Technical guidance notes

Click through the links below to read a series of technical documents covering traditional orchard management, developed by Chris Wedge, orchard specialist at Natural England and occasional expert for The London Orchard Project.

The notes are aimed at anyone who owns, manages or is simply interested in traditional orchards.  They are available to download (free of charge) from the Natural England online publications catalogue.

012 Traditional orchards: a summary – provides a summary of the key information contained in the series of technical information notes and a list of orchard related organisations and bibliography.

013 Traditional Orchards: site and tree selection – provides guidance on how to select sites for new orchards and the types of tree to plant within new and existing orchards.

014 Traditional orchards: planting and establishing fruit trees – provides guidance on when and how to plant fruit trees and on their management in the first few years after planting.

015 Traditional orchards: an introduction to pruning – provides guidance on the reasons for, and the basic principles behind, the pruning of fruit trees.

016 Traditional orchards: formative pruning of young trees – provides guidance on why young trees require formative pruning and on how to prune them.

017 Traditional orchards: maintenance pruning – provides guidance on the reasons for the routine pruning of fruit trees and advice on the methods used.

018 Traditional orchards: restoring and managing mature and neglected orchards – provides guidance on how to assess a neglected orchard that is in poor condition and decide what pruning and other management work may be needed to bring it back into good condition.

019 Traditional orchards: fruit tree health – provides guidance on identifying, and managing for, the main pests, diseases and nutrient deficiencies that may affect a traditional orchard.

020 Traditional orchards: orchards and wildlife – provides guidance on the conservation and sensitive management of orchards to preserve and benefit the wildlife contained within them.

021 Traditional orchards: glossary – provides a glossary of some of the many technical terms used in fruit production.