The Orchard Project started 15 years ago, and in that time we have helped create over 500 community orchards across the UK.
We remain involved with these community orchards in the crucial first two years after planting to make sure the trees get the aftercare they need to establish, and we train the community group in aftercare skills like pruning and watering. After that, we like to keep in contact through newsletters, social media and workshops etc., but inevitably we do lose touch with some.
So this July our staff spent a week visiting as many orchards as they could, especially older ones we hadn’t heard from in a while. We wanted to see whether the trees were still alive and well, and if the community was still involved.
An apple tree doing well at one of the first orchards we helped to plant at Roehampton University in London.
What to look out for?
Summer is a good time of year to survey, because the trees should be covered in green leaves and fruit. If they are not, then you know they are not in the best of health.
The first thing we did was look at the tree canopies to see if they had plenty of leaves, or if the leaves were a bit sparse. We also looked for signs of pests and disease – some are inevitable though and are not necessarily a threat, such as rust on pear trees, which is very common.
You can also gauge how well a tree is growing by measuring how much the branches have grown in the last year. The new growth tends to be lighter in colour than the previous year’s growth, and there will be some rings around the branch (the ‘terminal bud scar’) to indicate where the old growth ended and the new growth began.
General maintenance
We also examined stakes and guards to see if they were rubbing against the tree causing wounds or restricting growth.
Post rubbing against the trunk of a cherry tree, causing a wound.
We looked at the general shape of the trees. Did they have lots of crossing branches, or suckers around the base that needed a prune? Sometimes with older fruit trees, you get vigorous suckers growing up from the rootstock at the base of the trunk, and these can compete with the tree.
Some other things we checked for were any signs of strimmer or mower damage around the base of the trees. If new trees had recently been planted in the orchard we checked to see if they needed weeding and mulching.
Next steps
We were happy to discover that in most cases the orchards were doing well with lots of fruit, like this apple tree on a housing estate in Hackney.
We passed on our advice for the orchards onto to the community groups. For example, we visited an orchard in Manchester where the trees were growing well but had rabbit guards around them where moss and soil was collecting (see photo below). This can rot the tree trunks. We fed that back to the group who have now removed the guards. At another orchard we visited, the grass was being left to grow long in the orchard, which is great for habitat. However, there were also some newly planted trees, so we suggested the group weed and mulch around those to help them establish.
In cases where there was no longer anyone maintaining an orchard, we were happy to see that at least the trees had established. Even if they weren’t as productive as they might be, they were still providing all the other benefits that trees provide such as habitat and shade. Orchards are relatively low maintenance once the trees have established, but they benefit from a yearly check-up.
We enjoyed it so much we’re hoping to make the Big Orchard Survey an annual event!
By Stephanie Irvine, Head of Operations and Programmes
