 |
| Apple - Burr Knot - Cordon Tree |
 |
| Apple - Laxton Superb - growing as a bush tree |
 |
| Apple Minshull Crab - cordon (its not a crab apple). |
Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts
Open Day - 19th August 2012
OTAGS held an Open Day on Sunday 19th August. There were Scarecrows to see as well as pizzas from the new Cob Oven... and of course Orchard 49 to visit. Sadly we didn't have a brilliant day for it. But we were there and here are some photos I took of some of the trees that we grafted ourselves in 2010. You can see that they are with fruit. Two are being grown as cordon trees - trained to grow in a small space. In our case along the path fence line. Equally they could be grown along a sunny wall in your back yard.
We are very much learning about how to train the trees. So you can see with the minshull crab cordon we actually have two stems, as it grew that way, so we're letting ti grow along two stems rather than one. Peter Nichol from the Northern Fruit Group is helping us learn how best to train the trees.
Grafting Workshop March 2012
Saturday 10th March 2012 saw us hosting another grafting workshop at the allotment site. We welcomed friends from Rylands Kitchen Garden, a community allotment project in Longford Park along to make some trees as part of the Longford Park Centenary celebrations. We also hosted Anna visiting from Glossop who is developing a communty allotment, plus 4 Orchard volunteers, and Rob from Moss Brook Growers who was attending to graft some Morello Cherries.
The session was run by Tom Adams from Shropshire. It will take a while to know if our efforts have been successful, but we had a wonderful day learning how. The session was funded by a Local Food grant.
Here are some photos of Tom and participants busy grafting pear, apple and cherry.
The session was run by Tom Adams from Shropshire. It will take a while to know if our efforts have been successful, but we had a wonderful day learning how. The session was funded by a Local Food grant.
Here are some photos of Tom and participants busy grafting pear, apple and cherry.
 |
| Lorna taping up the graft point |
 |
| Anna cutting the rootstock |
 |
| Hilary using a handing tool to graft |
 |
| Claire tidying up her scion before joining it to the rootstock |
 |
| Tom taping up the graft point on a cherry |
Trees planted March 4th 2012!
Despite the weather we planted more trees at the community orchard today. It stopped raining long enough for us to press on with the work.
Big thanks to everyone who helped: Lorna, Claire, Pete, Richard and Debbie.
We planted:
Apple Acklam Russet
Apple Balsam
Apple Golden Spire
Apple Hunt's House
Apple Merlin's apple
Apple New Bess Pool
Apple Newton Wonder
Apple Rosemary Russet
Apple Sisson's Worksop Newton
Pear Beth
Pear Onward
Cherry Stella
Cherry Morello
Quince Portugal
These were all purchased with the grant from Local Food which is part of the Big Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces programme to help communities enjoy and improve their local environments.
Some of the apple and pear trees were planted beside arches and will be trained to grow up and over the arches. The idea for this came from the Garden Organic orchard at Ryton Gardens. It will take many years for them to reach this size, but the picture shows what we have in mind.
An added bonus today was a surprise visit from Peter Nichol from the Northern Fruit Group. Peter came to drop off some scions for our grafting workshop next weekend, but we asked him to help us prune the trees, many thanks!
Big thanks to everyone who helped: Lorna, Claire, Pete, Richard and Debbie.
We planted:
Apple Acklam Russet
Apple Balsam
Apple Golden Spire
Apple Hunt's House
Apple Merlin's apple
Apple New Bess Pool
Apple Newton Wonder
Apple Rosemary Russet
Apple Sisson's Worksop Newton
Pear Beth
Pear Onward
Cherry Stella
Cherry Morello
Quince Portugal
These were all purchased with the grant from Local Food which is part of the Big Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces programme to help communities enjoy and improve their local environments.
Some of the apple and pear trees were planted beside arches and will be trained to grow up and over the arches. The idea for this came from the Garden Organic orchard at Ryton Gardens. It will take many years for them to reach this size, but the picture shows what we have in mind.
 |
| Apple Arch at Garden Organic's orchard |
An added bonus today was a surprise visit from Peter Nichol from the Northern Fruit Group. Peter came to drop off some scions for our grafting workshop next weekend, but we asked him to help us prune the trees, many thanks!
