Author: Lynsey Payne

Winter Pruning

Lynsey Payne Uncategorized

I have just finished the last of the winter pruning jobs for this season. I have pruned large M25 trees, vigorous mm106 apples and nice tidy dwarf m9 trees. It’s satisfying to be able to sort and tame some very big trees, many of which will need more thinning out next year as they will no doubt react with a lot of unwanted shoots. The aim of course is always to encourage healthy fruiting buds in the trees. Pears are already opening buds, so spring is on the way, so get on and finish those pruning jobs!

Winter Woes

Lynsey Payne Uncategorized Tags:

The 8 weeks of frozen ground was totally unforeseen this year and it prevented me from lifting my bare root trees for the many orders received. We have now gone from deep freeze to summer conditions and almost drought in a matter of weeks! Fab for getting new trees planted and next year’s rootstocks in the ground.

I have also been setting up a multi-cropping ‘agro-orchard’ research plot with currently 9 varieties under trial. The aim is for high production system for the supply of dessert quality apples to the Scottish Organic market. This will be extended year on year, with various vegetable and soft fruits planted between each long row of apples. The trees have been grafted onto M9 and M26 stocks for ease of picking and for high productivity at 1.2m spacing. I will report on this project regularly over the next few years.

This is March 19th, and my Jargonelle and Durondeau pears have opening buds, and the Scots Dumpling and Arbroath Oslin are vying to be be the first apple buds to open up.

Green Manures – Summer Update

Lynsey Payne Uncategorized

I have stopped using a plastic strip as a mulch this year between my wee two year old growing trees and have been experimenting with green manures instead. I have also been trialling various multicrops between the rows to try to gauge an idea of what’s possible.  So, I sowed or planted the following into clean soil between the trees back in the spring:

1  Crimson Clover

2 Heritage Wheat Varieties

3 Strawberries

4 Raspberries

5 Saskatoons

6 Phacelia

7 Mustard

8 Buckwheat

So my aims were really to find a way to control weeds without using plastic mulches and possibly to get an extra crop between closely spaced trees in the orchard.  So far, ( July 2020 ),  some of the results are promising, others I would not try again.

Mustard

The first batch of clover is working very well to control weeds, the second and third sown a few weeks later are very weedy.  It will of course add nitrogen to the soil. The row of wheat is very weedy too, but holding its ears above the weeds.  So timing is crucial. Both the strawberries and raspberries needed hand weeding and may be worthwhile expanding to more rows. Neither have cropped yet.

Phacelia

The Buckwheat took a long time to germinate and does not really suppress weeds. The mustard grew fast and rather thickly, and certainly worked well as did the phacelia. I passed a mower over the mustard to prevent it seeding last week. Other areas of weeds were either strimmed or mown regularly, and the grassed down areas have been hard work after the spring drought we had.  The saskatoons are starting to fill up the space between rows of trees, how they will compete with the rows of apples trees time will tell.

So I will update this as I have more information to part…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid-Summer Madness

Lynsey Payne Uncategorized

I guess I should have been blogging during all the spare time I’ve had during lockdown but actually I have been very busy. Trees of course need watering, mostly twice a day,  and when the rain did finally come, the weeds came too! The polytunnel was emptied of pots to reduce the amount of watering to do, and in the hope of at least a bit of help from the clouds!

Next years trees had to be weeded, cut back and next years rootstocks tied up and weeded. I also potted up a lot of trees which have been selling well at the farm. Unfortunately I havn’t been able to get either paid or volunteer help this spring, so there were some tiring days!

Sarah took on the work of the herbs and has some very nice plants for sale at the farm. There are signs of the markets opening up again, so watch this space for Portabello and Logierait markets running this summer.

I have also been laying out a new orchard for myself, and experimenting with various crops and green manures between the rows. There will be more on agro-orchards in a later blog.

Those heavy frosts back in May destroyed a good number of fruits in Scotland, and even more so the very strong easterly wind which browned off a lot of new leaves especially along the east coast. I always recommend good shelterbelts in and around your fruit trees and that’s exactly the reason why.

