Today my wife celebrate's a 'landmark' birthday......
A nice quiet lunch at The Curlew today to celebrate my wife's landmark birthday.....of course, by 'spilling the beans' I may not survive to MY next birthday.........
Lots going on this week, in addition to my wife's birthday........
On Tuesday East Kent Fruit Society (EKFS) held their annual AGM - Dinner and Presentation of Trophies to winners of the various categories in the EKFS Orchard Competition and The David Hilton Medal Awarded to a member of the industry for outstanding achievements to the UK fruit industry.
The annual event is held at Boughton Golf Club at Boughton under Blean near Faversham in East Kent.
Click on EAST KENT FRUIT SOCIETY to view membership and event information....
Below: the trophies have a long history.......
The orchard competition takes place in August but the tradition is to present the prizes at the January AGM & Dinner. The David Hilton Medal is presented in memory of David Hilton a very respected East Kent grower who during his life time contributed so much to benefit our industry - this year the David Hilton Medal was presented to Dr. Martin Luton a colleague of The English Apple Man at Worldwide Fruit and a leading expert on apple & pear storage. Martin is now semi retired and is currently enjoying a cruise with his wife Lucille, so on Tuesday Caroline Ashdown, a colleague of Martin - at Worldwide Fruit 'symbolically accepted the Medal on Martin's behalf. The Medal will be formally presented to Martin at the next EKFS members event.........
Orchard of the Year and a host of other prizes won by Simon Bray for his outstanding Gala and Cox orchards underlined the meticulous management he is renowned for........a truly outstanding top fruit grower...
Below: Caroline Ashdown accepts The David Hilton Memorial Medal on behalf of Martin Luton - and - Simon Bray receives the Trophy for Orchard of the Year from Simon Brice
The EKFS AGM & Dinner was very well attended with 60 members enjoying an excellent 'roast beef' dinner at Boughton Golf Club - our President Simon Brice presided over the evening with new Chairman Alex Cooke 'in charge' of his first AGM. The society is very fortunate to have Tracey Rose as Secretary/Treasurer and was formally thanked for her efforts with a bouquet of flowers by the Chairman Alex Cooke. Simon delivered his Presidents address with his usual aplomb and Alex reviewed the EKFS events held over the last year.
Sixty EKFS members enjoyed a superb roast beef supper with 'all the trimmings'
The English Apple Man was honoured to be asked to make the customary 'after dinner speech' - a review of elements of my 58 years in the industry since leaving school in 1958 'laced with a few funny stories' which seemed to go down well - even at my age I admit to 'some nerves' during my 15-20 minutes in the 'spotlight'............
BIFGA
On Wednesday The English Apple Man attended the 28th BIFGA Technical Conference at Dale Hill Hotel & Golf Club in the parish of Ticehurst in East Sussex. Always an enjoyable day; the presentations were very interesting and with the opportunity to network with many friends in the industry it was as always very well attended.
This week's Journal will look at the presentation by Malcolm Withnall looking at the past and future of the top fruit industry; as a separate issue a look at vertical farming - and very much focused on the future.
Malcolm Withnall looked back over his 50 'fruity' years in the fruit industry, with particular focus on five Eureka moments....
Malcolm has been involved with or party to many developments over his 50 years in the fruit industry - it was very worthwhile being reminded of new ideas first propagated back in the early 1970's.
Below: Malcolm in full flow at The BIFGA Technical day - and - 'setting the scene with his opening slide
While working at Highland Court Farm in the early 1970' Malcolm accessed some bud wood for a new variety bred in New Zealand - Gala (a progeny of Kidd's Orange x Golden Delicious) it was clear then that this would be a hugely influential new variety; a truly Eureka moment. The robotic tractor development worked very well - Malcolm said as well as using the system at Highland Court, it was tried in East Anglia and West Midlands. It worked by buried cable creating a track for the system to follow. However, its undoing was its vulnerability to voles chewing through the cable. Nevertheless it was an early Eureka moment as we are now seeing robotic 'driverless tractors' following a GPS system.