Grafted Tree news
This week, with the help of Peter Nichol from the Northern Fruit Group, the trees that were created at our March grafting workshop were pruned. Mainly this involved pruning out the growth underneath the graft, where the rootstock was growing vigourously. This was also an opportunity to look closely at how the trees were growing and to take the tape off a few to see how the union between the rootstock and the scion had taken.
For first time grafters there was some very good work (said Peter). None of the plum grafts took, but the rootstock has bulked up over the year, offering a better chance of success next year. The other interesting development is that where the grafting failed some of the rootstock has branched out - providing two stems on which to graft. This means we could grow a damson on one side and a greengage on the other (for example). These are called family trees, and are available commercially, but we will be able to choose material from particularly tasty plums or apples available on the allotment site or from other communtity orchards locally to graft.
We have 30 apple trees, some of which are duplicates. The most prolific grafters were Teresa and Natalia who both created 6 trees with Pete creating 5 trees.
For first time grafters there was some very good work (said Peter). None of the plum grafts took, but the rootstock has bulked up over the year, offering a better chance of success next year. The other interesting development is that where the grafting failed some of the rootstock has branched out - providing two stems on which to graft. This means we could grow a damson on one side and a greengage on the other (for example). These are called family trees, and are available commercially, but we will be able to choose material from particularly tasty plums or apples available on the allotment site or from other communtity orchards locally to graft.
We have 30 apple trees, some of which are duplicates. The most prolific grafters were Teresa and Natalia who both created 6 trees with Pete creating 5 trees.
Grafting Workshop
On Sunday 13th March OTAGS hosted a grafting workshop. This is how new fruit trees are made. You use 'rootstock' supplied from a specialist grower (so its disease free), with the rootstock chosen based on how small or large you want the tree to be. Then join material pruned from the tree you want to reproduce on to that rootstock - with a graft.
Peter Nichol from the Northern Fruit Group came to show us how and a very productive time was had by all. After spending an hour or so practising how to join the two pieces together, we set about the task of making trees for the orchard. By 3 pm we had grafted 40 trees.
It will take a few months before we will know if all of these have taken, but Peter re-assured us by saying that if any don't work he will show us how to bud - using the same rootstock.
For our orchard it was important to learn how to do this. Buying local heritage trees is expensive, and often they are not available. The idea is that a group of us will be able to continue to practice this skill, pass it on to others and make more trees for the orchard and to sell during our events, raising money to develop the allotment site.
We grafted: Allington Pippen, Ashmeads Kernel, Bee Bench, Bossom, Burr Knot, Crispin, D'Arcy Spice, Downton Pippin, Eccleston Pippen, Lemon Pippin, Laxton's Superb, Lord Derby, Lord Lambourne. Lord Suffield, Minshull Crab, Queen Cox, Stripped Beefing, Tydeman's Early Worcester, Withington Welter and Yorkshire Cockpit. All of these are apples which we grafted on to MM106 rootstock.
We also grafted some unknown apple and unknown plums, damsons and greengages varieties growing on our site. Later in the year we will host an apple identification workshop, where some of these varieties can be identified.
Peter Nichol from the Northern Fruit Group came to show us how and a very productive time was had by all. After spending an hour or so practising how to join the two pieces together, we set about the task of making trees for the orchard. By 3 pm we had grafted 40 trees.
It will take a few months before we will know if all of these have taken, but Peter re-assured us by saying that if any don't work he will show us how to bud - using the same rootstock.
For our orchard it was important to learn how to do this. Buying local heritage trees is expensive, and often they are not available. The idea is that a group of us will be able to continue to practice this skill, pass it on to others and make more trees for the orchard and to sell during our events, raising money to develop the allotment site.
We grafted: Allington Pippen, Ashmeads Kernel, Bee Bench, Bossom, Burr Knot, Crispin, D'Arcy Spice, Downton Pippin, Eccleston Pippen, Lemon Pippin, Laxton's Superb, Lord Derby, Lord Lambourne. Lord Suffield, Minshull Crab, Queen Cox, Stripped Beefing, Tydeman's Early Worcester, Withington Welter and Yorkshire Cockpit. All of these are apples which we grafted on to MM106 rootstock.
We also grafted some unknown apple and unknown plums, damsons and greengages varieties growing on our site. Later in the year we will host an apple identification workshop, where some of these varieties can be identified.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
