MAIL ORDER sales of trees resumes in 2012. Email us to be notified when 2012 sales commence.
MAIL ORDER sales of non-plant items continue all year.

Grafting Requirements available

Purchase top quality Due Buoi grafting knives. Grafting tape now available.

New Plant Protection Products available now

Bird Netting and Pest strips.

They become obvious with the appearance of fluffy, white deposits lower down on trunk and branches. However, they over-winter in the roots and at the base of the tree and visible infestations higher up are often just the tip of the iceberg.

Healthy plants can withstand infestation although there will be some loss of vigour and production.

Woolly aphids also secrete honeydew, which is difficult to remove. While the honeydew itself is not a problem, it forms a substrate on which sooty mold can grow, which can block some of the sunlight needed for photosynthesis.

Control
The problem can be largely avoided by purchasing trees grown on woolly aphid resistant stocks – ask your supplier when choosing trees.

Some clonal stocks including M9 and M26 are quite prone to attack and may host large overwintering colonies, so they are best avoided for the home or organic gardener. Trees grown on traditional seedling stocks are also susceptible to attack.

One of the best ways to manage woolly aphid (and many other pests) is by encouraging a diverse population of predators, including lacewings, lady beetles, hover flies and parasitic wasps. Even earwigs will help keep woolly aphid populations in check.

For natural predators to be most effective it is important to do everything to promote their growth and general biodiversity in the orchard or garden. This combined with good soil fertility through composting will also promote robustly healthy trees able to cope with minor infestations.

Remember, for predators to do their work there must be some of their food available, i.e. woolly aphid. Therefore over zealous use of sprays must be avoided.

Organic pesticides
The waxy coating on woolly aphids protects them from most organic sprays which are contact sprays, i.e. they must come into contact with a pest to kill it. The only effective way to kill the pest with contact sprays is direct application with a paint brush, rag or a stream of liquid that thoroughly drenches a colony. Even then some individuals may survive.

Methylated spirits or household bleach can be painted on to infestations with short term success. Colonies are likely to re-form again throughout the growing season. Regular applications during late autumn may help reduce the numbers surviving to over-winter.

Conventional pesticides
Far and away the most effective chemical control available to the home or small farm orchardist is Imidacloprid applied as a soil drench at petal fall. A common brand is Confidor, however, with the recent patent expiration of this chemical there are other brands available. It pays to shop around.

Correctly applied this can provide two seasons protection. It is important to wait until flowering is finished as Imidacloprid is highly toxic to bees.

Of course reliance on a single chemical almost always leads to the development of resistant populations so use another systemic pesticide such as dimethoate (Rogor) if the pest reappears during the control period and alternate preventative treatments with other suitable chemicals.

In the final analysis, unless you are quite comfortable using chemicals it is best to grow trees in a healthy, biologically diverse environment preferably grafted onto woolly aphid resistant rootstocks. These include Northern Spy, MM102 and MM106.

To control peach leaf curl, which devastates peaches and nectarines, spray just before buds start to open, generally in early August. It provides good early season control for brown rot in a variety of fruits and is also useful in controlling rust on raspberries and preventing early fungal attack on roses. Bordeaux works as a preventative, not a curative, so it will be necessary to re-spray following moderate to heavy rain. It generally survives light rain.

Easy to mix

Bluestone (copper sulphate) & Limil (slaked lime)

History

The discovery of Bordeaux spray, named for the famous French wine region, like many of the most useful scientific discoveries was an accident.

In the latter half of the 19th century it was common practice to deter pilfering of ripening grapes by spraying vines with a mixture of copper and lime. The cloudy residue, which created an unattractive appearance and left an unpleasant taste, was only sprayed on the first few rows of vines nearest the roadside, those within reach of hungry passersby. Following an outbreak of downy mildew in the early 1880s it was discovered that vines sprayed with the copper mixture were largely unaffected by the fungus. Subsequent trials led to Bordeaux spray, as it became known, becoming the world’s first fungicide.

Its low mammalian toxicity and topical mode of action make it a safe spray that is accepted under various organic registration regimes. It is still in wide use today and, in fact, remains a most useful tool for both conventional and organic growers of a wide range of fruit and vegetables.

