Open flower at a farm near Hereford, England

Last week Haygrove organised a “Specialist Cherry Day” in the Canterbury area of Kent.

The day started out 2 miles from the location by chosen by advisers to King Henry VIII as the best place in England to grow cherries!

The morning was spent at Little Sharsted Farm and the afternoon at Hoaden Court Farm. With more than 100 growers and market specialists attending, Haygrove were very grateful to the owners and staff of the two farms at what is a busy time of year for all fruit growers. We were blessed with excellent sunny weather with the cherries in glorious full bloom.

These farms are located in one of the driest regions of England.

Although overseas followers of this blog will be interested to note that there any ‘dry’ spots in England there has been some debate about the need for rain protection in these areas. However losses reported by Hoaden Court and the value of an 8 ton/acre crop clearly justifies the investment – not least when important customers are relying on the grower to supply.

Prior to the lunch break a short talk was given describing some developments and techniques in Chile and Michigan. The latter focussing on the work of Prof. Greg Lang of Michigan State University on the growing of sweet cherries under ‘high tunnels’. A link to a poster presentation summarising some of Prof. Lang’s recent research work follows.

http://www.hrt.msu.edu/faculty/langg/Sweet_Cherry_Research.html

Select the HIGH TUNNEL CHERRY PROJECT tag to view the poster in MS Powerpoint.

Young cherries, first covered in 2009