Magic in producing new organic apple trees

We have an orchard full of apple trees, from which we take the fruit of delicious apples either for cider making or eating or cooking with.

Another vital crop from these trees is scion cuttings, which are used to produce more organic apple trees - making this orchard our Mother Orchard. We actually have two - our main orchard and our apple trees grown on cordons. 

What the heck is scion wood? These are cuttings taken from a "mother" apple trees and then grafted onto rootstocks to make new trees. 

It's totally magic! and it's a real art. 

Taking cuttings to make new trees

Every year, we take cuttings from our Mother Orchard. This happens in the dormant season, when there are no leaves on the trees. 

This is part of our annual task of pruning, and is step one to creating brand new apples trees. The Pruning produces a whole stack of what looks like a pile of sticks to the untrained eye. 

These sticks get labelled as to what varieties they are, wrapped up and kept somewhere cool away from the rodents. 

Then the real magic begins! 

In February. It's grafting time. These sticks become new organic apple trees. 

James spends a good few days armed with his grafting knife attaching said sticks to rootstocks. It's a very precise process, that's been well practised over many moons. 

As I mention moons, it's important to say that we graft in tune with the moon, in the days leading up to a full moon.

Growing with the moon

In France all the farmers run their horticulture by the moon, here its less common. However, in the Tree world its common practise in the UK too. It's to do with the rising sap and grafting trees at this time really helps the cuttings taken from the tree in winter merge with the rootstock, helping the "graft" to be successful. 

The growing season for apple trees

We then plant all the trees out in the field, in March, whilst they are still in dormancy. Then we simply wait till Spring for new shoots to appear. Then we know if the graft has been a success or not. Sadly, there are generally a few failures, and that is just how it goes for horticulture. You just shrug the shoulders and move on.... 

We watch the apple trees grow all season, and then begin to lift then in November time once they have gone into dormancy. This is when we begin to despatch the trees out to the customer, as bareroot trees, wrapped in a way to maintain the moisture in the roots until they arrive with the customer.

Who must then plant them out or "heel" them in the soil somewhere temporarily until they decide where the final destination is for that Tree. Trees can stay "heeled" in until end-March, just before trees start coming into growth. 

As a bit more of an explainer - rootstocks vs variety

The cuttings/scion wood taken from the Mother Orchard Trees, determine the variety of the Tree, and what variety of apples you get. The rootstock determines the vigour, height & growing characteristics of the Tree. 

Some of our trees are grown on a few different rootstocks, so you can choose which variety of tree you want and then choose the rootstock that suits the site where you are going to grow your trees.

The different rootstocks we grow Tree Varieties on are M26, M25, M111, MM1106,  M116. You can find an explainer of this on each product page and here 

Browse our Apple Collections to select the Trees you want. 

Our organic apples trees are specifically one of cider, cooking or dessert (eating) apples. Some will be multipurpose trees. 

Dessert apples - view our collection here 

Cooking apples - view our collection here 

Cider apples - view our collection here