Don’t get caught – Codling Moths will hatch over the next couple of weeks and start mating. Before long heaps of hungry little grubs will emerge looking for a feed of YOUR apples – check out the full story. We now have great pheromone traps to help control these little buggers …..

CHECK OUT SOME VERY HELPFUL BOOKS FOR APPLE LOVERS AND ESTABLISHING ESPALIER TRAINED PLANTS OF ALL TYPES AVAILABLE NOW.

OUR 2010 MAIL ORDER PLANT SEASON IS NOW CLOSED – Books and lures still available.

A big thank you to all our customers, new and returning. We are having a great year – tree sales are way up and it’s been raining like it hasn’t since 1996. Our 2011 Mail Order Tree Catalogue will be available early autumn 2011. In the meantime …..

WE ARE STILL OPEN FOR RETAIL SALES HERE AT BEAUFORT

Fridays and Saturdays from 10 to 4 until the end of November. Check location.

MAIL ORDER RANGE

• Trees

Our mail order range are 1 year old grafted trees, generally called ‘whips’ in the industry. This is because they are normally simply a single stem. We send by Australia Post in secure cardboard tubes which helps ensure trees arrive undamaged. The maximum dimension allowed by Australia Post is 105 cm. Trees longer than this are cut to length. Trees may be shorter than this, from approx. 60 cm long, depending on variety and rootstock. We find the length of a whip does not affect the rate of growth in subsequent years and healthy young trees will reach their potential as long as conditions and maintenance are appropriate. We only dispatch trees we are satisfied are healthy.

• Raspberry Canes

Canes are around 45 cm in length and like our trees, are dispatched bare-rooted during July and August in secure cardboard tubes.

• Blueberries

Blueberries are dispatched with roots still in soil.

• Books and Plant Protection Products

Available for immediate dispatch subject to availability. Prices of individual items include postage.

DISPATCH

Trees are only dispatched after cheques have cleared or funds have reached our account. Bare-root trees are sent by Australia Post during late July and August. While dormant bare-root plants can survive in the packaging for more than a week, the sooner they are unpacked and healed-in* after their arrival the better. Keep packaged trees out of direct sun in the meantime. We notify customers by email when their order is dispatched.
*roots covered with soil or mulch to keep them moist

NURSERY RANGE

Our Nursery Range includes larger sized and older fruit trees, both potted and bare-rooted (in season). If you wish  to place an order for a Nursery item please email your order. We are happy to hold orders of nursery stock for a maximum of 7 days.
Download Current Nursery Product Catalogue (updated daily)

Why Bother?

Original Bramley Seedling

By about 1856, the garden was owned by a local butcher named Mr Matthew Bramley. The son of a local nurseryman, Henry Merryweather saw potential in the prolific apple tree and was given grafting wood by Mr Bramley.

Grafted trees of the new ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ (often abbreviated to Bramley) were first sold in 1862. Remarkably, the original tree grown by Mary remains growing today in the same garden in Nottingham.

In the following 40 years, ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ became a common commercial orchard apple and remains today an important fruit variety in the British apple industry. It is still available in British supermarkets and demand continues for its cooking qualities.

The Bramley is a very acidic apple and hence its culinary qualities. When cooked, it makes a great apple sauce or baked apple. Additional qualities of this late-season apple include its ability to store well and retention of its flavour over a long time.

In the UK, the current annual production of this iconic British fruit is 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes. The annual harvest is sold as fresh fruit, used for commercial processing for various products including pies and crumbles, juice and cider.

