Any soft fruit growers out there?

sahara

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Somerset
Thank you for that, its always better to hear an informed and objective view from those in the industry instead of a potentially hyped up news outlet story. I'm sorry to hear that you will be hit.
I spent three glorious months in the south of France many years ago and remember well the scenery, food and hospitality of the region, so I look at stories affecting the area.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
How are your trees this year?
Our plums have blossomed and just starting to go over now, apples just starting.
As always they look full of hope and promise at this time of year, looks like there is going to be a lot of blossom.
We are having frost most nights and they are now at pink bud. They look cold and stunted, I would like the rosette leaves to be a lot bigger by now.

Last week I sprayed them and later thought that one of the chemicals hadn't looked quite right and decided someone had put Roundup into a wetter bottle. So spent a few days thinking I had put a litre of glyphosate over them. FFS!
I hadn't though thank goodness.

No insects yet though, too cold apart from one tree of woolly aphid.
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Lost nearly all my apples to 3 nights of hard frost last May, it is damned disheartening!

Lost BOTH my apples trees to frost last springo_O
On a serious note the local orchards suffered too, spent a fortune flying helicopters to try and keep it off and one grower told me the fruit suffered all year because of cold starts.
Hail took out a lot of crops at the top of the South Island and some up north didn't get picked (according to media stories) because of a lack of labour due to closed borders.
 

stewart

Member
Horticulture
Location
Bay of Plenty NZ
View attachment 954923Yes, true.

We’ve had several nights of frost, but not so severe as other regions. They’re saying locally that losses are about 10-15% ( our region produces more wine than Australia)

In the village the worst hit chap lost half his vines. The problem with frost on vines is that you lose this years crop, bu also next years wood is stunted.View attachment 954922

Personally the frost cost us a ha of table grapes, and has damaged the fruit trees. Luckily it’s before we thin the fruit so we can afford to lose some, with peaches you can make a crop with only 10% of your flowers. I think we’ll have fruit in June and July, but the late apricots and peaches will be thin on the ground. God knows with cherries they’re like trying to second guess cats.

I think we’ve been lucky, the Rhône valley has seen all its apricots frosted off, even with helicopters etc, and some of the best Rhône wine won’t have a harvest, cote rôtie.

Without a doubt there has been a real blow to French wine and fruit production.
Lost our entire orchard several years ago to frost, frost was so severe that even helicopters didn't help, the inversion layer was too high to bring the warmer air down to ground level, some orchardist stacked the helicopters one above the other, this worked to a degree although pretty hairy for the pilots.
We now use water to protect the vines, worked well so far.
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Veryfruity

Member
Lost nearly all my apples to 3 nights of hard frost last May, it is damned disheartening!

I’ve been very lucky, some losses but nothing like you last year.

The hard bit with frost is that the heavy lifting of pruning is over, you push on through winter to finish and then it’s buggered for the year!

Lost our entire orchard several years ago to frost, frost was so severe that even helicopters didn't help, the inversion layer was too high to bring the warmer air down to ground level, some orchardist stacked the helicopters one above the other, this worked to a degree although pretty hairy for the pilots.
We now use water to protect the vines, worked well so far.

We have a neighbor who has had a helicopter on the go, he owns a valley and lost them in 2017. He pays 500€ an hour, so a couple of hours in the morning. ( three times this week )
In other parts of France they’re saying that helicopters didn’t work, presumably like you explained. I read of one chap who had a frost windmill that failed as well. That must be very hard.

I’m planting a new orchard next year and will put in the sprinklers, do you tap off the ice?.
 

Fruitbat

Member
BASIS
Location
Worcestershire
The following year after frost was always a bind. You prune to assume a crop, but when frost takes all the flowers and crop, the tree has nothing to all year except grow wood and hopefully flower bud for the next year. I’d find the trees would be bigger, with greater internodal space making pruning more of a challenge. Regalis helps though.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
I’ve been very lucky, some losses but nothing like you last year.
First major losses for over 30 years so can't grumble too much, doesn't mean it won't happen again this year though.
I use my fruit mostly to make juice and having eventually found somewhere to buy them in from last year I also discovered I can buy in as much as I need for less than I can grow them for. Not sure how I would have harvested them last year with lockdowns etc but it turned out I didn't have to and still had enough fruit. Every cloud and all that...(ironic when it was due initially to complete lack of cloud)

My trees look quite good this year and maybe due to drought early last year they didn't make excessive growth so pruning was no different. Blossom looks sufficient without being excessive.
With luck I will get a good crop and due to covid, brexit etc I am hoping to be able to sell them as fresh fruit through local outlets for a significantly higher price than in bottles.
Or we get bad hail the day before harvest..... That is the game we play.
 

Fruitbat

Member
BASIS
Location
Worcestershire
Hail. Been there twice, once about May, so not so bad you can run the economy season for sprays. August hail was more destructive, wiped out all plums, apples, pears & income.
 

