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This list is an aide memoire for people helping to select trees for new plantings as community orchards.
Species and Varieties:
The orchard will be owned by the community, and the community should contribute to the selection of both fruit species and varieties.
Ask what they want; both species, and what varieties they would like, if they know. The majority of members of a community that wants to plant an orchard will have a view on this, and will expect to contribute to the choice.
Many community members will not be very familiar with fruit although most groups have some member/s that is more familiar. They generally will lead on decision making.
Where a community sources funding by members sponsoring specific trees they will want that tree to generate good and useful crops; so unless a variety is requested stick to known reliable varieties.
Ensure that the orchard has a large proportion of widely liked and productive crop varieties. Ensure that the community understand that some fruit species and varieties are an acquired taste and too many will reduce the crops utility.
We have found that an over emphasis of cooking apples vars can happen. Also that Bramley’s Seedling is the most popular and has the longest useful life and can be expected to be required in every situation.
Don’t forget to ask about plums, gages, damsons and pears. A small orchard of say 10 trees could be 6 apples 2 pears and 2 plums/damsons/gages. One of the most reliable cropping and very well appreciated is one of the heavy cropping damsons such as Aylesbury, Shropshire, Langley, Bradley etc.
Pollination may not be an issue with apples but with 2 pears and 2 plums it will be. A mixed orchard of over 20 (say 12 + 4 + 4) is generally able to pollinate within the range of 20 different trees.
Rarely more than one quince and one medlar are required and both are self- fertile and very productive in time.
Ensure that the difficulties of growing peaches, apricots and cherries are fully understood. Advise against these unless there is a clear understanding of what is needed to obtain a realistic crop! Sweet cherries (P avium), even the self-fertile varieties are rarely successful unless undercover. Morello cherries (P cerasus) can be very successful but the community needs to understand that these are primarily for cooking. Cobnuts too require very specific management and if this management seems unlikely to be maintained advise against.
You can expect to be asked for local origination varieties, but an over emphasis on these can excluded the most well-known and well-liked varieties. Remember that some local varieties are better than others and try to know which is which. An example from Suffolk: apples Lady Henniker, Honey Pippin, St. Edmunds Russet and Sturmer (shared with Essex) are all well worth growing. Thorpeness is an excellent early apple often and easily missed. The remaining Suffolk origination varieties are rarely of value, or there are better more widely grown alternatives, or will crop better in a different environment (Plum Coe’s Golden Drop).
Suffolk (and all other counties) has a history of growing specific varieties (from many origins) that do well and have been well liked. An example for Suffolk is Mere de Ménage a brightly coloured early baking apple. These can be added in larger sites.
One way of creating a uniquely local orchard is to include varieties already grown and liked in the region/area/parish area. This is not always possible but there is help to train local grafters or find odd varities from Orchards East. Always worth asking.
Schools need a collection that is ripe when the children are there, so avoid fruit ripe from end July to mid-September, such as early/summer apples and pears (e.g. Robin, Hessle, Jargonelle, etc.) almost all plums and gages (although Marjorie’s Seedling ripens later). Damsons for jam making in Sept/Oct are popular.
Some unfamiliar varieties of fruit are worthwhile promoting in larger sites, a few suggestions are the very long keeping cooking apples such as Norfolk Beefing and cooking pears/Wardens such as Catillac and Black Worcester, the very small but intensely flavoured apples like Pitmaston Pineapple and Yellow Ingestrie, red-fleshed apples like Red Devil and others.
Increasingly we are asked for cider apple (and perry pears). Make the point that cider can be made with any apples (and was in East Anglia). The specialist apple vars are these with high tannin content (known as bitter-sweets and bitter-sharps) which were added to the mix. Reliable varieties are Tom Putt (b-sweet), Kingston Black (b-sharp) and Hereford Redstreak (b-sharp).
Tree forms and rootstocks (some selected notes)
Our general policy is to plant traditional orchards (as defined by the JNCC definition on large growing rootstocks) wherever possible. We are more flexible than Natural England’s limitations for Stewardship (only those in bold below are grant aided without written derogation for Stewardship) and consider that, of the currently available rootstocks in the UK, the following are suitable:
Apples; MM111, M25 and Bittenfelder
Pears; Pyrodwarf, wild pear/Pyrus communis and Kirkensaller
All plums, gages, cherry plums, and damsons; Myrobalan B (probably not available in the UK), St Julien A, Brompton. There is little difference in final height between these rootstocks for most varieties.
Cherries, Colt and F12.2 ( Colt is less satisfactory making a smaller tree)
These stocks will all tolerate growing in extensive grassland, without a clear ground are around the trunk.
A “traditional orchard” may not be possible or practical in all situations; for examples schools and some prisons (with height restrictions), very small sites and some garden sites.
One year maidens, with one year’s growth after propagation come in two forms – not usually specified by the nursery.
Trees grafted in late winter will be on sale as bare-root the following winter and usually offered in pots, less often as bare root trees.
Tree budded in late summer and sold in winter as bare root trees 15-18 months later will generally be larger, up to 2m approx.
Trees sold in their second year (usually as bare root trees) if uncut/untopped are called straight leads, and may or may not, be feathered i.e. with side-shoots. If already topped they may be called standards (topped at about 2-2.5m) or half standards topped at about 1.3-1.5m, topped below 1m and with side branches, they may be called bush or if event smaller knip (a Dutch term for a trees already part trained to be a dwarf tree). In East Anglia almost all trees are half-standards and these are the most suited to community orchards in permanent grassland. This does not mean that other tree forms cannot be trained to be half-standards. In general select/prefer straight leads or half- standards as they are easiest to prune to a half-standard form, and avoid knip (which anyways are usually on more dwarfing rootstocks).
Paul Read
November 2018