Paul Hamlyn, our speaker, is the Fruit Production Manager at AC Hulme, a major mixed farming business in north-east Kent, covering arable, livestock and fresh produce. Paul is responsible for management of the orchards (apple, pear, plum, cherry, apricot) as well as a small area of asparagus. The total area covers around 200 hectares.
Paul captivated the audience of 35 by setting out the different stages of growth and fruit formation in the apple and pear business – all observed closely by him and his team to ensure the fruit has the maximum chance of development and of ripening as needed to deliver the contractual size and quality of fruit.
Can you name the different stages in the development of the Fruit? Answers later:
Paul, together with his team, regularly monitor the weather and look for signs of pest and diseases in order to take appropriate action…and the list of potential issues is surprisingly long, ranging from a variety of mites, aphids, fungi, canker to hail at the wrong time that might damage the fruit or leaves and so reduce the crop or damage the health of the tree.
Combatting the pests is not, in the case of this farm, an exercise in repeated spraying but of encouraging birds and other useful invertebrates such as hoverfly , earwigs and ladybird which naturally prey on the pests of various types.
This environmentally friendly approach is a theme that continues through the management of the orchards – grass cutting between the fruit tree rows in discharged as mulch under the trees from a side-delivery mower; any spraying needed to deliver minerals as a leaf-feed is delivered by a machine that minimises drift as much as possible whilst also ensuring excellent coverage of the trees. The farm also uses a hormone spray to induce the fruit clusters to reduce to 2 or 3 fruit each, to ensure the ripe fruit is the size and weight required.
Water levels in the ground are monitored regularly, to ensure the irrigation system can be operating as effectively as possible and to manage cost. Drones are used to monitor the level of fruit on the trees, and – looking to the future – Paul is interested in the potential for automated fruit picking …but that time has not yet arrived.
Paul manages a team of up to 100 and the work includes both the fruit production, storage and packing for despatch to customers – of which – for apples – Lidl is a key client. Asparagus, the seemingly odd one in the list above, is a filler crop to ensure the team in kept busy through their contractual work period.
There were plenty of questions from our audience, who agreed that broad knowledge and continuous attention to detail is required to deliver fruit successfully on a commercial scale!
Fruit development stages:
| Apples:
1 Bud burst 2 – Mouse ear 3 – Green cluster 4 – Pink bud 5 – King bloom 6 – Full bloom 7 – Early fruitlet. |
Pears:
A – Bud burst B – White bud C – Full Flower D – Soldiers / Fruitlets
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All photos courtesy of Paul Hamlyn.