so we can see a tree here that was planted two years ago and although the
group responsible for planting the tree have topped up the mulch a little bit as
you can see there is actually quite a lot of bare root now around the base of
the tree now we can't emphasize how important it is to keep the tree topped
up with good bulky organic mulch for the first three to four years of its life
mulching serves various purposes it helps to retain moisture in times of
drought it helps to regulate temperature if you think about where this tree would
be originally the ancestors of this tree in the fruit forests of a Kyrgyzstan
they would be surrounded by other plans which wouldn't allow direct sunlight to
the bare roof underneath so it helps about temperature regulation but
importantly it helps to begin to build the soil around the base of each of our
trees from top down so as the organisms come to the surface pull down the mulch
break it down we're initiating the health of the soil food web and really a
healthy tree depends upon healthy soil now using a mulch made from woody
materials because specifically younger wood the branches of the trees we can
begin to create soil that mimics that of the soil on the floor the floor of a
forest so by adding more woody material we're actually feeding the beneficial
fungi and it's these fungi that will also help in turn to feed our trees so
generally the healthy of a tree the less susceptible it's going to be two
infestations of pests and also disease so by creating holistic tree health
we're going to be working towards a healthier tree the stems from healthier
soil but hopefully will be more resilient to such attacks
we have an apple tree here which is showing signs of obvious aphid
infestation over the summer telltale signs here where these leaves as you can
see a crumpled they're deformed and many of them have died back now and are falling
off prematurely so what would have happened is when we have this new growth
from a spring into the summer time the aphids prefer the young growth because
it's weaker for their proboscis to get into the leaves and they're able to suck
out the sap and they always attack the young leaves and you can see them
covering many of the leaves and young trees but here the tree has gone on to
develop new growth and this hasn't been attacked by the aphids so possibly in
this situation natural predators were attracted by the aphids they've come in
they've eaten them kept a population down and then let's allow the tree to
put down a second burst of growth later on in the summer so this shows the
importance of attracting these beneficial insects these predators that
will come in and do the pest control for us so that we don't have to resort to
using chemicals so you can attract these beneficial predators such as hover flies
and lace wings by planting plants such as deal fennel daisies poached egg
plants or dandelions they generally like small white and yellow flowers you could
pluck these around your trees and that would help to increase the numbers of
these predators you may find ants around the aphids now ants themselves aren't a
pest but annoyingly they encourage aphids and actually farm aphids for
the sweet honey dew they extract from the aphids so it can be an idea to try
and prevent ants from climbing up your tree by putting a grease band around the
base of the tree quite low to the ground and that can prevent the ants
from protecting the aphids which then leads the aphids open to predation by
predators so one of the easiest things to do with aphids is actually just
manually removing them so if you're not too
squeamish you could squish them up with your fingers
some people prefer to put gloves on when they're doing that but that's a good way
very simple way of taking them off keeping an eye on them and just
squishing them
scab is a widespread fungal disease of apples and pears and it's one of the
most common diseases we find in fruit trees in London it prefers cool wet
periods and spring and early summer as it's a fungal pathogen similar to the
summer we had in 2012 generally it's not too much of a problem it might
cause the apples not to look very pleasant but it wont effect their taste
and as we're not doing this commercially then it doesn't matter so
much it's more of a problem for commercial growers over winters in with
fallen leaves and twigs so one way to deal with it if you have a bad outbreak
is to remove any affected leaves and twigs and infected fruit or if you want
those to go back into the mulch which is of course the natural feeding routine of
the tree then you can help it to break down more quickly by adding something
like urine and by mowing the leaves first so that they break down more
quickly so it's important during the winter to look for any disease material
in the tree and prune this out and indeed good pruning should allow airflow into
the canopy structure of the tree which will help to eliminate the microclimate
favored by pathogens such as scab
we can see here a powdery mildew so these shoots that look almost ghostly
white tips have died back there a massive fungal pathogen and again it's
one of these with with organic gardening we're also looking at observing and
trying to nip things in the bud and actually you know destroying them
getting rid of them before they get out of hand so in this case in the summer if
you see any leaves that are looking white like they're covered in a white
kind of powdery film then just take those off and it's best to remove them
from a site if possible powdery mildew can be caused by the tree not getting
sufficient water especially in the first couple of years after planting when their roots
are still establishing which is why it's important to make sure that you
water your tree during times of drought during times of dryness in the spring
and summertime it is possible to grow a good quality fruit organically through a
holistic approach but works alongside nature to increase the diversity and
resilience of the orchard ecosystem
the London watcher project is a fresh initiative to plant and harvest fruit
trees in our capital we're developing a skilled community of Londoners to plant
care for and harvest fruit trees by doing this we're reconnecting urban
communities to their fruit and to each other and helping to secure our
long-term access to fruit in partnership with these groups we're identifying
sites coming up with designs for the orchards training people from the groups
to plant and look after the orchard in the long term helping them plant and
then providing long-term follow-up support to make sure that the trees
produce abundant crops in the future all right guys I want you to think when
you're tasting these apples these apple trees are going to be what grows here in
our food growing garden that he made so it's really important that you pick the
apples that you really want to taste later down the line they're going to
take a while to grow when they do these are the different apples that could come
out with trees being so long growing and it's important to have a really
sustainable and long lasting project that can support that all the way
through so having the London orchard projects train-the-trainer sessions and
providing training for local people teachers and parents means that the
project's got far more chance of success than it would be if it was just myself
trying to pass on the knowledge so it's really important for us to have those
that detail support that you guys can offer us and what do you think you'll do
with the fruits in a few years when you start getting crops in the trees
I think we'll do an enormous number of things we will draw the fruit will
measure the fruit science will test the fruit in science will eat the fruit eat
the fruit raw will eat the fruit cooked we'll try and work out recipes we'll
make fruit smoothies we will give the fruit out we will use the fruit to give
to children at break times and lunch times that we already have some but not
quite enough for everybody to have it for free everything is possible to do
with fruit will do first I should think what say well what do you think of this
project then fantastic absolutely fantastic no more fruit trees the better
why do you think it's important for residents to be planting orchards well I
think it's it brings a community together you know it's just sort of
actually work on the areas that they're going to live in and I growing is a
fantastic way of doing that bringing community together it pushes the healthy
eating agenda so the orchard project fits in with all of those things and it
it looks nice it offers something to the community around here and we're right in
the middle of some flats and if we have nice apple trees and pear trees and plum
trees growing eventually we hope the community will have access to as well
it's a win-win so how you feeling about this is hot right yeah why the great
well been trying to work towards this for kind of well a year and finally the
trees going wonderful and why do you need the help along an orchard project
well expertise funding extra enthusiasm and facilitating it really so yeah great
great partnership really we've chosen locations in some of the most deprived
areas in London we're creating a supply of local fresh fruit could really make a
difference to the state of the nation's health just yeah we just want people to
help themselves really that's that would be the best thing if people just Mowgli
come down from the flats and help himself to an apple and eat it