Kent Cameo grower aims to overcome biennial cropping:Rachel Anderson reports from the recent Cameo Farm Walk

摘要

An apple grower who was one of the first adopters of the apple variety Cameo is converting his orchard to the fruit wall system after becoming disappointed with the way it crops.Peter Beale, of Parsonage Farm, Brenchley, Kent, hopes that the introduction of fruit walls will prevent his Woodside Cottage Orchard from cropping biennially. Hopefully this, in turn, will make the orchard more financially worthwhile.Beale invited Cameo suppliers, agronomists and fellow growers to his farm on the chilly afternoon of 19 March to watch the orchard's 'conversion cut', which saw the tree rows narrowed to the fruit wall specification. He admitted to the group that, whilethe variety sells and stores very well, he is not getting the most out of the orchard's 1,260 trees.