Some apples to look forward to and some most helpful weather!

Hot, dry weather, during July, in particular has always been a worry here. The light hungry land struggles to support well cropping trees, no matter what measures are taken short of irrigation – not an option. Some useful instalments of rainfall during June and a cooler airflow from The North as we begin July is a welcome combination. The remnants of the effect of a wet April are still evident when examining the water level in the well here – little wonder that the hedges are making such rampant growth!

Not a great image below but to illustrate the outline of the land at Crapes. Orientated south of Rectory Road. This map shows the barn in its former position before being moved to beside the road during the 1850s.

Four blocks, Potatoe Field being isolated at the west end, the odd shaped Barn Field, the long, narrow Long Field and Brickhouse Field being at the Eastern end.

The best soil is in Barnfield – less stoney and with more loam content. Long Field is very light over a band of gravel, Brickhouse Field being a mixture of stone and various grades if silty loam. Potatoes Field is very fine if cultivated, hungry and a tendency to be acidic – 4.5 – 5.0PH. In olden times it was common for landowners to make available a poor, odd piece of land for villagers to grow food – often called a Potatoe Field!

This soil is the result of melting glaciers washing southwards from the East Anglian Heights towards the flat lands of Essex towards the Thames.

As in my previous post, I am still mulling over the resulting fruit set. To my surprise a more even showing of fruit is evident in Potatoe Field, unlike both Barnfield and Longfield where fruit tends to be nearest the hedges and not in the field centre. The picture in Brickhouse Field is somewhere between the others. In all, probably more apples in total than 2022. That said, there is no one variety showing ‘heavily’.

An interesting observation may be made regarding Potatoe Field. This block invariably is ‘different’. In the past it has caught hail in isolation, also it is more likely to succumb to Spring frosts as it is so sheltered by an ancient wood to the southwest and the established garden of the Old Rectory to the north. It was this plot where, in 1993, we discovered the natural predator for fruit tree red spidermite busily devouring a difficult pest under our noses. This year a Field of Oil Seed Rape happens to be alongside the ancient woodland – there is none further east.

Remember the warmer than usual nights during April and early May – warm enough, perhaps for more night time activity of beetles feeding on pollen, particularly pollen beetles being blown in from the OSR. It is quite possible, that being very sheltered, the night time temperatures were more favourable for nocturnal pollinators.

Yes, we have beehives on the premises, both in Potatoe Field and along the hedge between Longfield and Brickhouse Field – they don’t fly at night and they were not seen in apple flowers during the daytime. They are slowly building up and are now working local crops of Borage and hedgerow blackberry. Bumble bees are busy, also.

A cool first week of July ahead with some more rain promised mid week – excellent!