Coppice Orchards & Own rootstock fruit trees
Graham Burnett
I was on a Trees & Permaculture course run by Bryn Thomas & Ben Law last
year- Bryn was talking to us about your coppice orchard project- I thought
it might be of interest to this group if you could post up some info about
this, or maybe put your leaflets about this online, also maybe more stuff
about the own rootstock fruit trees work you are doing?
Cheers,
--
Graham Burnett
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philcorbett
much detail but thats really for deciding on an individual site basis. A
site was developed at Ragman's Lane Farm but abandoned at the end of last
year due to serious deer damage and I couldn't afford the 2 metre fencing
needed. There is another smaller site planned at Steven Read's place in
Brittany.
THE OWN-ROOT FRUIT TREE PROJECT
[funded by the profits of Cool Temperate Plants and Services]
This project is based on the unpublished work of Hugh Ermen, formerly of
Brogdale Horticultural Experimental Station and now retired and breeding new
varieties of fruit trees.
Hugh discovered that there are several advantages in growing apples on
their own roots [OR], i.e. not grafted onto a rootstock. Those advantages
are:
- better health - although not altering the basic susceptibility of the
variety to disease
- fruit development is typical of the variety, giving:-
- best possible flavour
- best storage life
- typical fruit size for the variety
- best overall fruit quality
- best fruit set, given adequate pollination. Fruit from OR trees have
more seeds, indicating increased fertility.
It is highly likely that the degree of self-fertility is increased.
The only disadvantage of OR trees is that most varieties are more vigorous
than is usually wanted. This means that trees may make a lot of wood at the
expense of fruit bud production, giving big trees that take a long time to
come into crop. Conventionally this vigour would be controlled by grafting
onto a dwarfing rootstock. With OR trees a number of traditional techniques
are used to induce early cropping. Once cropping begins the tree's energies
are channeled into fruit production and growth slows down to a controllable
level. The techniques which are usually sufficient to bring about cropping
are:
- withholding nitrogen [which stimulates growth] and withholding irrigation
[except in serious drought]
- tying down 1 and 2 year old branches to the horizontal. This induces fruit
bud formation.
- Summer pruning [induces fruit buds]and avoiding winter pruning [which
stimulates regrowth]
Once cropping has begun a normal feeding and watering regime can begin. The
average cropping OR tree can be maintained at a size very slightly larger
than a tree on MM106 rootstock.
Unfortunately Hugh's O.R. trees at Brogdale have now been destroyed for
redevelopment of the site. The ORFT Project is busy propagating OR trees for
planting in our trial grounds. We hope to have OR trees for sale when we
have filled our immediate needs on site.
OR fruit trees may be just as 'coppice-able' as other trees, and may be
useful where damage from gales, animals or vandals is likely. Without a
graft union trees can be planted deeper, and multi-stem trees with a crotch
below ground level will be harder to uproot.
'Coppice-ability' is also the basis of our "Coppice Orchard" . This consists
of OR trees planted in rows running north-south. When the canopy of the
orchard closes, a north - south row will be coppiced and the land in the row
used for light demanding crops, e.g. vegetables on a no-dig system, while
the trees regrow. The trees either side of the glade will have higher light
levels on their sides and produce more fruit buds. The next year another
north - south row is cut but not the immediate neighbours as these will have
the extra buds, so the next row for coppicing will be next-door-but-one. In
other words this will be Alternate Row Coppicing. This process is repeated
every year, creating a series of parallel , sheltered glades. Eventually the
rows of trees forming the avenues between the glades will also be coppiced
in turn, but by then the 'glade' trees will have regrown to form the
avenues. As the trees regrow there will be glades at all stages of regrowth
until the cycle repeats itself, and niches for plants suited to full light,
semi-shade or heavy shade, creating opportunities for different types of
land use. The number of years before re-coppicing [and so the length of the
coppicing cycle] is one of the many aspects of the project that we will only
learn by doing it. The exact timing of coppicing can be adjusted to suit the
type of produce that is wanted most.
Apart from apples, the main planting sites of the orchard also have OR pears
and plums, hazelnuts, and nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs.
Instead of just producing fruit the coppice orchard can produce a wide range
of crops - small wood, fruit, soft fruit, vegetables, possibly cereals,
fungi and the more traditional bees and poultry.
