Boxford Farms Orchard Walk
Review of Boxford Orchard Walk 8th May 2021
Cherry orchard
Apple orchard
Ancient Apple Trees
Forecast to be the wettest, windiest, most miserable day of the year, after the driest, frostiest April on record, nearly forty plucky EAGG members and guests turned up at Boxford Apple and Cherry orchard on Saturday 8th May. We were rewarded by the rain stopping, and the most fascinating talk given by the manager, Robert England, and his managers Chris (on the orchard) and Lucian (who manages the anaerobic digester).
We started the walk among the cherry trees, glorious in their full white flower. We were advised to move quickly by the bee hives (which had been blocked off during our visit) and not to linger, as a bee on a mission to find pollen does not take kindly to having its flight path blocked. Rob began by covering such interesting and diverse subjects as pollination, pruning (for maximum light and to encourage two year old wood for fruiting, carried out late March to early April, and again in late August), varieties and control of pests and diseases and other “Agronomic Challenges” such as birds, rain and hail. The orientation of the plantings is north/south so the trees grow uniformly, and are covered by neat lines of wires and plastic covers. These are angled to allow water to run to the centre between the rows of trees, whilst protecting the fragile blossom. There is a drip irrigation system (fed by six reservoirs on the estate) to encourage lateral roots, and a remarkably technical system of fertilisation to ensure the exact requirements are met.
The Morello cherries are harvested early July, and other sweet varieties, Regina, Kordia and Karina mid July to Mid August, continuing the age old tradition of Polsted being at the heart of British Cherry production.
The philosophy of the entire enterprise is to keep fertilisers and pesticides to an absolute minimum and with the help of the research done at East Malling, there is no blanket use of chemical sprays which would harm the pollinating insects.
We then moved on to the stunning apple orchards, with rows and rows of beautiful blossom, again planted on a north/south orientations. Pruning was just finishing, having started in December. Chris gave us an instructional talk on pruning – which sounds easy, looks glorious and obviously remarkably productive. There were many interesting facts, for instance ideally each stem should produce 45 apples for uniform size but knowing when to thin the flowers in case there is a sudden loss of blossom to avoid having too few, or too many, seems to be a skill only these talented, enthusiastic and passionate orchard men have mastered. Hearing how quickly a crop can be totally ruined was sobering. A hail storm can devastate a crop in a few minutes. Hail nets need to be rolled out on a vast and man-power intensive scale
There was a delightful row of old apple trees, pruned in a traditional goblet shape, kept purely for sentimental reasons and to remind us of how orchards used to be run. Each tree took up a huge amount of space, and obviously compared to modern ways, very unproductive. But beautiful.
I was particularly interested to learn that they also have bumble bee hives in addition to honey bees. They are, apparently much more thorough and hard working pollinators, with the advantage of being gentle souls.
The final fascinating part of the walk was visiting the anaerobic digester. This is an extraordinary enterprise, utilising arable crops – i.e. maize – from local sources and Boxford Farm’s own fields, on an enormous scale. Electricity, heat, Bio methane gas, liquid and solid digestate mulch (now packaged and sold to gardeners) are produced and are utilised in the running of the orchards as well as to service the Stoke by Nayland Golf course, greenhouses, polytunnels and the soft fruit enterprise (a walk for another occasion?) at Ardleigh, totally sustainably.
The final interesting stop was a polytunnel farming Phytoseiulus persimilis predatory mites to combat red spider mite infestations. Rows and rows of beans (for their non hairy leaves!) were growing in two separate tunnels heated by the digester. One was deliberately infested with red spider mite and Phytoseiulus that feed on them. These are harvested by placing upturned bottles on canes in among the plants so when all the red spider mites have been eaten, the hungry Phytoseiulus rise to the light. They are then packed in vermiculite and distributed. Another organic, sustainable, ingenious, enterprise.
It was a wonderful way of opening up what has been a very strange, and difficult, closed year and hopefully the beginning of a new summer season of seeing old friends, learning new horticultural techniques as well as some of our local history and heritage.
Rob had very kindly given his time and knowledge free of charge and we were able to donate £200 to the St. Elizabeth Hospice. Unfortunately there were a few who didn’t turn up, probably due to the horrible forecast, who hadn’t paid, so we had a bit of a shortfall but it was heartening to hear the response of those who did come. Booking and paying via the website definitely to be encouraged for future social events!
Sue de Sabata Joint Chairman