Nine Years Of Fruit Tree Pruning

Discussing The Job At Hand

The pruning of the fruit trees in the orchard has begun, albeit later than last winter when, by now, it had almost been completed. Once again the team received help and guidance from Chris Lanczak, Orchard Manager of Waterperry Gardens, who has been offering his wealth of knowledge on fruit tree pruning since February 2009, nine years of fruit tree pruning. 
The objectives following that first visit, were as follows; to formative prune the young trees; rejuvenate the oldest trees; prune the trees to produce a large crop of good quality fruit sufficient for juicing; reduce the height of many of the large, mature trees for easy picking; to open up the centre of the trees to create a goblet shape which would allow more light into the canopy to ripen the fruit. The results, well shaped young trees, rejuvenated mature trees, low, open canopies resulting in easily accessible fruit and increased, high yields of fruit for juicing as can be seen by the number of bottles now being produced, from just 360 in 2009 to 1058 in 2017!

One Year Scion Wood Successfully Grafted

One particular tree in the orchard was given special attention by Chris was the new family tree. A project started last spring to create an apple tree producing fourteen different Oxfordshire varieties on it, see blog entry for the 6th April 2017 'A New Oxfordshire Family Tree In The Orchard' . Of the 36 pieces of one year old scion wood that were grafted on to the host tree only a few have not taken, a successful first part of the project. The next step, to reduce the new growth by a third to a half, cutting off at an outward facing bud to creating side branches and a low, open canopy. Hopefully the first fruit will be picked in the autumn of 2019.  

Pruning The Oxfordshire Family Tree

Cutting A Third To A Half Off

Kieron And Chris Working Together

Growth Pruned By A Third To A Half

The Oxfordshire Family Tree