By Marijke
Did you know that many young trees, too many to count, have been planted on Ériu Farm in the last couple of months?
Noel designed and planted a coppice woodland with some standards that will grow tall and old. Also nut and fruit bushes have gone into the ground.
After researching and learning a lot about fruit trees we ordered three apple, two pear, three plum and one quince tree from Germany. They are all grafted on a Bittenfelder Saemling rootstock. This high stem rootstock will cope with any soil type, too much or too little water and they are so vigorous in their growth that they form big trees that branch out at a hight of 1.6-1.8 meters above ground. The aim is for the cows to be able to graze underneath them eventually. But until then, these now 3-4 year old saplings will need good protection and some training. We hope that our home-made cactus tree protectors will do just that.
It is so rewarding to see the first green leaves bursting out of the buds after the last bit of rain!
Aoife, Noel and myself were lucky to join a local grafting course in the Kilkenny Steiner School. Did you know that any apple tree is a combination of two different plants? With our newly acquired knowledge on how to carefully cut and match, wrap and wax, we were able to graft a total of 45 apple trees. Let’s see whether these joined-up rootstocks with the twigs from Red Love, Topaz, Cox, Bramley and other apple varieties will create a union and grow on to be our future rows of fruit trees.
Well, we are watching these grafts with eager eyes. Wait for the update!
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