Replanting apple orchards

Think orchards and you might well consider the apple and pear trees to be permanent features in the agricultural landscape. But like any plants, fruit trees have a productive lifespan and need replacing as that productivity wanes.

Here at Hadlow Place Farm we grow several major varieties, including Bramley apples for cooking and Gala eating apples, along with Conference pears. The trees of all three have long, productive lives, but when the time comes the old stock has to be removed and decisions taken about replacements.

Removing old stock

Most recently we removed around seven hectares of Bramley trees from the orchard, retaining a further 20 hectares of younger trees. With around 700 trees to the hectare, some 4,900 trees were taken out.
Our farm manager, Nigel Gibb, explained that the average lifespan for a productive Bramley orchard – a British cooking apple famed for its taste and texture – is around 25 years.

“The Bramley orchard that we recently took out was 32 years old,” he said. “We kept going with the trees but eventually the fruit doesn’t mature as well, and it also doesn’t store. We need our fruit to store well, in cold stores, so we have availability for the supermarkets through as much of the year as possible.”

Reviving the soil

At Hadlow Place, when the trees are removed the ground doesn’t stay bare for long, but it is not replanted with fruit trees immediately. ‘Break crops’, including mustard, are planted to help sterilise the soil against fungal diseases.

The seven hectares of Bramley trees were removed more than two years ago and after the mustard the field was drilled with wheat, which was harvested in August. Another cereal crop will go in later this year while consideration is given about the best apple variety to plant in the future.

Consumer demand

Customer preferences, the ability to store the fruit successfully and the suitability of our soils and climate will all help to determine our decision. Possible candidates include Pink Lady or Magic Star.

Ali Capper, executive chair of British Apples & Pears Limited said: “New varieties to the UK, like Pink Lady, Cameo and Magic Star are now being grown in increasing numbers. Growers invest heavily in new orchards, which can take five or six years to reach full production, so supermarket and public support in choosing British apples and pears is vital.”

Bearing fruit

Elsewhere in the orchards, the 2022 planting of desert apples is producing its third crop. These are mainly Ju Gala, an early maturing variety, alongside a small trial planting of a new type of Gala apple, called Wildfire.

We have also revised the way the trees are planted, switching from double to single rows, which means that, in future, we can switch from harvesting by hand to machine harvesting. The Bramley and Pears are planted at 700 trees to the hectare, while we have 1,880 Gala apple trees to the hectare.

Our replanting in 2022 saw the young desert apple trees arrive from our regular supplier in January. They were put into hibernation in the farm’s cold store until April when planting, which took four weeks to complete, got underway.

2025 Harvest

The apple harvest got underway a week earlier than normal this year, (2025) with the first fruit picked on August 26. A team of 80 pickers are needed through the season.

Most of our apple and pear crop is sold through Tesco stores under the Red Tractor logo, which ensures it meets the highest standards of agricultural production. At Hadlow Place Farm we are also accredited by the Linking Farming and the Environment marque. LEAF audits the farm to make sure it meets a wide range of environmental and community standards and monitors improvements, year by year.

Nigel said the evidence that adhering to LEAF standards gives a boost to wildlife and nature is easy to see, not just in the orchards but right across the Hadlow Estate, which includes heaths and woods, as well as farmland.