There’s never been a better time to go self-sufficient. In our ongoing series, Sally Coulthard shares tried-and-tested tips from her Yorkshire smallholding
THIS MONTH Pruning the orchard
I was faffing about in the farmhouse last month and heard the most extraordinary noise coming from the orchard. What began with a few loud cracks suddenly turned into almighty thunder followed by a deafening thump. I dashed outside to find that a huge limb had fallen off one of the ancient apple trees and flattened the fence below, narrowly missing Iris the sheep.
It was at that point I realised I had missed last year’s pruning. It has been a bumper year for apples and the tree – aBramley’s Seedling planted over a century ago – was groaning under the weight of its heavy pomes. Most of our apples are old varieties and late ripening – only coming into their own in October or early November – so we usually pick most of the fruit then. Late harvest varieties such as Ashmead’s Kernel or Nutmeg Pippin were always a favourite on farms and smallholdings: they often keep very well, their flavour improving in storage.
Once we’ve stripped the trees, like greedy locusts, in normal years we start tackling the pruning. The period between November and the end of February is ideal for free-standing apple and pear trees as they will be dormant (espalier and other trained apples, and stone fruit trees such as cherries, tend to be pruned in late summer). Pruning is supposed to take out some of the old wood and encourage the growth of new – most apple varieties grow their best fruit on branches between one and four years old. Pruning also prevents overcrowding on the tree canopy. Apples need light and air: sunlight encourages the fruit to ripen, while gentle breezes and air movement prevent disease. You can also get to the stage that we got to, where the tree becomes so heavy with fruit that an entire section tears off. There is much written about the art of pruning by people with far more experience than me. The RHS (rhs.org.uk) and The Orchard Project (theorchardproject.org.uk, see overleaf ) have great guides to winter pruning, fruit tree training and what to do with newly planted trees.
I always err on the side of under-pruning rather than hackin
