How to pollinate 70 acres of fruit trees?

Charles Sinclair (Image: Charles Sinclair)

Four Elms Fruit Farm undulates over the beautiful hillsides to the east of Newton Poppleford.

Glimpses from the road, or walking on the footpaths through the farm, gives views of extensive fields of blossom.

There are well known apple varieties being grown that include Cox, Gala, Braeburn, Bramley and Egremont Russet, and lesser-known cider apples like Michelin and Dabinnet.

This magnificent spectacle underlines the wealth of tradition, hard work and experience behind the management of this farm. It was a delight to meet up with the owner, Richard Smedley, who shared his passion and knowledge so generously.

Knowing that there were problems with pollination worldwide, (with some places in China now having to hand pollinate their fruit crops), I was keen to know if pollination was an issue for a local fruit grower.

Luckily there is an easy solution to ensuring good pollination. There are also other subtle techniques that Richard uses on his farm.

The easy solution is to keep honey bees in the fields.

Currently there are about 40 permanent hives on the farm run by a professional bee keeper.

When a fruit crop is in full bloom, it will only take two to three days of good weather to fully pollinate the flowers.

Because the bees are there all year around many local gardens and wild plants will benefit from the presence.

Another way to get the best from the pollinating insects is to try and minimise the competition from other crops at blossom time. Richard acknowledges that now oil seed rape is a less popular crop locally, there is less competition for the bee’s attention.

Dandelions are also a big attraction to bees, so the grass is cut before blossoming time.

To help the bees through the rest of the year, he ensures that there are plenty of flowering plants later in the season.

Hover flies and bumble bees are particularly useful native pollinators.

He is experimenting with wild flower mixes between the rows of trees rather than just grass to see how that might help.

If this is successful the benefit to the bees and other insects will be significant.

As the current wild flower trial flowers in September, he is experimenting with another to achieve a summer flowering period.

Richard is keen to point out that pollination is only one side of the story to achieving a good set on the trees.

Compatible pollinating partners are important.

By far the majority of his trees require a good pollinating partner, for this he uses named varieties of Malus (crab apples), that are interspersed between the fruiting trees.

This is clearly seen in the photo with the prolific pink blossom on the crab apple between every sixth fruiting tree.

Then there is the weather.

Given that the bees hives provide a reliable source of pollinators for the fruit, the weather is more of an issue to gaining a good crop.

The key to success lies largely in having steadily rising temperatures after pollination.

It is when temperatures dip after fruit set that damage can occur. A poor crop one year can lead to a bumper crop the next.

But a bumper crop can mean many small apples, and a poor crop few apples. Balancing out the crop yield is an important part of the management of the farm.

Four Elms Fruit Farm produce high quality products, recognised and championed nationally.

Fresh fruit is their core product but this is supplemented with five different types of apple juice, which have won multiple awards, and a more recently three varieties of cider which look to emulate this success.

'The Apple Shed' is on site and is open to customers between October to March to buy apples, juice, cider and honey.

The apple juice, cider and honey can be ordered all year round by calling 01395 568286 to arrange collection.