June 2017
In our garden this looks like being a really good apple year - I hope I am not speaking too soon - There are plenty of apples on all the trees except Crawley Beauty which is always a law unto itself. We only have a garden with 15 different varieties, mostly fairly easy to reach cordons or espaliers so thinning is fairly easy, even though we don't usually do enough. However, when I spoke to Mary Case she felt the thinning in her orchard was going to be a very big task this year but of course essential to produce saleable apple for the Farmers' Market. Both our Crab apple trees are carrying a very heavy crop, OK to leave the ornamental tree in the front garden but we need to thin the John Downie at the back.
MISTLETOE
This is our latest mistletoe, now we have three, in the Bramley, in the Tydeman's Late Orange and the Crawley Beauty. If you have read earlier news articles you will know we have been puzzled by the fact that they are all male and we never have berries. How do they reproduce if there is only one sex? With many Thanks to Jonathan Briggs of Mistletoe.org we now have some possible answers.
Possibilities
1. The plant on the Bramley - the original clump - may not be all male - this may sound impossible but it isn't as several seeds could have germinated close together. We spent many years scraping seeds onto the branch so I can see how this might have happened. We might have overlooked a small female mistletoe in the now very large clump? Sometimes seeds can give rise to two or three plants from each seed
2. There are other mistletoe plants nearby that we haven't spotted and/or some people are putting out Christmas mistletoe for the birds after Christmas and seeds are being spread from these.
3. Although as far as I know we only put seeds onto the Bramley maybe the seeds were moved from the Bramley by birds soon after planting? These could take years to become apparent as mistletoe seedlings can take up to five years or more to get to first leaves. They can get grazed off by invertebrates surviving as a small green lump until the next growing season which could happen for several years. Even in good growing circumstances first leaves only appear at about Year three.
If you want to know more look at www.mistletoe.org.uk Lots of information about every aspect of mistletoe and how to grow it
The middle sized clump in Tydeman's Late Orange
March news 2017
Apologies to everyone - I spelt the name wrong. It is a Wotton Costard - not Wootton as on the Isle of Wight or in the New Forest. Anyway now checked and sorted and properly researched. www.bernwodeplants.co.uk have a full description and history for this apple. It was found in an ancient orchard on the nearby Wotton estate, is an excellent cooker which holds its shape and can be a dessert apple when mature
DNA Testing for Apple identification
This is now available through www.fruitid.com Anyone can participate if in UK or Ireland, elsewhere by arrangement. Complete the form (on website, queries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to request sample bags (from now until 23rd June), these will be posted from May1st + an address label and record form You then put Leaf samples in the bags and return.
Cost £25.00 + VAT per sample
What will you get? you will be notified of any matching fingerprint in the National Fruit collection (2,100 apples and 550 pears) If your sample is unique i.e. a new variety you still get the fingerprint data and can participate in discussions for naming the apple.
How long does it take? results will be circulated by the end of November 2017
I will put the form on this website as a menu item as soon as I have worked out how to do it, I can administer this website on a day to day basis but not sure of my capabilities here and might need to ask for assistance! In the meantime go directly to www.fruitid.com. This site is very interesting and informative with an exhaustive amount of information - well worth a look.
I am really happy about this development as there are so many ident. queries I can't answer. I know the apples I know, particularly if I have drawn and recorded them, but there are 3000 cultivated varieties here in the UK, not to mention worldwide, and this does not include seedlings, so to be able to direct people to somewhere they will be able to put their ident. query is very useful.
MISTLETOE
Another subject - a couple of years ago I asked on the website if anyone had an explanation for our mistletoe which appeared to be cloning itself around the apple trees in our garden. Definitely all male and no berries, so how did it reproduce? No really satisfactory explanation emerged except that there must be another tree with a female mistletoe somewhere in the neighbourhood. I have looked and asked and cannot find another apple tree with mistletoe anywhere near. As we are still mystified I wrote to the RHS (inspired by the mistletoe picture on the letters page this month) and will let you know the answer when I have it.
