Grafting News

The 40 trees we created at our workshop in March are almost all growing. I've been surprised by the speed with which this has happened. One of the new trees, a variety called Lord Suffield is also flowering.

I thought this was astonishing, but our local Northern Fruit Group expert, Peter Nichol tells me that its very common. It all depends on the type of wood you have on your scion (the bit you take from a tree and join by grafting with the rootstock). If its got fruit buds on it (rather than growth buds) it will flower - even though its just a twig. We just need to rub any fruit off so they don't grow on.

Other news - we had a work day on the early May bank holiday and got a lot of work done. Some of the twice dug ground is going to be used by volunteers who don't have an allotment to grow a few crops that will be finished by Nov-January when the trees will be planted.

Last weekend we took advantage of a skip on the allotment site and disposed of all the debris that had been dug up (plastic, glass, rubble) - so the plot looks much tidier now.