How did you ever think of cork? Also there is renewed interest in antique and cider apple varieties although most of us would never plant them at old standard spacings to wait for the production and for the trees to fill the spacing.
On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 9:03 AM, Arthur Kelly <kellyorcha...@gmail.com>wrote: > Ruminating is good word huh Dave. I did allow for a few. > > > On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 11:49 PM, David Kollas <kol...@sbcglobal.net>wrote: > >> >> >> >> Art: >> >> Your rumination seems to have led to neither discovery, enlightenment, >> nor identification of a problem. >> Perhaps you accidentally hit the "send" button before re-reading the >> message. Another agricultural industry that >> continues to harvest from old trees and apparently old technology is >> the one shown below in a brief presentation on cork harvesting >> from oak orchards: Note: the links are to still photos illustrating the >> text below. It is not my own work. >> >> David Kollas >> Kollas Orchard, Connecticut >> >> >> Cork: Harvest for the Patient Farmer >> >> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0-RFQhAaQIk/Un5ogZtWVTI/AAAAAAAArmc/93TchkuZIkA/s1600/cork+harvest+oak+15.jpg >> >> http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lKqHfOVw4gU/Un5zXJiQt0I/AAAAAAAArno/rdrYu_0Etc0/s320/wine+corks.jpg >> Have you ever wondered where that cork in your bottle of wine comes from? >> The answer is most likely to be Spain or Portugal, where over half of the >> world’s cork is harvested - it is in fact the National Tree of the latter >> country. >> However, unlike other forms of forestry, the production of cork never >> involves the death of a tree. >> Instead, they are gently stripped, leaving a strange but fascinating >> landscape of denuded trunks. >> >> http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YuayQUqKjjM/Un5hW4yte8I/AAAAAAAArk8/9nVaQuBPCdg/s640/cork+harvest+oak+5.jpg >> *http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbenayas/2357225629/in/photostream/*<http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbenayas/2357225629/in/photostream/><http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbenayas/2357225629/in/photostream/> >> *http://www.flickr.com/photos/montuno/1591580602/in/photostream/*<http://www.flickr.com/photos/montuno/1591580602/in/photostream/><http://www.flickr.com/photos/montuno/1591580602/in/photostream/> >> All of this takes some time. Cork trees can live to over two hundred >> years but are not considered ready for their cork to be removed until they >> are at least twenty five years old. Even then, the first two harvests do >> not produce cork of the highest quality – it isn’t until the trees are in >> their forties that they produce premium >> cork.<http://www.flickr.com/photos/montuno/1591580602/in/photostream/> >> *http://www.flickr.com/photos/catherine_glover/8383640384/*<http://www.flickr.com/photos/catherine_glover/8383640384/><http://www.flickr.com/photos/catherine_glover/8383640384/> >> *http://www.flickr.com/photos/78586478@N06/8201364716/in/photostream/*<http://www.flickr.com/photos/78586478%40N06/8201364716/in/photostream/><http://www.flickr.com/photos/78586478%40N06/8201364716/in/photostream/> >> *http://www.flickr.com/photos/suhajdab/3963824824/in/photostream/*<http://www.flickr.com/photos/suhajdab/3963824824/in/photostream/><http://www.flickr.com/photos/suhajdab/3963824824/in/photostream/> >> >> Once the trees have reached the maturity necessary to produce high >> quality cork then they will be harvested only every nine years. A tree, in >> its lifetime, can be harvested (the process is known as extraction) about >> fifteen times. Little wonder then, that in Portugal and Spain the >> propagation of the trees and the production of cork has become an >> inter-generational industry, with farmers still producing a crop from >> trees planted by their great-great >> grandfathers.<http://www.flickr.com/photos/suhajdab/3963824824/in/photostream/> >> >> *http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6mP-Ha5Wi80/Un5gxNwLHaI/AAAAAAAArk0/JrM-URtWNqU/s1600/cork+harvest+oak+4.jpg*<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6mP-Ha5Wi80/Un5gxNwLHaI/AAAAAAAArk0/JrM-URtWNqU/s1600/cork+harvest+oak+4.jpg><http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6mP-Ha5Wi80/Un5gxNwLHaI/AAAAAAAArk0/JrM-URtWNqU/s1600/cork+harvest+oak+4.jpg> >> *http://www.flickr.com/photos/42754460@N00/6760945341/in/photostream/*<http://www.flickr.com/photos/42754460%40N00/6760945341/in/photostream/><http://www.flickr.com/photos/42754460%40N00/6760945341/in/photostream/> >> *http://www.flickr.com/photos/max_westby/4183036756/in/photostream/ >> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/max_westby/4183036756/in/photostream/>*<http://www.flickr.com/photos/max_westby/4183036756/in/photostream/> >> >> >> On Dec 10, 2013, at 9:43 PM, Arthur Kelly <kellyorcha...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >> I have been ruminating over a recent exchange concerning tree size, >> density and longevity. A few thoughts not in any order or organization but >> as they occur to me. >> All orchards have a support system. If it is not posts, wires and stakes >> then it is large permanent limbs. If fruit is born on limbs that are no >> larger than your finger (some maintain pencil size) then you want a canopy >> of that size wood. The problem with permanent limbs is that they >> eventually get too large and contribute to trees that are too large. Those >> permanent limbs eventually become unproductive except for the very ends >> which you keep cutting back too. When you remove those large limbs then >> the resulting regrowth is overly vigorous. It seems to me that a system >> that has no permanent limbs will be more consistently productive of high >> quality fruit because you have new productive wood in the canopy all the >> time. It also seems to me that such a system is likely to have a longer >> useful productive life than a system with permanent limbs that has been >> planted too closely and eventually will have to be fought with to maintain >> and becomes overly vigorous and loses both productivity and fruit quality. >> The life of an orchard is more often determined by the economics of the >> value of the variety, productivity and efficiency of operation than by tree >> age or size. If you plant an orchard with the idea that it is permanent >> then at some point you will have an old orchard of varieties that are out >> of favor, of poor quality and inefficient to operate. There are few >> industries that are still selling the same product they were fifty years >> ago and producing it with the same fifty year old technology. >> >> -- >> Art Kelly >> Kelly Orchards >> Acton, ME >> _______________________________________________ >> apple-crop mailing list >> apple-crop@virtualorchard.net >> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> apple-crop mailing list >> apple-crop@virtualorchard.net >> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop >> >> > > > -- > Art Kelly > Kelly Orchards > Acton, ME > -- Art Kelly Kelly Orchards Acton, ME
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