Fruit starting to show…

Following an interminably chilly spring and almost wall-to-wall cloud, we are at last beginning to get an impression of what might end up in your shopping trolleys later this year.

After the blossom drops, farmers wait anxiously to see if the bees, insects and the wind have done their thing; pollinating the flowers to give them the chance of turning into actual fruits. This transformation is by no means a dead cert, and a wall of blossom – whilst undeniably a lovely sight – doesn’t necessarily equate to a bumper crop in the autumn. Many factors can conspire to reduce a crop to nothing, just as easily as they can help deliver a giant harvest.

As the fruitlets “set”, ie form into something that doesn’t stretch your imagination to think might be an apple one day, we start to see what the coming season might hold for the different varieties we grow.

The feeling so far is one of great regional difference, with some areas reporting a strong set, others average, and some weak. The Cox however, seems to be doing quite well across our area, and has set better than most.

This is Cox at Mark Bruce-Lockhart’s farm at Egerton on 21 June.

The persistent gloom and cold is showing itself in the small size of the apples considering the time of year – in fact those who know about these things are saying they’ve never experienced a season so late. However, farming’s nothing if not a giant game of roulette, and some prolonged warm and sunny weather (ha ha!) might yet turn things round, at least in part.

Fingers crossed, eh?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 25th, 2013 at 12:24 pm and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.