22nd May 2024

In excess of 60mm  of rain has fallen here within twenty four hours.

Just a week ago I was able to pulverise the lying prunings as the land showed evidence of drying – a window of oppurtunity, very much. In all a total of 75mm since last Wednesday.

The sun certainly has some power in it when there are no obscuring clouds. My preferred hat for the orchard was home made many years ago, it is now rather bedraggled but has survived several passes under the pulveriser, oily hands and general abuse between visits through a washing machine. The important attribute is that it covers my baldness beneath the strap on my ear mufflers.

Just now I am the wearer of another hat – that of an executor. A duty to serve in a final act of responsibility to my late mother. This task has reminded me of many past happenings within the greater family, introduced me to events that at their time I was too young to appreciate and in particular has enabled me to see the trends in apple production here over many years – quite an eye opener!

Back to the nearly present and many of you will have noticed how green and lush your lawns grew even well into November and how quickly they regained momentum during January. The grass plant needs a soil temperature of 6 degrees Centigrade to make growth. A slightly different measurement – traditional apple varieties, like are grown at Crapes, need 1,000 hours of chill temperatures below an air temperature of 6 degrees Centigrade. For the soil to warm enough to make your lawn grsss grow the air temperature needs to be well above 6 degrees Centigrade.

You will see that this last wintet the necessary 1,000 hours of required chill just did not happen. In fact for several successive winters recently there has been a very borderline situation.

So, what happens if there is insufficient chilling during the winter months. Putting it very simply the fruit buds need a set chilling period to initiate a viable blossom whicb is capable of being pollinated and for successful growth of the pollen tube to form seeds in the receptacle which eventually forms the end product – an apple!

This phenoema is the same for other fruits. Some apples varieties require more chilling than others. Some modern varieties – which are not grown at Crapes – have been bred and selected to require fewer hours of winter chill and are successful.

In many cases the trees appear to blossom normally, but appearance does not guarantee viability regardless of how much cross pollination can be achieved.

The first variety with which we noticed a problem here was Ribston Pippin which is thought to have originated from near Rouen – some way south of here in France. For many years, a regular, consistent, cropper. During the last 15 years gradually the yield has dropped whilst the varieties either side were continuing as usual, but now, they too and overall  the fruit set is declining. This is the second successive blossoming when early morning frosts have not been a problem.

Browsing through archival material has illustrated to me the marked effect that ‘global warming’ , for whatever reason, is having on apple production. Of course, greater warmth earlier, more sporadic rainfall both timing and volume have an effect on the growth of root and branch, not to overlook the erratic behaviour exhibited by insects. Lighter crops usually invlove larger individual fruits which themselves dpn’t hold condition so well.

Back in the 1920s no fruit grower in Essex would have dreamed that such a scenario would be witnessed some one hundred years later. It has and it is ongoing, whats more its too late to reverse it.

If you are reading this in Scotland, now is the tine to be planting apple trees – out of the path of your winds!