Orchard haircut

Pruning is a dark art which I don't want to go into in much detail (mainly for fear of showing my ignorance). Through Fenland Smallholders Club I've been lucky enough over the years to meet a few people who could show me the basics. 

For the first few years I would tentatively approach the orchard trees, RHS fruit book in hand, and try to figure out how the living creature in front of me was supposed to match the diagrams in the book. After a while I learned the difference between leaders and laterals (main branches and side shoots). 

And after a few years I began to understand how the trees respond to having their branches cut, where the fruit likes to form, what happens if you cut too much, or too little.

And so I have reached a point where my RHS fruit book lives a comfortable life in the bookcase, only coming off the shelf for a new variety or when I need to revisit. 

The time to prune orchard trees (not stone fruits) is winter, when the trees are dormant. I like  to wait for dry conditions and ideally a nice, sunny and crisp day, you know, when you can actually imagine that spring is on its way. If not over my Christmas holiday, this is often between mid January and mid February.

It is one of those rituals which marks the passing of the seasons, clearing the debris of last year and preparing for new growth and new harvests. Every year I take a picture of a couple of trees, mainly as this crops up in my blog on an annual basis. 

The same trees, 2022 (top), 2021 (middle) 2020 (below)

Bramley apple tree in the chicken pen

One form of pruning which I was not so happy about was what confronted me one frosty morning this week. A Pixie apple tree which has just come into its fruiting prime has been completely de-barked. It will take a miracle for it to survive. The culprit was one of  the Shetland sheep which must have hopped the electric fence under the cover of darkness and proceeded to wreak havoc. A couple of other trees were damaged too, but not fatally. Not only have I probably lost a good tree but I'll have to invest in a stretch of proper fencing to discourage such unruly behaviour.