Below: Malcolm recalled his first experience of Gala - and - the Autotrac a robotic orchard tractor
In the 1980's Malcolm was working at Framptons on the south coast and experimented with the use of gibberellins; Gibberellins (GAs) are plant hormones that regulate growth and influence various developmental processes, including stem elongation, germination, dormancy, flowering, sex expression, enzyme induction, and leaf and fruit senescence. Malcolm reflected on the success he had with a full crop in the year after the great drought in 1976. Many orchards across the country were badly affected by the stress of the drought, weakening fruit bud for the following year (1977).
Mechanical harvesting is something most apple growers look forward to with eager anticipation; however the machine capable of picking high value dessert apples without damage and at an efficient speed, is still on the horizon. Malcolm saw these early attempts at mechanical harvesters ion a Nuffield Scholarship visit to USA in the 1970's. There has been a massive amount of robotic development throughout the major growing regions of the world; particularly in the USA. The English Apple Man saw mechanical harvesters working on 'processing cherries and plums' in Poland three years ago. Thatchers Cider have developed a mechanical harvester for picking Katy apples for cider production.
Below: Fruit setting mixtures - and - early attempts at mechanical harvesting
While at Highland Court Malcolm became aware of ULV (Ultra Low Volume) sprayer development; this technique used spinning discs to deliver very low volumes of crop protectant (5 gallons per acre) - finishing his presentation Malcolm speculated on the Eureka moments of the future. He listed a number of current developments (trends) and asked which ones we will look back in 40-50 years time and identify as Eureka moments which changed the 'direction' of our top fruit industry.
Below: development of ULV spraying in the 1970's - and - Malcolm looks into the future speculating on possible Eureka moments
Looking to the future, Malcolm speculated on future 'Eureka' moments - fruit walls, mechanical pruning, mechanical thinning, GPS self drive tractors, LIDAR scanning, Omnia yield assessment, apple & pear harvesting machines, orchard drones for crop walking.
The English Apple Man comments...
Apart from mechanical (robotic) harvesting 'THE Eureka moment, which WILL at some stage happen, the ability to accurately estimate the crop before harvest would be a definite Eureka moment - the OMNIA Fruit Vision this technology is getting close to being a working tool within the industry toolbox!
More Crystal Ball Stuff....
On Sunday the BBC Countryfile TV programme highlighted growing in an indoor environment using lighting....
The future of food production on our planet is often 'up for discussion' with only 3% of the surface are capable of growing crops (in the soil) and the population growth showing no sign of slowing, how will we feed everyone.
This interesting concept is a look at how it might happen; Click on Vertical Farming in Alaska for an indication of future food production!
Vertical farming is not new, several projects have been identified in recent years; The English Apple Man Journal for 8th May 2012 highlighted Verticrop a vertical growing system.......
Vertical Farming: going up instead of out!
Kevin Frediani, Curator of Plants and Gardens, took us into his world at Paignton Zoo where he has pioneered the use of the 'Verticrop' system for salad production (which is fed to the zoo animals). The presentation focused on the use of new technology such as this type of vertical farming to increase productivity and improve sustainability of farming high value crops for the future, such as strawberries.
Kevin told us Paignton Zoo's Verti-Crop is the first public working prototype of its kind in the world. It is designed to produce sustainable food using fewer resources such as water and land and to reduce carbon footprints and food miles.
"Our little prototype grows 11,000 plants in 100 square meters of floor space using a conveyor driven stacked growing system. Lettuce and salad mixes grow well in it. This helps us feed fresh, home-grown food to our animals, but the human potential is enormous - in the future, every school, hospital and housing estate in every town and city could grow their own vegetables."
Click to view the World's largest indoor farm
That is all for this week - next week more from The BIFGA Technical Day ....
Take care
The English Apple Man