Do your orchards bear big apples?

08 February 2008
Graeme Cross, Top Fruit Development Adviser,
Greenmount Campus, CAFRE

Balanced nutrition is at the heart of high quality horticultural production. This is certainly the case for Armagh’s Bramley’s Seedling apple growers, who aim for consistent cropping, fruit size and grade from year to year.

To this end, Crops and Horticulture Branch, CAFRE, has organised an evening presentation on orchard nutrition at the Famous Grouse, Loughgall on Tuesday 19 February 2008.

The speaker will be Mr Andrew Tinsley of the Horticulture Development Council. His experience in many areas of horticultural technology makes him a valued presenter for this critical aspect of top fruit production.

The evening will begin at 8.00 pm, with an introduction from Graeme Cross, CAFRE’s Top Fruit Development Adviser. Graeme will provide an overview of local orchard soils and nutritional symptoms experienced by apple growers in recent seasons. Deficiency symptoms observed in 2007 included necrosis on the outer margin of leaves, no leaves on watershoots, and interveinal chlorosis of older leaves

Mr Tinsley will then present his talk on the key points to consider in providing optimum nutrition to permanent crops such as orchards. He will address the matter of pH and its influence on fertiliser availability, the maintenance operations to ensure maximum fruiting potential and how to determine the correct fertiliser selection for the situation and market.

There will also be an update on the implications of the Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (2006) for the top fruit sector.

Those attending will have the opportunity to pose specific questions and individual orchard examples will be very welcome, to help illustrate some of the discussion points.

For further information on this event, please contact Graeme Cross, Top Fruit Development Adviser on (028) 37515638.

Graeme Cross Top Fruit Development Adviser, Greenmount Campus, CAFRE discussing with John Mc Donnell, Lissheffield, Loughgall a nutritional programme for his orchards