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Cider Digest #1702
Subject: Cider Digest #1702, 2 April 2012
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1702 2 April 2012
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Re: cider apple yields (Mike Faul)
bottle color for cider (Dick Dunn)
Pruning/shaping a new orchard ("rkreeves")
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Re: cider apple yields
From: Mike Faul <mfaul@faul.net>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:43:59 -0700
Subject: Re: cider apple yields From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com> Date:
Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:10:02 -0600 Mike Faul <mfaul@faul.net> wrote:
> To my thinking, 8b/9a isn't cold at all (tho USDA zones are
> problematic). My concern is whether you'll have enough winter chill.
> By the "official" numbers, if you can actually get 1000 hours or more
> below 45F your choices are not much limited by chill. If you're under
> 500 you're going to have to look for low-chill varieties before
> considering yield.
I'll go talk to the other apple growers nearby too. Though very few of
them are cider apple guys. Mostly eating and cooking apples.
Mike
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Subject: bottle color for cider
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:03:38 -0600
Recently I exchanged a bit of email with a rep of a bottle supplier. I had
asked if they might carry more "flint" (clear) bottles suitable for cider:
the color of cider made from cider fruit (tannic) is notable on the shelf
of a shop, if it can be seen.
His reply was, in part, "...the demand in the last 3 years (especially
in the US) has been for amber colored bottles for cider. The idea is to
protect the cider from the light...not sure if it makes a difference..."
I've discussed this with a few people in the past, without finding a good
reason. We know that beer can turn "skunky" in a clear or green bottle if
exposed to enough light, but that's a specific reaction with a component
of the hops. Not a problem for cider.
There is one "presentation" issue, that if the cider has thrown a bit of
sediment you won't see it in a colored bottle. But in that case you'll
see the sediment anyway as you finish pouring. It's easier to decant
from a clear bottle.
Arguments against clear glass seem to end up as "just in case". But there
doesn't seem to be a "case". Does anybody know of a sound reason to use
colored bottles?
And if there is none, what do you think of the esthetic considerations?
(I asked a somewhat similar question about the common-in-the-UK 500 ml
flint crown-cap bottle.)
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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Subject: Pruning/shaping a new orchard
From: "rkreeves" <rkreeves5960@att.net>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 13:37:34 -0700
I have a 60-tree cider variety order arriving approx. one year from now
(very exiting!) and need to make a decision regarding tree shaping. Most
online literature that I am finding seems to be presumptive of Central
Leader management for apples, with little mention of Goblet, which I am
very fond of visually.
As I am not an orchardist I can only guess at the reasons Central Leader
gets the nod (reduced future pruning labor or disease pressure? ease of
spray applications or harvesting? improved yields or flavor or
ripeness?) and would really appreciate any advice as to which pruning
method might be preferable, both in general as well as applicable to my
own circumstances, which are:
900-1,200 chill hours, USDA zone 9A with northern exposure and good cold
air drainage, hot dry summers, plenty of water for irrigation, trees are
on either M7 or MM111/G11 in medium to low vigor soil, density either
290 or 220 trees per acre, labor/equipment pool is myself along with an
11' orchard ladder and a backpack motorized mister/blower.
For reference the cultivars are:
Brown's Apple
Dabinett
Harrison
Harry Master's Jersey
Major
Medaille D'or
Michelin
Porter's Perfection
Vilberie
Virginia Crab
Wickson Crab
Yarlington Mill
Thank you
Richard Reeves
Lake County, California
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End of Cider Digest #1702
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