4

Study Notes

Cider is a fermented beverage made from apples.
There are three levels of tannin in British cider classification: full, medium, and mild.
The French apple classification system has an intermediate category called acidulée.
In the USA, most ciders are made from dessert apples that are generally sweets and sharps.
Perry pears are not for casual munching, although some were eaten and used for cooking in days gone by.
Cider is made from apples that are grown in orchards.
Location of the orchard is mostly governed by the suitability for growing apples (or pears).
The planted trees should give the right sort of apples (bittersweet, bittersharp, sharp or sweet) and harvested at the right time to suit the cider being made.
Cider apple trees are not usually purebred. Many are a hybrid of different apple trees grafted together.
When we try to grow cider cultivars on their own roots, they usually develop tree root and branch mass, so cropping is delayed.
When we want to make an intensive orchard, the scion (lead) cultivar is ‘budded’ (bud-grafted) onto semi-dwarfing rootstock. This provides us with tree growth uniformity and ‘habit’ (may form a bush rather than a tree).
Rootstock restricts or holds trees to their required size, depending on the site, scion cultivar and planting density.
We can plant small semi-dwarfing rootstocks intensively in up to 750 trees/hectare (300 trees/acre).
A minimum of 5.5 m allows 2 m wide machinery access in alleyways. This amount of gap gives good light penetration, which is essential for maximum cropping.
We need to make sure trees are pest and disease free (canker, scab and mildew, etc.), and that the union between the rootstock and the scion (or interstem) is straight.
After lifting them from the nursery orchard and transferring them to the main orchard, it is important not to allow the roots to dry out.
It is best to grow intensive cider apple trees to a central leader shape (Christmas tree shaped, like a triangle, as shown in the figure below). This allows for the most effective use of light energy for growth, flower and crop production.
We prune in the dormant season after leaf fall. The best practice is to leave the distance of a hands’ breadth between lateral branches at the trunk, in young trees. The prompt thinning of upright branches avoids the formation of a multileader tree and further heavy remedial pruning.