little moisture, and the gardens are bursting into action.  You turn your back for what seems like just five minutes, and come back to find things have grown a foot.  I live in a world of sticks and brown string at this time of year - moving from one garden to another making sure that everything is getting the support it needs to hold the weight of the crop as it develops.

Crimson flowered broad beans

pea tendrils reaching for support

It's a time of promise - the first of the salad leaves that I sowed directly into the ground are nearly ready to start harvesting.

Spotted Bloody Cos lettuce

The cucumbers in the hotbed and my pumpkin patch babies are starting to rev up. They throw out their tendrils at such a speed, that it seems like you could hear them squeaking as they grow if you stood still for long enough. 

baby cucumber (with aphids - c'mon you ladybirds!)

The first tiny fruits are setting on the cucumbers - my dreams of making my own brine fermented pickles were fuelled by a visit to the Wisley bookstore, where I treated myself to Alys Fowler's lovely new book Abundance. (The fact that we're about to rip our kitchen out and fill the house with brick dust seems like a mere detail).

pears

In the orchard the fruitlets are swelling and changing colour...

Cornish Gillyflower apples

..and in the fruit gardens the gooseberries hang like jewels - still rock hard, eye wateringly sour and guarded by the most ferocious prickles. I'll be wearing full body armour when it's time to pick them - and even then I'll end up covered in the kind of lacerations that look like they might be a cry for help.

Soon I should be harvesting plenty of produce to show you...

..things are looking promising!

pollination army

Blossom time is in full swing and the orchards are humming with activity.  It's a beautiful sunny day today, (hooray), and the bees are busy in the trees collecting pollen and nectar.  So I thought I'd show you a classic example of what 'pollination groups' mean in relation to fruit trees.

Most fruit trees can't pollinate themselves, they need a friend of the same species.*  (Yes, it's 'the birds and the bees' talk again!).  This friend is only good, in reproductive terms, if it has its flowers open at the same time.  In order to help you choose trees that are good pollination partners, some kindly scientists have split them into groups numbered 1-5. Number ones are first out of the blocks and number fives are the last to flower. Trees are good to get fruity with another individual from the same group, or one number either side.**

The bees that are busy visiting the flowers on this tree...

...can't transfer pollen to the flowers on this tree because its buds are still closed.

So if you're planning a backyard orchard, think about pollination groups when you choose your trees.
(The info will be on the back of the label).

Check out these previous posts for more fruit related blatherings

* We're talking apples with apples, and pears with pears etc.  None of that weird inter-species reproductive stuff on my watch, thank you very much!
** Some things need two other individuals to pollinate them - they're called triploids, (although I'm sure we can all think of a few other names for that kind of behaviour!). Bramley apples are probably the most well known example of this.

the first day of spring

It's the first day of spring and it's St David's Day here in Wales.

We finally managed to finish all the winter pruning in the orchard this week.  The books say that the trees are dormant from November to March.  As you can see from the buds, this pear tree clearly hasn't read the books and has woken up early.

pear tree bud

When you're doing formative pruning on young trees I think it's helpful to know an important thing about how trees grow:

they don't stretch - they add on.

So when you're looking at your tree it's not going to get bigger like someone is blowing it up with a bicycle pump - it's going to add bits on like building with Lego.  The branch at nose height will always be at nose height unless you cut it off, (the branch - not your nose), it will never be 10 feet up in the air.  With young trees you should be working on making a nice sturdy framework with well spaced branches.  The bit that's going to have the fruit on it comes later.

here is a before and after of a young apple

before

after

I know it looks a bit drastic, but the mature tree will be so much better if you prune for shape in the first few years.  Some trees will produce a bit of fruit when they're quite young, which runs the risk of the branches snapping under their own weight.  Now that's much more heartbreaking than a bit of strict pruning in the name of sturdiness!

And now - as it's St Davids Day, a gratuitous picture of a (giant) daffodil....

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus - Happy St David's Day