There are 3,000 trees a hectare, compared with about 1,000/ha in Hall’s conventional, semi-intensive systems, planted on a wire and post support system under full trickle irrigation. The belief is that this level of tree planting is the only way that such a capital intensive system can quickly achieve the very high yields required to make it a financially viable option.
Sixteen months on from planting and well into the first harvest, all that was left to pick when FPJ went to visit was Cox, Gala, Pinova and Braeburn. Although Cox has not adapted as hoped to the growing system, the Gala, Braeburn and Pinova trees are brimming with uniform, high-quality apples.
“The early varieties - Estival, Festival and Early Windsor - didn’t like the spring at all and haven’t performed all that well, but Gala, Braeburn and Pinova have taken to it like ducks to water,” says Hall. “Gala appears to have antifreeze running through its veins, and appears unaffected by the lousy spring. Cox, on the other hand, will always let you know if things aren’t exactly to its liking.”
Yields for the entire orchard will fall just short of the overall year one target of 15 tonnes a hectare, but the Bramley and Egremont Russet trees have already achieved that goal. “There are 3,000 trees a hectare and we need about 30 apples on each tree to get the five kilos we were aiming for. The Gala, Braeburn and Pinova will also definitely get there; the apples are like peas from a pod in terms of size and quality,” Hall says.
“The orchard is systems-driven; it’s a recipe and we’ve followed the instructions. Every tree has been treated the same, so you would hope you’d see this level of uniformity.”
To achieve these results in an organic orchard in the first crop year is particularly spectacular - a normal yield for a mature organic orchard would come in at around 8t/ha - and it has been done with the minimal input of natural chemicals. “We are allowed to use copper and sulphur fungicides, but we only used homeopathic amounts of copper pre-bud burst and although there were sulphur treatments, the targeted applications meant they were far fewer than we have historically used in our organic orchards.”
OrchardWorld is using the concept orchard as an instruction farm for its other top-fruit growers, with the aim of bringing the grower base in line with customer residue-free goals. “It’s just another growing system that happens to be managed according to organic standards; it is particularly relevant to the conventional sector because we are growing a basket of varieties that Sainsbury’s wants for both its organic and conventional customers,” says Hall.
He adds that the conventional sector can learn a lot from the results so far. “I have adapted the same philosophy to my conventional fruit, and have hardly had any scab on that either. If you can predict disease patterns and deal with them at the outset, you are giving yourself a good chance of success. While organics have a premium and the extra costs can, to some extent, be offset, reducing inputs - thus costs - by adopting the same process in conventional orchards, has to be a good thing.”
OrchardWorld has funded a project that has seen every variety grown on the farm both organically and conventionally in every orchard sampled extensively for residue levels. “The last treatment for scab we had to make on the farm this year was on July 1, so we would hope all the conventional fruit will meet ‘residue-free’ criteria” Hall says.
A weather station linked to a computer monitoring system provided by Dutch firm Fruit Consult has enabled the business to virtually remove the significant problem the orchard had with leaf scab last year. The scab prevention process began at the point the first leaves fell from the trees last autumn, and from early spring onwards, four-hourly updates kept management constantly updated on the weather conditions and the propensity for ascospore development throughout the orchard. “We are recording temperatures, humidity, leaf wetness, wind speed and rainfall,” says Hall. “The scab prediction programme shows us exactly when and where there has been a spore release and allows us to react quickly and accordingly.”
Successful control in a key six-week period at the beginning of the growing season is crucial. “If the system predicts any problem, we have to get out there and spray sulphur within three hours. We have optimum orchard size because it takes three hours to spray it completely,” says Hall.
Hall has been called into dramatic action twice this year. “Once in April, when I was obliged to go out into the orchard at 3am on a Sunday morning when it was very dark, cold and miserable, and a second time two weeks later on a Saturday lunchtime when I would have far rather fallen asleep in front of the football; timing of these applications is, however, absolutely key. I think this second time was the one that caused the infections that have been so damaging to the industry this season. Not many farms will be spraying over a weekend, and the following Monday was also wet. It is hard enough controlling the disease under these circumstances using conventional chemistry - using sulphur alone, you have to be right on the money.”
The results have made the sacrifices worthwhile. “There is no scab out there at all,” says Hall, “which is amazing, because with the exception of Pinova, all the varieties are susceptible to it and we had significant leaf scab at the end of last year.”
