Gloucestershire Orchard Group

Conserves, promotes and celebrates traditional orchards in Gloucestershire

Orchard Management Advice

Natural England (Chris Wedge) have just produced a series of highly informative Technical Information Notes (TINs) on orchard management, available free for anyone.

http://naturalengland.communisis.com/NaturalEnglandShop/    Key in Orchards under “Search”.

Assessing your orchard

The following headings may be useful in assessing your orchard.

SITE AND SURROUNDINGS

• Access
• Altitude
• Aspect
• Drainage -good - average - poor - is improvement possible?

TREES

• Species -Apple - Pear - Plum - Cherry - Gage - Walnut - etc
• Varieties -Local - Regional - National - Identification
• Condition -Good - Average - Poor
• Action -Replanting - Pruning - Grafting to replace local distinct varieties - Removing

PROBLEMS

• Obvious hazards -Disease - Age - Broken branches
• Footpaths - public liability