Bogweevil

Member
Lost our entire orchard several years ago to frost, frost was so severe that even helicopters didn't help, the inversion layer was too high to bring the warmer air down to ground level, some orchardist stacked the helicopters one above the other, this worked to a degree although pretty hairy for the pilots.
We now use water to protect the vines, worked well so far.
View attachment 954959View attachment 954960View attachment 954961View attachment 954959View attachment 954960View attachment 954961View attachment 954959View attachment 954960View attachment 954961

Impressive, so much pumping, so much drainage, such a high value crop.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
We had golf ball sized hail in the early 80's, that took branches off the trees never mind damaged the fruit.
In a year with unusually warm weather in May the thrips came out early due to higher soil temps and buggered up the apple blossom.
One year the mist blower had been used to put Amistar(?) on raspberries and not washed out. Surprising how much damage that can do to apples. Never used that in a mist blower again.
Many years ago we were advised to stick with Rubigan for scab control, you couldn't have got more scab than if you put scab in the sprayer and applied it. (it is very unusual to even see scab here these days, one apple with scab is notable)
Sprayed orchard floor with paraquat using a sprayer with a pinhole in one of the pipes, tiniest little spray into most of the trees.
Can't remember the exact conditions but I think it was warm humid weather for some time followed by a very bright day, scorched most of the Bramleys and Discovery.

It is a challenging job alright. I was talking to a friend who has a repair garage as his main income but also runs a smallholding alongside. I commented on the risks of disaster when working on somebody else's car.
He said farming and car repairs were very similar in how things can go from good to shite in a surprisingly short space of time. :D
 

stewart

Member
Horticulture
Location
Bay of Plenty NZ
I’ve been very lucky, some losses but nothing like you last year.

The hard bit with frost is that the heavy lifting of pruning is over, you push on through winter to finish and then it’s buggered for the year!



We have a neighbor who has had a helicopter on the go, he owns a valley and lost them in 2017. He pays 500€ an hour, so a couple of hours in the morning. ( three times this week )
In other parts of France they’re saying that helicopters didn’t work, presumably like you explained. I read of one chap who had a frost windmill that failed as well. That must be very hard.

I’m planting a new orchard next year and will put in the sprinklers, do you tap off the ice?.
The ice protects the buds, we leave the sprinklers running until it melts. We put 3mm hour of water on during a frost.
 

Veryfruity

Member
The ice protects the buds, we leave the sprinklers running until it melts. We put 3mm hour of water on during a frost.

Thanks. Doesn’t the weight of ice break the shoots?

Hail. Been there twice, once about May, so not so bad you can run the economy season for sprays. August hail was more destructive, wiped out all plums, apples, pears & income.
Frost, hail. anyone would think fruit grows on trees 😉
 

aidan

Member
Location
Ireland
Lost nearly all my apples to 3 nights of hard frost last May, it is damned disheartening!

How are your trees this year?
Our plums have blossomed and just starting to go over now, apples just starting.

I’ve been very lucky, some losses but nothing like you last year.

The hard bit with frost is that the heavy lifting of pruning is over, you push on through winter to finish and then it’s buggered for the year!



We have a neighbor who has had a helicopter on the go, he owns a valley and lost them in 2017. He pays 500€ an hour, so a couple of hours in the morning. ( three times this week )
In other parts of France they’re saying that helicopters didn’t work, presumably like you explained. I read of one chap who had a frost windmill that failed as well. That must be very hard.

I’m planting a new orchard next year and will put in the sprinklers, do you tap off the ice?.



Nearly time to start picking apples here in SW Ireland. A fine volume of apples on our trees but apples are noticeable smaller than other years. Noticeably less windfalls too.

How did everyones apples and indeed soft fruits in general grow this year.

Our Blackcurrants were smaller too, It was v dry the start of July, and our blackcurrants were ready to pick 3rd week of july

Any ideas

@fendt208v
 
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Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Pic was taken last week, the trees look like it was windy but it was a calm day.
30C and had no rain for some time, it is not very often you see apple trees wilt but all that orchard looked the same.
Crop isn't particularly good on that tree but in general I am pleased enough. Cox looks especially good. Have already sold all my James Grieve, Discovery and Katy so doing a lot better than last year up to now. Hail has kept off so far and looking less likely now last weekends thunder storms passed by.
Just how I am going to pick them all with Mum just out of hospital and needing looking after is a bit of a mystery at the moment.

18B605AD-EC3B-46E7-9F63-996976276FDD.jpeg
 
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Kidds

Member
Horticulture
@Kidds Thanks - Do you use any insectiside or any other treatment on the trees to ensure premium quality.
Yes I do. Winter moth is a problem for me, they need treating early spring. Codling moth is a routine treatment June/July and aphids from time to time if/when necessary.
Fungicides against Scab and Mildew are routine and done every 10-14 days through the season.
I try to be very careful with the chemicals as I would prefer not to use any but I do not think I would have a saleable crop if I didn't, scab, codling and winter moth damage would render them useless.
I am also very careful to select the chemical that is either target specific or will do the least harm to beneficial insects, I also remove as much of any mildew infected wood as I can by hand to reduce further infection and chemical requirement.
The other major reason for reducing chemicals is the sheer cost of them. They have always been expensive but I am seeing 20% increases post covid on most chemistry which is very much approaching the tipping point for viability of the orchards right now.
 

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