You may well have read that there has been a nationally poor harvest of apples this year; the supermarkets are even discussing reducing the strict rules regarding size,shape and appearance that govern the selection of apples they sell.
We had been pessimistic about our total crop after a week of frost in May, as well as the cool damp conditions that would not have favoured the pollinating insects. However, it seems like we will reach about half of what we harvested last year, more than predicted, and we are aware that Yorkshire Orchards and Ampleforth Orchard have both had severely reduced crops.
We have continued to record the weights harvested from each tree, and hope that over the years we will build up an interesting picture that reflects the success of different varieties and the affects of climatic conditions. However we know there are a number of variables and figures from two years (we only started weighing in 2011) do not tell the full story yet. For example last year we picked about 44kg of Bramley's seedling, this year we will have about 4 apples. But was that the frost, or does the tree have a biennial bearing habit? Is our harvest of 50% of last year comparatively good (weather affected) or should we have expected more as the trees are bigger, therefore able to produce more fruit? We will watch and learn!
In February we replaced two trees that had canker on their main truncks; both the Charles Ross and Lane's Prince Albert have been replanted. In general, the weather conditions have resulted in prolific growth of the grass and other vegetation, which has required more cutting than usual. We have taken advice from Garden Organic about organic fruit cultivation and leave the majority of the grass long as habitat for the predatory invertebrates that control the pests.