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Cox's Orange Pippin (Cox) now makes up 5fi% of the U.K. dessert apple pro- 

 duction, while Bramley's Seedling (Bramley) represents 80% of the culinary 

 apple production and over 40% of the total apple production. (Note: 

 Bramley's are sold for processing, but there is no major apple processing 

 industry in the U.K. Culinary apples are ones grown specifically for 

 cooking and to a large extent are sold directly to the consumers). 



For pears, 73% of the production in 198? consisted of a single variety. 

 Conference, with most of the remainder being accounted for by Doyenne du 

 Cornice. These three varieties -- Cox and Bramley apples and Conference 

 pears -- are ones sought by the U.K. market and not grown in Southern 

 Europe. The industry will likely concentrate still further on the produc- 

 tion of these varieties. 



The past 10 years have seen drastic changes in the way English apples 

 are produced. The traditional orchard of large, widely spaced trees 

 growing on a carpet of grass has virtually disappeared as a viable commer- 

 cial entity. The framework of the trees was first drastically lowered with 

 a chain saw, and strips of grass under the trees were killed with her- 

 bicides. Later, these trees were replaced by small, staked trees planted 

 more intensively and often grown on bare soil. A driving force in these 

 changes has been the inherently low productivity of Cox trees, which makes 

 increased productivity per acre critical to economic sii^vival. It is esti- 

 mated that the average Cox orchard produces 225-250 bushels per acre (but 

 this includes nonbearing trees), that 500 bushels per acre are needed for 

 economic viability, and that '■his figure will soon rise to 750 bushels per 

 acre. (Most-efficient producers are already obtaining these yields). 



To achieve such yields intensive production is required. It is easy to 

 look across the English Channel to the Dutch apple industry and try to 

 adopt their techniques. However, 66 to 70% of Dutch fruit farms have less 

 than 10 acres of trees, while 80% of the U.K. fruit farms exceed 25 acres 

 of trees. Thus, most English growers cannot afford the detailed attention 

 to tree development that is given by Dutch growers and U.K. orchards are 

 developing differently from better-known Dutch orchards. 



The most common rootstock for English Cox apples is MM106, although M9 

 is being used increasingly. For Bramley, MM106 was also widely used but 

 its use is now declining and M26 and M9 are becoming increasingly popular. 

 Single-row planting at a density of about 300-400 trees per acre is most 

 common, with trees trained to a central leader but restricted to no more 

 than 10 to 15 feet (or preferably less) in height. 



There is considerable interest in 3-row bed plantings, trained to the 

 North Holland spindle-bush system. However, there are some clear limita- 

 tions to its successful adoption. fl) The size of most English orchards 

 limits attention to development of individual trees. (2) Many orchards 

 are frost-susceptible, and if a crop is lost or severely reduced by frost, 

 the high vigor produced that year makes the growth much harder to control. 



