Last month, I went to visit some commercial cideries in France. Most of them exploit some orchards of cider apples under 2 different systems: the Basse Tige orchard, which is a medium density (650 trees per hectare) bush orchard, on MM-106 mainly; and the Haute Tige orchard, which is the traditional standard tree orchard, at 100 trees per hectare (10 x 10 meters spacing). There were quite a few of these cideries that had recent plantings in Haute Tige. One of them also told me his future plantings would be something like one standard followed by 3 trees on MM-106, and one standard and so on, and the trees on MM106 would be cut after about 20-25 years as the standards get to their adult size.
I think in general they think the Haute Tige produces better quality apples for cider. As of harvesting, since they collect the apples on the ground, there is no added harvesting costs for the large trees. So, there are some commercial apple producers that still nowadays use the old-style production models that were in use over 100 years ago! Claude Jolicoeur, Quebec Author, The New Cider Maker's Handbook http://www.cjoliprsf.ca/ http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_new_cider_makers_handbook/ De : apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net [mailto:apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net] De la part de Arthur Kelly Envoyé : 11 décembre 2013 09:09 À : Apple-crop discussion list Objet : Re: [apple-crop] apple tree size and planting density 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<mailto:kellyorcha...@gmail.com>> wrote: Ruminating is good word huh Dave. I did allow for a few.
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