This yr, Two-a-Day’s Stewart Murray Champagne Orchard Trophy went to a Cripps Crimson apple orchard at Dunmanway Farm. Proprietor James Downes spoke to Glenneis Kriel about his remarkable orchard.
Picture: Provided
The 1,5ha Cripps Crimson orchard that received Two-a-Day’s Stewart Murray Champagne Orchard Trophy previous this yr was once manipulated to provide 157t of apples consistent with hectare to assist cut back plant vigour.
One would assume such top yields would negatively have an effect on packouts, nevertheless it didn’t. About 128t of the apples went to Two-a-Day’s packhouse, of which an outstanding 94% was once graded as Elegance 1.
What’s extra, apple counts averaged at 135, which is the most efficient rely conceivable and method each and every apple measured between 67mm and 72mm in diameter.
The orchard, consisting of previous pressure Cripps Crimson on MM109 rootstock, was once planted at Dunmanway Farm in Grabouw in 2016, at a density of two 272 timber consistent with hectare. Granny Smith is used because the pollinator, planted each 3rd tree in each 3rd row.
Cripps Crimson and Cripps Purple apples are comparable, with Cripps Crimson having a crimson as an alternative of a red blush. The apple itself, offered beneath the Sundowner industry identify, has company, crisp flesh, and a sweet-tart flavour.
Supportive surroundings
James Downes, proprietor of Dunmanway Farm, ascribes the luck of the orchard to the cool climatic prerequisites of the farm, which favours the manufacturing of bicoloured apples. In conjunction with this, the entire farm’s orchards had been planted on virgin soil.
As such, the land didn’t include the soil well being or illness ‘luggage’ related to older, evolved land. The advisory products and services supplied by way of Two-a-Day’s technical enhance crew, referred to as Fruitmax, is any other giant contributor to the farm’s luck.
“The pome fruit business skilled an explosion of technological developments on the subject of types, orchard design and tree structure since I joined the farm in September 1999.
“Fruitmax has production-based information at the efficiency of more than a few types and control practices, which they use to tell farmers about what would paintings absolute best beneath their cases.”
Circle of relatives enhance
“Graeme Krige, and his crew at Fruitmax, have helped our industry stay aggressive, as there is not any means I’d be capable of navigate those adjustments by myself,” James says.
He additionally has a deep appreciation for the enhance, as a result of he does no longer have a pome fruit manufacturing background: “My father, Keith, is observed as a pioneer within the pome fruit and dairy industries, on account of the paintings he had executed because the managing director at neighbouring Elgin Orchards.
“I, on the other hand, by no means idea there could be a possibility for me to farm, so ended up finding out selective breeding of salmon in Scotland,” he explains.
Keith purchased the farm, which was once a subdivision of Elgin Orchards, after a circle of relatives assembly in 1997. All over the assembly, he made it transparent that both James or his older brother, Stuart, must come and assist him as soon as the orchards had been established.
With Stuart being in a foreign country on the time, advertising wine from Cono Sur winery and vineyard in Chile, James returned to Dunmanway and began planting vineyards in 2000.
“The grapes are processed and vinified on the Newton Johnson vineyard, and wine offered beneath our personal Shannon Vineyards label, which will pay homage to our Irish heritage,” James says.
He says there are about 75 new apple types being evaluated for planting the world over, with any other 15 or so recently to be had for manufacturing in South Africa.
“To us this implies we now have no longer reached the tip but. There nonetheless is upside attainable for on-farm growth with those new types.”
To him, Cripps Crimson, mixed with the brand new taste of farming Cripps Crimson, is an instance of ways you’ll hit tonnage with top Elegance 1 packouts.
“Shifting ahead, types like those will probably be a farmer’s saviour from the cost-price squeeze. Manufacturing, sadly, will almost certainly hit a ceiling within the subsequent twenty years, if no longer already, as there may be best such a lot you’ll get out of a hectare.”
James explains that he almost certainly won’t ever hit the top tonnages and packouts he did with the profitable orchard in long run, as a result of his manufacturing goal with the orchard lies between 125t/ha and 135t/ha.
“You want to discover a steadiness between manufacturing and longevity. “If I rev this orchard within the crimson by way of regularly generating greater than 135t/ha, it could have an effect on the productive lifetime of the orchard negatively. Optimum tonnages will range in response to the range, the manufacturing surroundings and manufacturing practices,” he explains.
Advanced selection
The farm has 35ha beneath pome fruit manufacturing. The apple types come with previous traces Royal Gala and Braeburn, together with Fuji, Purple Woman and Sundowner types that had been planted up till 1997.
Advanced Gala and Fuji traces and new types, similar to Mahana Crimson, Kanzi, Rosy Glow, Woman in Crimson and Large Dollars have since been planted.
Forelle is the principle pear selection planted, together with Cheeky, Abata Fetel and slightly little bit of Rosemary. They have got 9ha beneath wine grape types, similar to Pinot Noir, Merlot, Chardonnay, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.
To additional diversify manufacturing, James’s spouse Libby farms roses and dahlias that she sells thru her flower industry, Libby Farm Plants.
Managing this sort of large number of fruit and cultivars is difficult, however James explains that the variety lets in him to make use of labour optimally. Their pome fruit-picking season begins within the first week of January, from once they select each operating day till the tip of the season round 20 Might.
The farm employs 9 full-time folks, together with himself, and as much as 60 seasonal employees. Cripps Crimson works smartly in his manufacturing package deal, as it’s the ultimate selection to come back in, colors smartly, and is hard at the timber.
