North Yorkshire's apple and cider orchards have bumper 2020 harvest - here's why

Cider and apple juice producers in an area historically known as the Orchard of North Yorkshire are hopeful that the amounts of sunshine, warm conditions and the lack of strong winds in April could lead to a bumper harvest.
Nick Fraser, Head Gardener at Nunnington Hall, tends to the apple blossom.
Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe.Nick Fraser, Head Gardener at Nunnington Hall, tends to the apple blossom.
Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe.
Nick Fraser, Head Gardener at Nunnington Hall, tends to the apple blossom. Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe.

Growers said the persistent high pressure and 215.8 hours of sunshine recorded between April 1 and April 27 produced conditions in which bees have been more active and with few gusts to blow blossom from the trees, flowers have had longer to be pollinated.

The National Trust, which cares for traditional apple orchards across North Yorkshire, including at Beningbrough Hall, near York and Nunnington Hall near Helmsley, said the mild winter and recent warm conditions had also meant the apple blossom appeared early.

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Cameron Smith, of Orchards of Husthwaite, a village near Thirsk which has exported apples across Yorkshire and the North-East since the early 17th century, described this year’s blossoms as “fabulous”.

Apples at Nunnington Hall.Apples at Nunnington Hall.
Apples at Nunnington Hall.

He said: “There are about 1,500 trees around the village and the blossoms are the best I have seen in ten years. I think it will be a good year.”

Mr Smith said whether the glorious April leads to a bumper harvest would partly be dependent on the pollinators and partly on the trees themselves as they produce large crops on alternate years.

Gardening expert and Royal Horticultural Society judge Martin Fish, of nearby Rainton, said his orchard had seen some of the best apple blossom for years, adding “if the bees do their job we should get a good crop”.

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Nick Fraser, head gardener at Nunnington Hall, said: “We’re into the sixth week of lockdown now and people are craving nature. Perhaps one of the reasons why this year’s blossom seems so spectacular is that we’re all paying closer attention to it, we’re taking time to properly stop and look and reflect.”

However, some artisan drink producers said the fine April could eventually prove problematic for them.

Left with 20,000 litres of last year’s drinks due to pubs being closed and events being cancelled during the Coronavirus lockdown, Mr Smith said if there are huge numbers of apples this year the enterprise could struggle to find space to store produce. He said: “This is a significant problem for the artisan cider industry.”

The warm conditions have led to bees being more active and the lack of strong winds allowed blossom to open for longer, so that more flowers could be pollinated,.

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The National Trust, which cares for more than 200 traditional apple orchards across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and grows heritage varieties, said some of its sites had seen outstanding displays.

At Cotehele, in Cornwall, which has 10 acres of orchards and more than 125 varieties of apple tree including the Cornish Honeypinnick, Limberlimb, Pig’s Nose and Lemon Pippin, head gardener Dave Bouch said: “It has been an exceptional year for blossom this spring.

“Apples are biennial when it comes to cropping, so they will naturally have better years than others, and the crop is very dependent on rainfall over the coming months. “That said, the scales are tipped towards a great crop this autumn.”

In March, the National Trust launched #BlossomWatch to encourage people to take notice of blooming trees from their windows or in their gardens in the face of the lockdown, and to share their best images on social media.

The campaign has proved popular with thousands of images shared online.

Other North Yorkshire locations with orchards includes Ampleforth Abbey near, which makes its own cider.