Orchard Notes
@orchardnotes
#Orchards, #Fruit, #Cider &c posts by @darrenturpin.bsky.social #Orchard enthusiast & amateur pomologist based in #Manchester, UK Pro Gardener @ National Trust Quarry Bank #orchardist & #allotment #fruitgrower website:
Windfall season has well and truly started. The 'Irish Peach' apple tree at work had dropped a few dozen fruits whilst I was away last week. Mostly damaged / codling moth infested, alas, but a good few were worth washing and scoffing 😋
If Google Lens isn't hallucinating, then I spotted an Eilema griseola, rather delightfully a.k.a. 'Dingy Footman', sheltering under an apple leaf the other day 🙂
Had to deal with a broken branch or three at work yesterday. Caused by the weight of the apples on the limb, which sadly I didn't have the chance to thin out properly last month 😔
Have you got a surplus of bilberries (a.k.a. blaeberries, whinberries, Vaccinium myrtilus) and don't know what to do with them? Benjamin Maund's #C19th "bilberry wine" recipe to the rescue! orchardnotes.com/2026/07/31/b...
Anyone for 'Berry Pudding'? Here's Mary Hooker's incredibly simple, batter-based version from 1846. Seems like a great way to make tasty use of a #blueberry / #whortleberry / #blackberry harvest to me 😋 orchardnotes.com/2026/07/26/m... #c19th #recipe
... enviromesh! A couple of sections of this micro-weave plastic mesh has kept the blackbirds off the berries - with absolutely no risk of harm to them - and has meant that instead of them taking 90% of the crop and leaving us a pickable pittance, we've been able to enjoy the fruits of our growing.
... it's not an advanced irrigation system. It's not a particularly acidic growing medium. It's not a dedicated feeding regime. Nope, it's just good old...
Looks like we're in for a decent #fig harvest this year from our small 'Brown Turkey' tree. They're probably still a few weeks away from ripening up, but if the hot weather returns, who knows?
Now picking: backyard blueberries! 🫐 👍 We remembered to cover our bushes this year, before the local blackbirds had a chance to help themselves to the bulk of the crop. Only a small batch so far, but there are plenty more on our 8 bushes to ripen up later. 😋
June drop! Depending on conditions in your part of the country, it's probably about time to get the fruit thinning snips out again. Here's a quick How and Why guide I wrote and posted a while back: orchardnotes.com/2020/06/17/t...
I'm rather concerned by what I think might be a physiological disorder affecting this mature apple tree at work. On the left: healthy, normal leaves. On the right: sparse, stunted leaves. Two main branch sections are affected, the third is fine. Any expert grower thoughts on this one? 🤔
Darn. I've maybe lost another cordon apple tree to canker. One of the inescapable perils of growing trees on an #allotment site, alas. A couple of weeks back, I cut off the affected top-growth, just above the cane. Hopefully there's enough scion left for regrowth to kick in this growing season.
I'm very happy with the progress of this year's newly-grafted apple trees. Of the 46 I grafted back in March, only 7 seem to have failed. If they all continue to grow well, I'll have 19 new varieties to add to my cordon collection next year, as well as a few backups of faves I've already planted.
I've spotted a few split apple fruitlets on the cordon trees, down on the #allotment. I'm assuming this is down to recent weather patterns: a few days of high heat followed by significant rainfall, which caused some fruitlets to swell faster than their skins could expand.
SQUIRRELS!!! 😡 The @*&%ing greys have started gnawing at the barely-formed and massively under-ripe peach fruitlets at work. Two years ago they stripped the tree. Last year they left them alone. This year they seem to have gotten the taste again.
'Pitmaston Pine Apple' is a lovely little apple. Conical-shaped, golden yellow, with brown russet speckling. Flavours of honey, nuts and a hint of musk. Absolutely delicious. Oh, and I disappeared into a research rabbit-hole, in search of its origins: orchardnotes.com/2026/06/04/a...
The original post, if you'd like to see how that one apple developed over the course of a growing season, can be found here: orchardnotes.com/2023/03/28/l...
Back in 2021, I posted a photo-essay article in which I tracked the development of a single 'Herefordshire Russet' apple from bud, to blossom, to fruit. 5 years on, I thought I'd see how that particular fruiting spur was developing. Here's what I found: orchardnotes.com/2026/05/01/f...
A few thoughts on the wisdom, or otherwise, of attempting to train a vigorous, triploid, partial tip-bearing 'Bramley's Seedling' apple tree to a tall-spindle / vertical cordon form, by grafting to dwarfing M9 rootstock and then hard-pruning annually. orchardnotes.com/2026/04/18/w...
Our back garden #blueberry bushes seem to be flowering well this year. Bodes well for a decent harvest later in the year.
Well, it's taken me a little longer (14 months longer) than anticipated, but part 4 of chapter 2 of the 'Beefing' apples story is now live: orchardnotes.com/research/nor... In which I tell the convoluted tale of the (re?)discovery of 'Herefordshire Beefing' by Dr Hogg and Dr Bull, back in 1876.
We have apricot pollination! Here's hoping the fruitlets have a reasonably smooth run through to harvest time. #NTQBfruit
Wall-grown pears soaking up the spring sunshine today at NT Quarry Bank, speckled with sprays of bright white flowers. From L to R on the wall: 'Louise Bonne of Jersey', 'Clapp's Favourite' and 'Buerre Hardy'. Individual pics in the same order. #pears #NTQBfruit #blossom