Orchard Network

Geoff Newman talks us through his experiences of planting an orchard...

Varieties
The first challenge was sourcing varieties, I wanted local varieties and good vintage varieties for Perry and Cider. Local varieties were researched through the local Orchard Group (Gloucestershire Orchard Group (GOG) website) and the Perry Pears book(Luckwill & Pollard 1963).

Sourcing the trees
I attended a GOG course in both grafting and budding, I purchased some rootstock from a local nursery (very reasonable £1.50 ea) and started grafting my own trees. I also found some scion wood locally (again thanks to GOG) and started work. I have grafted and budded some 20 trees with only two losses (so far)! This is now my third year of grafting- so I have planned well ahead.

Planting
The planting site is about 1ha. I needed to work out planting densities and patterns so I looked at all the patterns available and chose the easiest to mark out (as I was doing this bit myself). Chris Fairs of Bulmers gave me an advice note on triangular planting- this enabled me to measure out a triangular plant using wire and poles (a very clever little leaflet). I will eventually plant between 40 and 50 trees, mainly at 10m spacing (I have chosen smaller perry pears on the whole) but there may be some wider spacing to allow for a few larger Perry pears (possibly 14m spacing).

To supplement my own efforts I also invested in some standard trees from other commercial nurseries (I couldn’t resist some Kingston Black apple trees on offer). These are big trees (6ft plus) and will require more support than my own grafts. The cost is also £22-£27 per tree, a significant investment.

Fencing and guards
The orchard will be grazed at times by cattle aswell as sheep. As such I have used a cattle guard with a decent fence to divide the field so more boisterous cattle can be kept out. Often cattle guards are difficult to get into to prune the tree and collect the fruit. I am intending using welded mesh guards, however to retain a decent width around the tree I am having to use 2.5m of weld mesh per guard. Guards will be 6ft high (using 8ft stakes) and 3 stakes are required per guard- the final ties may be with cable ties for ease of removal rather than staples. I have been quoted upto £75 per guard (although I will be disappointed if this cost does not reduce).

Staking
The smaller trees will not require high stakes and will be minimally staked- so as to develop a decent root structure. The larger trees will need decent stakes and as stem builders have been used I will probably high stake (9ft stakes with 3ft in the ground). Stakes will be on the South West side.

Pinch of salt?
I have listened to much good advice and still had a lot of choices to make- I may have made many mistakes- which I will no doubt find out! But hopefully we can learn from each other...