Now’s the time to cover up your fattening fruits with netting, our Juneberries, Saskatoons, Jostaberrries etc. will all get a cloak very soon. Strawberries are in season, and soon there vwill be raspberries in the hedgerows.

I made several nest boxes earlier this year and am  pleased to report 2 blue tit’s and one great tit each took up residence in one!

The good weather and the quiet roads has enabled me to cycle most days so my carbon footprint is very low this year. Normally I would have been away to sunny France, but hey ho, there’s always next year…

Now the rooklets have hatched, its time for a good Summer Solstice bonfire!

oh btw I’m currently building a compost toilet as a break from weeding……

 

 

 

Blossoming Pears

Lynsey Payne Appletree Happenings, Appletree Research, Cooking Apples, Dessert Apples, Fruit Press, Pears, Uncategorized

Its that time of year again when we all get anxious about whether there will be a fruit crop this year. I love the pear flowers when they are just opening and the anthers are bright red, and wow what a quantity of them on Jargonelle, Beurre Hardy and Christie in my garden!  After a good number of frosts last week, we now have bright sunny bee flying days with warm nights so all is good?  What can go wrong? After all we only need a small quantity of these blossoms to get pollinated in order to get a good crop. Go on, count the flowers and imagine the weight of fruit if they all turned to a full crop. The trees would collapse!

I used to bank on April 23rd as the first apple flower day, but this year again it is early.. my Arbroath Oslin and James Grieve have opened a few flowers a few days early. No need to run around with a rabbit’s tail this year as i have seen many earnestly working bees today. Keep up the good work girls!

Pear Stamens

 

Orchard Offerings: New Year Bargains

Lynsey Payne Chat Appletree News, Appletree Shop, Fruit Press, Winter

Every couple of weeks until March we will release a new Orchard Offering. Each offer will be strictly limited, and available on a first-come-first-served basis. Be quick!

Offer 3 Sold Out

Berberis_thunbergii_Japanese_Barberry_1000

5 x JAPANESE BARBERRY (Berberis thunbergii) f

With red edible fruits, this jaggy Barberry makes a great and attractive informal hedge, and the roots yield a yellow dye. Root bark can be used medicinally as an antibacterial. It grows in any soil except waterlogged and a sunny position will encourage fruiting and lovely colour in Autumn.

They come in 3 litre pots, and can be collected from the nursery or a market we’re attending.

 

 

And then drop us a message (email@plantsandapples.com) to let us know when you’d like to collect!

Offer 2 Sold Out

Saskatoon Berries

4 x Saskatoon ‘Smoky’

To be collected from the nursery or a market we’re attending

Saskatoons are a large and tough Canadian deciduous shrub that suckers and produces delicious black fruits in June. Saskatoons berries look much like blueberries – though they are more closely related to the apple family – and they don’t need acid soil like blueberries. Saskatoon ‘Smoky’ are one of the most productive and widely used varieties and have large sweet berries with good yields. Ideal for your allotment, fruit cage, orchard or forest garden!

And then drop us a message (email@plantsandapples.com) to let us know when you’d like to collect!

Offer 1 Sold Out

1b0c4787-d0d2-4273-a3fc-3008d7111c64

10 x Belle de Boskoop Apple Trees on M26 rootstocks 

About Belle de Boskoop

Eater & cooker. Discovered in the nursery district of Boskoop near Gouda, Netherlands, in 1856. Widely grown in Holland, Germany and Belgium. Award of merit, RHS, in 1897. You can buy it in the markets of France and Belgium. My young cordon has given me a bucketful of delicious, large, firm, and juicy fruit every year so far. It’s a lovely apple, maybe it should be more widely grown?

About M26

M26 will produce a tree around 10 feet tall and in my garden with lots of fruit. Good for cordons or small espaliers. Will start to produce quantities of fruit in a couple of years.

