Pruning the fence line trees commences!

 This week we were four volunteers and two of us started the summer pruning of the trained trees on the orchard.  A trained tree is one that is pruned into a specific shape or form. On the orchard we have a long fence line of trees which have been trained as vertical cordons - this means they have one main stem with shorter fruiting stems - meaning they take up limited space. This allows us to grow lots of different varieties of fruit.  

Summer pruning is an enjoyable task, as well as a necessary one. If we don't do it the trees will develop long thin branches which will bear fruit - but the weight of the fruit will break the branches. 

Below is a photograph of the long fence line that we prune each year. There is also a fruit arch with vertical cordons that has another 12 trees which we summer prune.  Other work done this week - strimming and more tidying up around the base of trees then mulching.  There are a lot of trees so this takes a long time!

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Work session 18th June

 We had a returning volunteer this week, and hopefully they will be back for more Orchard action.  It's always lovely to welcome people wanting to help out - because Orchard49 is a very special space.  

This week we started clearing around the base of the trees within the Orchard - after finishing doing the long line of trained trees along the fence line.  We do this for the tree's health and vigour. After clearing the grass we've been mulching around the base of the trees to provide some added nourishment.  We received a delivery of free soil conditioner from Suez earlier in the year to enable us to do the mulching.

More strimming was done, carefully avoiding a couple of frogs that were hopping around close to where we were working. 

Next week we'll begin the summer pruning of the trained trees and this year we are going to have to thin out developing fruit - because there are so many very close together on the trees. 

You can see from these photos how tightly packed this tree's fruit is. 

This is because the trees have enjoyed the wet - and blossomed magnificently.  Helped by the on site bees the pollination rate was very high so thin we must - or we will have a crop of smaller apples.  Sometimes, after this scenario a tree will decide not to produce blossom the following year because they over exerted themselves the year before. It can be quite tricky persuading them out of this habit once this happens.

Come and join us

Despite the cool and shower June weather we are busy on the orchard on Tuesdays.  This last week we had a musical accompaniment as the Foo Fighters were doing sound checks for their 2 gigs at the cricket ground.   

We finished mulching around the cordon trees along the long fence line and some strimming of the long grass has been done so walking through the orchard is a bit easier.  We also planted a new tree - a Damson Farleigh which has been grown on a new rootstock called VVA-1. This is a semi dwarfing rootstock that grows to approximately 2 -2.5 metres tall and is supposed to come into fruiting very early with large amounts of fruit.  It is suited to heavy soils (the orchard is quite heavy clay).  We will see how it fares, as the other damson we have (and the other plums) haven't been very productive at all.  

We had more visits from a Robin - it comes in search of worms and is quite fearless, coming really close to get them and check us out.

You can find us on the Orchard between 5 and 6.30 on Tuesdays - come and join us.

Work Sessions for 2024 - Tuesdays 5 - 6.30

 We are back on the Orchard after a wet winter - which the trees seem to have enjoyed immensely.  Despite the orchard being waterlogged at times the trees blossomed better than ever and we have had very high rates of fruit setting.

We have changed the day we run the work session to Tuesdays and are there from 5 - 6.30.  

If you are wanting to enjoy working outdoors, are curious to learn about growing fruit and what is involved, please do come along.

If you'd like more information you can email us on orchardfortynine@gmail.com

Work sessions resume!

Now that we're back on British Summer Time we will be back on the orchard on Thursday evenings between 6.30 and 8 p.m.  First session will be on April 19th.

Hope to see you there!

Bee Action & Early Harvest

The 2017 growing season has been a strange one. We were very pleased to see a very good amount of fruit on the trees early in the year. This is the first year that the bees which are now resident on the Orchard have been busy feeding on the blossom.  The apiary went in last year after the trees had blossomed, so we were eagerly anticipating better pollination - and they have done us proud.

Apiary on the orchard.

The weather has affected harvesting more than ever this year. We thought we'd have a bumper raspberry crop (those busy bees again), but a spell of very dry weather meant that lots of the fruit shrivelled up. 

Equally, apples are ready to pick much earlier. So much so, that at times its only the number of fallers, or apples pecked by birds that has signalled that its time to pick.

We continue to work on the orchard on Thursday evenings, and this year have welcomed four new volunteers; Stuart, Caroline and Chris and Dawn. I'm always interested to know what brings people to the orchard, and importantly, why they keep coming. For Caroline and Chris, who live in the city centre their visits to volunteer on the orchard provide a break from city centre living:  "I know that for us when we can get out it's a connection with nature that we don't get living in a block of flats, and it always de-stresses us."

Here are some other pictures from the orchard taken recently.

Insect hangout

Fruit arch, recently summer pruned.

The long fenceline with vertical cordon trees.

You can join us on the orchard on Thursday evenings 6.30-8 pm until the nights draw in. 

Old Trafford Open Gardens 2017

2nd July sees the second Old Trafford Open Gardens event.  The community orchard is one of the community green spaces to visit on the day.  The allotment site will be opening its gates, the pavillion will be open for refreshments, the pizza oven operating, so no excuse not to pop down and visit. 

The orchard is located in the far right hand corner of the site; head for the community plot at the end of the tarmac path and then follow the path down to the orchard. 

There is a bench in the middle of the orchard, a lovely spot to take it all in.  See if there are any raspberries to taste (along the fence with the bakery buildings), check out the fruit arch. Could you do something similar in your garden? Its a great way to get lots of different varieties of fruit in a small space.

Equally, the fenceline that runs the length of the orchard was created to show what can be done when you train fruit trees. Regular pruning into a specific shape (in our case vertical cordons) enables you to grow more varieties and this way you shouldn't ever have a glut of apples!  How many different varieties do you see along the fenceline? Clue - each tree is a different variety!  They are all labelled.

The apples and pears aren't ready to eat until October, do come and taste them then. 

If you're interested in helping out, we run regular weekly work sessions on Thursday evenings from 6.30-8 p.m.