Another possible yield might be heat from Jean Pain type 'heat heaps' using
woodchips and other shredded orchard wastes. These heaps slowly compost and
can yield heat over 15 months, so that a heap the size of a garage can give
enough heat to provide hot water and heating for a small house over two
winters. And when the heat stops you are left with a large pile of compost!
There is an old Chinese proverb that says 'fertility follows in the
footsteps of the farmer' which is reworked as the permaculture principle
'Fertility Follows Attention'. In the coppice orchard there is the potential
for producing a great range of our needs in a single system, and
productivity should benefit from our attention not being divided between
vegetable plot, orchard, woodland, etc. The rotation of crops avoids disease
build-ups, and if all residues are returned to the site there should be a
build up of fertility. The plan is to include nitrogen fixing and soil
conditioning plants, insectary plants to support useful insects, bird and
bumble bee nest boxes, small ponds for amphibians and hedgehogs and
generally to maximize the natural diversity, and yields, of the site.
By using Cool Temperate Plants and Services you are supporting this exciting
project. I hope you will agree that it is rich in potential.
Thankyou for your support. Phil Corbett
"Graham Burnett" <gb00...@cableinet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:x_pQ6.25803$PQ5.3...@news1.cableinet.net...
Reedbed
news:DLrQ6.8195$WD.20...@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com...
> As requested here's my basic coppice orchard info sheet. It doesn't go
into
> much detail but thats really for deciding on an individual site basis. A
> site was developed at Ragman's Lane Farm but abandoned at the end of last
> year due to serious deer damage and I couldn't afford the 2 metre fencing
> needed. There is another smaller site planned at Steven Read's place in
> Brittany.
<SNIP excellent description >
Hi Phil
This is great stuff.
So are the trees coppiced back to near ground level, same as willows etc.,
or pollarded ?
Are there any varieties that do better than others ?
How are the branches kept horizontal ? Is this just by pruning, or do you
use ties or weights ?
Do you have a picture - I'm trying to visualise the shape ?
Presumably we can take cuttings from our various fruit varieties - any
recommendations as to best type of cutting (ie. softwood, ripewood,
hardwood... etc...)
This idea could be worth trying here, as our soil is very lacking in Nitrate
and is mildly acidic.
Now where's the secateurs...
Thanks,
Mark.
philcorbett
I'm intending to coppice - ie. cutting a few inches above ground level. You
could pollard instead. My model is treating fruit trees like forest trees,
cropping timber products as well as fruit. You can't do this with grafted
trees as you'd lose the scion.
Best varieties are those that produce abundant spurs - they come into heavy
cropping sooner and so are easier to control.
Tying down is the initial shaping technique. 1 & 2 yr old shoots kept to
near horizontal. Tied to stakes or to lower stem if suitable. I've found
weights can cause trouble in gales.
The best tree shape for cropping is the pyramid. The basic shaping method is
the same for normal grafted trees grown as pyramids so a good fruit handbook
should show the principles and final shape.
Not many fruit trees are reliable from cuttings. Plums are easier. If you
want to try cuttings use greenwood cuttings, taken about now in the UK.
[where are you based?].
I use Nurse Grafting to get trees onto their own roots - this technique is
about 50% sucessful and less demanding in aftercare than greenwood cuttings.
Re: your soil. One of the great things about OR trees is that their
vigorous, efficient roots enable them to grow well in poorer sites. Poorer
soils may help vigour control and the roots will search the soil thoroughly
for nutrients. I have been amazed by the variety Katy [ = Katja] which when
1 metre tall [about 2 yrs old] had substantial roots over 2 metres long
exploring under the perforated plastic mulch I use for footpaths! Apart from
the original tree in Sweden, Katy roots have probably never been seen, and
it seems we're cutting ourselves from a lot of knowledge by automatically
grafting fruit trees.
cheers, Phil.
"Reedbed" <ree...@gofree.indigo.ie> wrote in message
news:HhyQ6.35196$PF4....@news.iol.ie...
Ute Bohnsack
alt.permaculture website?
Better still if you had photos of the site? You could mail them to me and I can
integrate them into a page.
Ute
philcorbett
no site at present. Most of the trees are sitting in containers in my
backyard. Cheers, Phil.
"Ute Bohnsack" <sus...@eircom.net> wrote in message
news:3B12A679...@eircom.net...
Ute Bohnsack
Will do.