Trialling new systems is a must if DEFRA’s prediction of temperature rises of between 1°C and 5.8°C in the next 40 years come true. “It is not difficult to foresee a 1°C shift,” says Hall, “and for a pest such as the peach potato aphid, for instance, that would be the difference between one and two and five and six generations a year. Other pest species will behave similarly, and to deal with this using conventional chemistry is an arms race we cannot win. This is an example of future changes that will drive growers in the direction of alternatives - we just won’t have the conventional chemistry available to deal with pests reproducing at these speeds.”
To head the problem off at the pass, pheromone mating disruption system Exosect is being trialled in the concept orchard this year to control the major caterpillar pest codling moth, and the soap application techniques developed in the adjacent organic hop garden are being successfully used to control aphid pests and apple sucker.
Using Exosect there has been between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent damage in the concept orchard and zero damage in an adjacent conventional pear orchard. Both compare very favourably with the 3.5 per cent codling moth damage in a nearby conventional Bramley orchard. “The results have paid for the system hand over fist this year,” says Hall. “We will use it in all of our orchards next year. This is a good test bed for growers to show that it is an economically viable system.
“Insects have taken 500 million years developing their mating systems - they are not going to adjust to disruption overnight.”
Another control method, which Hall has applied in his organic hop garden - the only such garden in the world - for many years, is the use of soap to drown aphids. “In the organic orchards, we applied the soap the moment we found apple sucker or blue bug aphid and we have had no damage at all. All these insect pests might become resistant to chemical attack, but they will not become immune to being drowned, or eaten by the myriad predators,” he says.
Because the organic concept orchard is exactly that, Hall admits that there has been a certain amount of sniffiness from the organic community about what is being done. “We’ve had a lot of experience producing fruit under organic rules, but I am not a zealot. My personal belief is that the major benefit the organic movement has brought to the party is to make conventional growers completely reassess themselves and the way they do things.”
That conventional growers have significantly reduced their chemical inputs to follow customer and consumer demand is a beneficial by-product of the organic marketing effort, Hall says. “It has to be better to save 50 per cent of the chemicals on the conventional 98 per cent, than 100 per cent on the organic two per cent,” he adds.
“This orchard is far more than fiddling around with organics,” he says. “This is year one and it’s working, which is a great start, but we have to do it again and again before we can say it has real long-term value.
“Organics should combine the best of grandfather’s husbandry and the best of modern technology. When growers come here on the OrchardWorld-sponsored open days, I tell them to forget it’s organic - pretend it is just another barcode. If you use an organised system like this, develop at the right pace and match the needs of the tree to the inputs you give it, it will have a chance. It’s an exercise in best practice as much as anything.
“This is not about muck and magic or snake oil, it’s a system based on solid science. Organic and conventional production systems are as different to each other as the system we employ in the concept orchard is to the system we use in our other organic orchards. If there is a problem, we ask what the technological solution is; the disease protection model has allowed us to do that. You just need to keep heading towards your objective, and do it properly. It is not about making plans on the hoof and being surprised at every corner.
“It is our ability to predict, then deal with, the problems that ultimately defines how successful we will be.”
The backing of Sainsbury’s and OrchardWorld is more than purely financial, says Hall. “It really is a partnership. OrchardWorld is the hub, and 100 per cent funds the project. Sainsbury’s, and particularly fruit technician Theresa Huxley, have put a massive amount of time and work into it, and I have given the land and the commitment to get up at 3am on Sunday mornings. We just try to cover off all the corners and enjoy it.”
After five years, the ownership of the orchard reverts to HE Hall. “If things go to plan - we hope to yield 25t/ha next year and OrchardWorld will still have an interest for two more years after that - they should be well rewarded for their far-sighted investment and will hopefully have a year or two of profit from the orchard,” Hall says.
He freely admits to being “completely gobsmacked” at how well the orchard has performed this year. “We knew it was going to be difficult, but we have all worked very hard at it,” says Hall. “I am not telling anyone this is a perfect system, but I don’t believe anyone in the industry, organic or otherwise, would be unhappy with the fruit that is hanging on our trees this season.”
IN IT FOR THE LONG HALL
HE Hall & Son Ltd is a 112-year-old, 124-hectare family farming business managed byPeter Hall. Thirtyhectares of apples, pears and plums are conventionally farmed, the remainder of the land is farmed organically, certified by The Soil Association, and includes the country’s only traditional organic hop garden.
The company packhouse operates for twelve months of the year, supplying both organically and conventionally produced fruit exclusively to Sainsbury’s.
The company has a long history of environmental stewardship and has won a number of awards for the sympathetic approach shown to the local ecology, while maintaining the highest production standards. The farm is an active member of Operation Bumblebee, and is currently participating in the RSPB farmland bird survey.
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