Find out more about rootstocks here.

Want to hear about future offers? Stay in touch on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook!

Step-by-step Guide to Tree Planting

Lynsey Payne Status Apple Bytes, Appletree Training, Fruit Press, Winter

For those of you who are unsure how to plant one of our fruit trees, here is a step-by-step guide and a few tips…

1. Dig the hole deep enough for the tree roots and then knock in the post. keep your tree in its bag.

2. Spread the roots out without curling them around as in this photo. Dig the hole a bit wider if necessary.

3 . Tread down the soil firmly against the roots with your heel.
4   Put a proper tie  to go around the post and tree.
5. Water the tree roots.

6. Put on a mulch mat.

7. Guard the tree against Voles, Rabbits and Deer. (Well, get a tree guard, don’t stand there all day!)

Not ordered your trees yet? Take a look at our varieties and availability!

Become a Fruit Tree Expert in 2019

Lynsey Payne Appletree News, Appletree Training, Fruit Press, Winter

Fruit Tree Workshop Image 1 1000

This new year, we are running ‘Fruit Tree Expert 2019‘ at Blackhaugh Community Farm – a series of workshops for the new and improving fruit tree grower.

Workshops are led by Andrew Lear, who puts over 30 years of horticultural knowledge into practice by teaching and advising orchard groups and owners throughout Scotland, and propagating our heritage varieties of fruit.

Each workshop is £20 per person. Numbers will be limited for practical reasons. Please reserve your place below via Paypal, or enquire at email@plantsandapples.com.

Notes for participants: There will be lots of opportunities to ask questions during the workshop. We recommend bringing water and a packed lunch, or some snacks to keep you going. Facilities for making hot drinks will be available at the farm.

Workshop 1: Winter Pruning (SOLD OUT)

Date: Sunday 27 January, 10:00 – 15:00
Location: Blackhaugh Community Farm, Spittalfield, Perth PH1 4JZ
Description: In this workshop, we will look at the theory of winter pruning followed by a trip to a local orchard for hands-on practical experience. Bring your own secateurs and loppers if you have them.

Sorry, this workshop has now sold out. Why not join our mailing list to hear about our future courses?

Workshop 2: Grafting Fruit Trees (SOLD OUT)

Date: Sunday 24 February, 10:00 – 15:00
Location: Blackhaugh Community Farm, Spittalfield, Perth PH1 4JZ
Description: In this practical and theoretical workshop, you will be able to graft and take away your own tree at the end of the session. This workshop involves the use of very sharp knives so an element of competence with them will be a pre-requisite!

Sorry, this workshop has now sold out. Why not join our mailing list to hear about our future courses?

Workshop 2.5: Spring Foraging Day

Date: Saturday 11 May, 10:00 – 13:00
Location: Blackhaugh Community Farm, Spittalfield, Perth PH1 4JZ
Description:  Join us for a discussion of native edible plants, wild food and perennial vegetables, followed by a trip around the farm to forage our lunch!

Workshop 3: Fruit for the Permaculture Garden (Last few places!)

Date: Sunday 23 June, 10:00 – 15:00
Location: Blackhaugh Community Farm, Spittalfield, Perth PH1 4JZ
Description: We will learn about the wide range of fruit trees and shrubs that make up the structure of a Permaculture Garden in Scotland. We will demonstrate how to cultivate a diverse and fruitful forest garden, finishing with an exercise to design a garden at the farm with your newfound knowledge.

Reserve your place, via Paypal:

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Workshop 4: Summer Pruning and Training of Fruit trees

Date: Sunday 21 July, 10:00 – 15:00
Location: Blackhaugh Community Farm, Spittalfield, Perth PH1 4JZ
Description: We will discuss the theory of summer pruning and training in this workshop, and draw up plans for a garden of trained fruit at the farm in the afternoon. Various methods of training, tying and protecting will be demonstrated.