The Bramley Seedling’s Timeline

1809 – The first Bramley tree grew from pips planted by a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford, in her garden in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, England.
1846 – A local butcher, Matthew Bramley, bought the cottage and garden.
1856 – It was while Matthew Bramley lived in the cottage that a local nurseryman, Henry Merryweather, asked if he could take cuttings from the tree and start to sell the apple. Bramley agreed, but insisted the apple should bear his name – hence ‘Bramley’s Seedling’.
1862 – The first recorded sale of the variety is in Henry Merryweather’s book of accounts on 31 October 1862. He sold “three Bramley apples for 2/- to Mr Geo Cooper of Upton Hall”.
1876 – Fruits of the grafted apple were first exhibited before the Royal Horticultural Society’s Fruit Committee on 6 December 1876. They were highly commended.
1883 – Bramley Seedlings received a First Class Certificate by the Committee of the Royal Jubilee Exhibition of Apples held in Manchester in October.
1889 and 1893 – Bramley Seedling was awarded a First Class Certificate by the Committee of the Nottingham Botanical Society and at the Gardening and Forestry Exhibition in September 1893. The Royal Horticultural Society’s Apple Show awarded further First Class Certificates to the Bramley in August 1893.
1900 – Disaster struck when the original Bramley tree blew down during violent storms at the turn of the century. However, the tree somehow survived and is still bearing fruit more than 100 years later.
1914 – During the early 1900s the Bramley trees were extensively planted, with the fruit a useful source of food during the First World War.
1944 –The 1944 fruit census comprised more than one third of six and a quarter million Bramley’s Seedling trees in commercial plantations in England and Wales.
1989 – Bramley growers themselves are working closely together to expand their market opportunities and, through the Bramley Campaign, which was set up in 1989, are running successful consumer campaigns funded by voluntary subscription.
2003 –The Bramley tree was one of fifty great British trees chosen by the Tree Council’s country-wide network of tree wardens, as a special way to mark the Golden Jubilee and to celebrate fifty great years – one for every year of the Queen’s reign.
Today –The old nickname for the Bramley was “The King of Covent Garden” and still exists today in the New Covent Garden Market, where all specialist fruit wholesales can offer Bramleys to their customers for 12 months of the year.
The original Bramley apple tree continues to bear fruit to this day. Those few pips planted by a little girl in her garden in Nottinghamshire 200 years ago are responsible for what is today a £50 million industry, with commercial growers across Kent, East Anglia and the West Midlands.

References
“The Bramley: A World Famous Cooking Apple” by Roger Merryweather 1982 Newark and Sherwood D.C.
“Mr Bramley’s Apple” by Joan Morgan in “The Garden” (UK), March 2009 (Vol 134, part 3), pp 168-171.
“The New Book of Apples” by Joan Morgan & Alison Richards (2002), Ebury House, London.
The Bramley Apple Information Service

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Crown Gall caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens

There are two distinct issues:

• organic vs. non-organic fruit tree production
• genetic modification.

They are interrelated of course, but still separate issues.
The genetic modification referred to relates to a product used to treat Crown Gall. A very clear explanation of the disease and the treatment can be found here.

This product, Nogall, is clearly a GM organism and this means treated trees cannot be used for certified organic fruit production.

(WE DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT AND ARE CAREFUL TO SOURCE MATERIAL THAT HAS NOT BEEN TREATED WITH THIS PRODUCT.)

The issue of organic fruit tree production brings other considerations into play including:

• pests and diseases that can’t be eradicated by organic means especially in a nursery monoculture,
• crop-rotation/soil-health issues particularly in decades old stool beds,
• plant nutrition in densely planted tree rows,
• legal phyto-sanitary requirements for intra- and interstate plant export, etc.

Organic certification is generally, if not always, applied to fruit production rather than tree production. The only substantial concern for organic fruit growers is that their trees have not been treated for Crown Gall, because if they have been then the trees themselves have been genetically modified and can never be considered organic.

In other respects, after trees have been in their final location for up to one season, the minimum required for crop production, the impact of any prior chemical treatment would have disappeared. (Different considerations would apply to vegetable seedling production of course.)

Most, if not all, tree producers would follow some practices which would be considered non-organic in a certification sense. To my knowledge there are no growers small or large that are certified organic and I can think of none that claim to produce trees organically.

In order to make organic fruit production feasible some chemical use in tree production is probably necessary. An organic grower is unlikely to appreciate receiving stock infected or infested with a disease or insect pest or contaminated with weed propagules such as seeds or plant parts.

Wooly Aphid is a good example of a very persistent pest. Dwarfing rootstocks in the Malling series, these are the ones that start with an M: M9, M26, etc., are highly susceptible to Woolly Aphid. No matter what anyone says, you simply cannot control Woolly Aphid without some chemical use. In order to sell clean trees on M series rootstocks some chemical treatment during production is necessary.

