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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] mowing orchards

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  • From: Clifford Cain - uk yahoo <cc_syorks@yahoo.co.uk>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] mowing orchards
  • Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:32:11 +0100

I am going off on a slight tangent so please forgive me. I include it because if you are anything like myself, you have something better to do than mow.
I was fortunate enough to attend Fruit Focus at East Malling in Kent, UK earlier this month. There was a range of stands, including one from an organisation promoting recycling green waste WRAP and Dr Joe Lopez of ReMaDe who gave me an interesting insight to this area. In their trials on newly planted orchards, they found that 20-40mm material (a woody coarse grade) applied to a depth of 100mm ( if you are not confined by nitrate leaching you may want to apply more) increased they yields significantly (24% on Braeburn). The material was applied at the 1m width, just as a bare soil alley would normally be maintained. They basically saw a small increase in the number of fruit, but they were larger (69mm to 75mm). These results where from a young orchard, 16 months and it will be interesting to see what future results will hold. The upshot was that if you are in a situation of having to bring material from off the farm, then the larger green waste was worthy of consideration. The report can be found at http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/HorticulturalMarketsCompleted_Revised_Jun_06.420ca428.pdf
or http://tinylink.com/?r5yY7jZzuP I know that there is a great choice of materials for mulches, but what interested me was the use of what is a domestic waste product and readily available, that is beneficial to the trees and improved their growth and yield. I have seen many US sites extolling the virtues of mulches of various forms, but is not something you regularly see here in the UK.
Having spoken with others, there also seems to be a case for increased biodiversity.
Tours of East Malling's trial plots where conducted. One trial was looking at what wild flower mix offered the best environment for beetles to predate the ground stages of problem pests like codling moth.
I know it is not mowing, but mulches do offer good weed suppression and are worthy of consideration.
Regards
Clifford Cain
Bawtry, Doncaster, UK
http://www.fruitscape.co.uk






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