Reserve your place, via Paypal:

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Workshop 5: Budding of Fruit Trees (NEW DATE)

Date: Saturday 24 August, 10:00 – 15:00
Location: Blackhaugh Community Farm, Spittalfield, Perth PH1 4JZ
Description: In this workshop, we will cover the theory and practice of propagating fruit trees professionally. We will demonstrate good budding technique and you will have the opportunity to have a go yourself under field conditions at the farm.

Reserve your place, via Paypal:

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Workshop 6: Planning and Planting Orchards (NEW WORKSHOP)

Date: Saturday 12 October, 10:00 – 15:00
Location: Blackhaugh Community Farm, Spittalfield, Perth PH1 4JZ
Description: We will be covering the theory around how to successfully design and plant up an orchard, and cover your own projects. There will be practical work on the farm to hone your skills! £20 per person. Please reserve your place on email@plantsandapples.com or 07749987213.

Is there a workshop missing? Let us know if there’s something else you’d like to learn from us by emailing: email@plantsandapples.com

Stay in touch on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook!

Plants for Beer

Lynsey Payne Appletree Places, Cider & Ale, Fruit Trees, Uncategorized

We have just spent a mini-break in Copenhagen, and as usual landed up in a botanic garden!

 

It’s a lovely walk up from the city centre through pleached crab apple hedges and on to a  park containing some lovely specimens of  Cornelian cherries. This tree bears edible fruit, many of which were on the floor, though they are reputedly rather astringent, and also used from Greece to Russia for distilling or for making liqueurs. The yellow flowers in spring are a delight in gardens in the UK too. I can’t recall ever seeing the fruit  on the trees here though.  Maybe this warm summer induced some fruiting?

In through some buildings and out into the botanics,  one of the first things you come across is a marvellous series of beds laid out with hops and other plants used in the beer industry in Scandinavia. I’m not going to list all the plants of interest here, go and see for yourself!

 

As well as a few remaining hop plants, there are many different herbs and grains here including this Rye plant, which i wouldn’t have recognised.

Next to the Beer garden is a good display of European native plants, to the untrained eye it looks like a big patch of weeds! Which actually many of them are!

Beyond this we came across a group of quinces, upon which the smell from  masses of  ripening fruits was almost overpowering!

The final lasting impression I had was of the many Mistletoe plants on the trees in the surrounding woodland area, giving an impression almost of a tropical forest of Bromeliads.

Cox Apples

Lynsey Payne Status Fruit Press, Uncategorized

An unusual occurrence this year! Well not the drought, but I am genuinely astonished to see little Cox Apples growing this year on an M26 open grown bush tree. In it’s 7 years this is by far the most productive season.

Cox Orange Pippins, to be correct, are a very well known late ripening sweet, with a hint of acid, apples familiar to us all in the supermarkets. We have been developing this fruit in Kent for a century, to the neglect of many more easily produced varieties. Because in fact it is notoriously difficult, even in good summers, needing a lot of spraying and watering. And for the commercial grower, it just isn’t as remunerative as other moderns.

But, hey, we like to munch this little apple in January don’t we? It is the “crisp’ that all my customers refer to in their choice of variety. It is thought to be derived from Ribston Pippin, which is altogether a much more vigorous tree though not that productive in Scotland either. Except for this year with a good number of fruits appearing on my trees. I look forward to tasting this highly esteemed Parent of Cox!

If you have a nice south facing wall, then yes go for a Cox, preferably the self-fertile clone. Otherwise, go for Sunset, the nearest option. Again quite small, but productive in my garden and elsewhere.

Charles Ross has some Cox parentage, but it is larger, and really a dual purpose apple. It has that characteristic russetting though.

Jupiter is the triploid version, its big, ribbed and very colourful. It makes for a spectacular sight in September.

Kidd’s Orange Red has many similarities, its larger too and a late ripener, and a lovely flavour.  Tydeman’s Late Orange is another Cox hybrid, being crossed with Laxton’s Superb it makes a nice late dessert.

Happy munching 2018!

Kidd's

Kidd’s Orange Red