There are other considerations. For example by growing in pots, a practice that is increasing in popularity mainly for environmental reasons (esp. in Europe and the UK), you avoid many of the soil management and phyto-sanitary challenges and therefore minimise chemical (and water) use, but you do need to use soil-less potting mixes and plastic pots, both requiring manufacturing and transport energy, and artificial fertilisers. These can be accurately applied to avoid run off, but they are clearly not ‘organic’, (even if they are produced by organic chemistry!)

On the other hand importing relatively large quantities of manure to either manufacture compost or directly top dress in-ground production areas takes a lot of energy as well. Producing and transporting pelletised animal manures is even more energy intensive.

All we can all do is keep trying hard to improve our methods so that we don’t negate the environmental benefits of producing food plants with sloppy and dangerous production methods. And be honest about what we do.

We offer four dwarfing rootstock options† to provide a good range of options for home gardeners and orchardists alike. The size of trees on each rootstock is expressed as a percentage of those grafted onto a seedling apple (seedlings of Granny Smith have been commonly used as rootstocks). This is a more reliable measure than a specific height as it takes account of variations in variety performance and local conditions which both influence ultimate size.

M.9 : Height* to around 33% of seedling tree (±2 metres), trees produce fruit within 2 years. Trees need staking or trellis support. M9 trees are susceptible to Woolly Aphid infestation. M9 is one of the most commonly used rootstock in commercial orchards in Australia and world wide. They are not ideal for organic production systems.

M.26 : Height* to around 40% of seedling tree (± 2.4 metres), early producer. M26 generally need staking unless sheltered from wind and are susceptible to Woolly Aphid infestation making them less suitable for organic production. They can produce vigorous suckers and are reported to be intolerant of extended wet soil conditions.

MM.102 : Height* to around 45% of seedling tree (± 2.7 metres), early producer, long term staking not required. Quite resistant to Woolly Aphid making them ideal for organic gardeners.

MM.106: Height* to around 50% of a seedling tree (± 3 metres), with moderate vigor and heavy cropping potential. Trees on MM.106 are well anchored, resistant to Woolly Aphid, adapt well to a wide range of soil types and climatic conditions, making it a very popular rootstock world wide.

Orange Pippin has collected some useful information on rootstocks, although not all is directly applicable to Australian conditions. For example we don’t have fireblight in this country – fortunately!

Trellis systems

Each of our rootstock options can be espaliered with MM.102 and MM.106 being ideal for the purpose. M9 is suitable for a compact espalier, perhaps no more than 2 metres wide while M26 can be maintained at a wider size.

We recommend Alan Gilbert’s book Espalier for an excellent explanation of how to create espaliers using a wide range of plants including many types of fruit tree.

Big is not necessarily best!

Beginning in 1912 The East Malling Research Institute in England selected and began trials of a range of rootstock material. Clones ranged from those with a very dwarfing influence through to those with an invigorating influence on the cultivar. One of the interesting features of dwarfing rootstocks is that the dwarfing influence does not extend to the fruit. In fact fruit on younger trees is often larger.

The resulting Malling series, identified by the letter M followed by a number have gone on to play a major role in commercial apple growing throughout the world.

In 1928 work began on another equally important series of rootstocks when the East Malling Research Institute together with the John Innes Horticultural Institute began a program to produce woolly aphid resistant material, an attribute not found in the Malling selections. The resulting trees were named the Malling Merton series (denoted by MM and a number).

Some practical ‘modern’ benefits of clonal dwarfing rootstocks

Dwarf trees need less water in a dry climate, less fertiliser in a world of scarcity, take up less space in a smaller yard, have a lighter impact on surrounding plants, are easier to protect with netting, are safer to maintain and pick, produce more fruit per square metre (trials show nearly 50 tonne per ha is achievable, ie 5kg per square metre! And that is after only 2 years in the ground), produce fruit much quicker than seedling rootstocks and allow more varieties to be planted in a given space.

†We produce fewer M.9 and M.26 trees due to lower demand, but can graft any of our varieties onto these rootstocks to order.

*Plant growth is always influenced by climate, nutrition, water availability, etc,
so height figures are always only a guide.