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Cider Digest #1507
Subject: Cider Digest #1507, 1 June 2009
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1507 1 June 2009
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Cider within reach of Paris (New Forest Cider)
used whisky barrels ("deirdreb@mindspring.com")
Thinning ("Cornelius Traas")
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Cider within reach of Paris
From: New Forest Cider <newforestcider@msn.com>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 10:14:31 +0000
Perhaps of interest to anyone going to France are the sites I have pasted
below, the 2nd site gives the ratio mix of apples used in keeving and lists
the varieties of apples planted in his orchard
During the past 3 weeks I have found some
very good French sites on Google which I list below .(Being a non
computer nurd I have only just learnt that by right clicking on your
mouse and following down the toolbar to info it will instantly
translate the text in french for you!)
http://monsite.orange.fr/coudrier/ is a small cidermaker in
Picardy,while explaining his methods with some very good photo's of
keeving,he also lists other sites as well
http://home.tele2.fr/cidre gives a very good account of his methods
and even lists the varieties of french apples he uses and in what
proportion in the mix.
http://perso.orange.fr/insolution/sitecidre/index.htm is also very
good (take a lookat his'sites a deuvrir' on the left side of the
homepageas this lists some 32 french cidermakers websites!
Barry Topp
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Subject: used whisky barrels
From: "deirdreb@mindspring.com" <deirdreb@mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 11:22:20 -0500
I contacted Tom Griffin of Madison WI whom I hear buys used bourbon barrels
in KY and sells them in various states. He responded:
sure I can help I have often sold them to folks in michigan for making
ciders. they say it turns out great
Tom Griffin tgriffin1957@yahoo.com
608-358-3245
- -Deirdre
Deirdre Birmingham, deirdreb@mindspring.com
Mineral Point, WI
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Subject: Thinning
From: "Cornelius Traas" <con@theapplefarm.com>
Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 10:34:15 +0100
Mark Parranto said: " I have also seen comments on varieties that are
biennial, with the apparent opinion that nothing can be done about that
habit of the tree. But it can. Nest time your biennial tree is in it
heavy year, chemically thin the apples. Naphthalene Acetic Acid, NAA along
with Sevin insecticide does a good job of thinning hard to thin varieties.
Thinning is an art and not a science. It should be done when the apples
are small say 6 - 10mm. the idea is to have a moderate crop and not a
heavy one. The tree then has more energy to put into forming buds for
next years crop, which is done by the end of June around here."
While the explanation given above was accepted as the reason for thinning
making trees less biennial, it is now accepted that it is the plant
hormones produced by the seeds of growing fruits that have the ability to
inhibit fruit bud formation for the following year. Of course, the more
apples on a tree, the more seeds there tend to be, but not always! Too
good a pollination of a heavy crop would give more seeds in the fruits,
and more biennialism (the following year) than a poorer pollination of the
same heavy crop with less seeds per apple. This explanation also fits in
with deva mass's observation:
"Each tree had abundant blossoms and I thinned fruit to roughly one apple
per cluster. The apples ripened well and the trees showed strong growth,
which indicated to me the trees were not stressed. This year two of
the trees showed abundant blossoms again, and one tree had zero flowers.
They all were planted the same year, all the same rootstock, all the same
variety, the only differance is the two flowering trees are next to one
another and the nonflowering tree is at the other end of the orchard,
no major soil differance."
What I would suggest is that the single tree at the end of the row which
went biennial was pollinated better than the other two, carried more seeds
per fruit, and consequently turned biennial, despite carrying the same
number of fruits.
To my mind apple thinning is pure science.
Con Traas
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End of Cider Digest #1507
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