James explains that past due types are incessantly uncovered to early iciness storms and will blow off timber, while Cripps Crimson has a tendency to stay.
“It actually is an awesome, easy-to-manage selection.” The variability may be top bearing.
Top yields
“Overdue types incur upper prices than early types, so you wish to have top tonnages and a powerful go back consistent with ton to hide those prices. Cripps Crimson ticks the entire bins; it has top yields, color and Elegance 1 packouts, in addition to wonderful garage skill.
“It may be stored for as much as a yr beneath managed environment,” James says.
The variability additionally does no longer bruise simply, making it a perfect possibility for the African marketplace, the place apples are incessantly offered at the street.
Whilst many manufacturers chase volumes from as early as conceivable, James manages his apple orchard to just produce industrial yields from when they’re 4 years previous.
Doing so lets in enlargement to enter tree building as an alternative of fruit manufacturing, provides the timber an additional yr to fill the overall tree quantity as much as 4,5m tall, and ends up in first rate vegetation by the point the timber get started maturing.
Sunburn
“We may best use the primary 4m for bearing, however we wish that additional top to offer protection to the apples in opposition to sunburn,” he provides.
He stresses that that is particularly vital with basal dominant timber, like Cripps Crimson and Braeburn, which crop simply within the lateral branches.
“This is a crude clarification, however I typically inform my employees that the ground 3rd of the tree represents apples that can pass to the juice marketplace, the center represents advertising and packaging prices, while the highest 3rd represents benefit for the farm. It’s smooth to fill the ground 3rd, however tough to fill the highest 3rd,” James explains.
The orchards are east dealing with, rendering the timber much less at risk of sunburn than west-facing orchards. In conjunction with this, ok leaf protection is left at the timber all over pruning and thinning to offer protection to fruit in opposition to sunburn.
“Some farmers desire naked timber and others like leafy timber. I love lively, colourful, leafy timber, which to me constitute a complete manufacturing facility at the tree,” he says.
Cripps Crimson is reasonably precocious, which permits it to reveal top yields on younger wooden. James, because of this, does no longer do detailed pruning of the timber, however moderately accommodates the method of department renewal.
As such, branches that experience change into much less productive or too thick, in comparison to the principle trunk, are got rid of yearly thru a minimize, about 3 to 4 arms from the trunk of the tree.
Cushy bearing
“The emphasis is on developing comfortable bearing devices, as those are extra productive and bring higher high quality than previous, mounted wooden, as used within the previous inverted T-tree designs,” James says.
The similar follow is adopted with Fuji, Kanzi, Braeburn and Purple Woman.
All of the timber at the farm are beneath micro-sprinklers, with medium-range spitters with a variety of about 1,5m. James explains that they’ve predominantly sandstone soils, which do not need a just right water-holding capability.
Therefore, they want as a way to practice massive volumes over brief classes when essential.
Their irrigation agenda is in response to historical information, which is adjusted day-to-day in response to the bodily remark of what’s taking place within the soil.
James issues out that he had executed away with probes, on account of the massive permutations of their soils: “The use of just one or two probes does no longer come up with a real image of soil moisture ranges in the entire of an orchard. You possibly can want many extra to account for permutations. The deficient protecting capability of the soil additionally leaves little margin for error.”
A fertiliser programme is used in response to the productive level and anticipated yields. In younger orchards, they experiment with slow-release nitrogen-fixing legumes, serradella and sour lupines to give a boost to the soil.
Compost teas also are implemented all over the primary 4 years of an orchard’s existence to give a boost to the soil and spice up microbial existence.
Labourers obtain day charges plus bonuses consistent with bin all over the choosing season, in response to what they’ve picked on the subject of packing containers to shed.
Farming with nature
Again in 2000, James was once probably the most first farmers within the Elgin area to start out including soil microbes, similar to Trichoderma and mycorrhiza, to planting holes to spice up plant and soil well being.
In step with Actual IMP UK, Trichoderma protects crops by way of serving as a bionematicide, biofungicide and biofertiliser that promotes enlargement and the branching of crop roots.
The fungus is alleged to paintings by way of competing immediately with pathogens for organic house at the plant, thru parasitism of competing microbes and by way of bettering plant immune methods.
Mycorrhiza, then again, bureaucracy a symbiotic dating with crops, wherein the fungi obtain carbohydrates from the plant in trade for enhanced water and nutrient uptake.
As soon as timber are planted, a sawdust mulch is implemented within the rising rows. A right kind, thick mulch is best implemented the yr after to make certain that roots develop deep first. Mulch is changed each 5 years.
Mulch is produced from timber at the farm, and acquired in best from the Elgin area. No mulch is purchased from spaces additional away, as James is afraid that the wooden could be infected by way of pests or sicknesses, and particularly shot hollow borer.
To this finish, additionally they produce all their very own firewood at the farm and use pine mulch, as pine timber were proven to not harbour shot hollow borer.
No herbicides are implemented post-harvest, with the herbal crops and grasses left to function duvet crop in-between the planting rows to supress weeds and building up biodiversity. James additionally has a ‘just right’ dating with the baboons at the farm.
“As apex predators, they’re true signs as to the well being of an atmosphere. All over the summer season months, they principally keep up within the mountains, and after harvest all over the iciness months they roam freely during the farm, choosing up any left-behind fruit and so assist ‘sanitise’ the orchards by way of taking out this fruit.”
E-mail James Downes at [email protected].