"The Ariane crop will have a nice colouration this year"

It is the start of the Ariane apple harvest for Bocapom, a French company based in the Deux-Sèvres department. The campaign is off to a good start. "The harvest is on schedule and ideally positioned between the end of the Gala and the start of the Jazz season. We hope to harvest around 150 tons of Ariane, corresponding to the 2019/2020 and 2021 graftings. The quality has been very good this year, with a beautiful skin and exceptional colouring. The Ariane has had very few problems with diseases and insect pests in our orchards, so we have very few losses this year," explains Stéphanie Habasque, production manager at Bocapom.

Photo credit: Bocapom

Although the farm started growing Ariane apples only recently, it has not ruled out further development of the orchards in the future. "We seized the opportunity to develop the Ariane crop in our orchards to improve pollination of our existing plots and to meet the needs of our company for volumes of conventional Ariane apples. With these areas, we are currently covering the demand, but if the demand increases, we may be interested in increasing the size of our orchards."

Photo credit : Bocapom

In addition to the 2.6 hectares of Ariane, Bocapom has 141 hectares of apple trees and 7 hectares of pear trees. "This year, the potential harvest of Gala, Jazz and Golden apples - our main varieties - is 8,500 tons. We are part of the Pom'évasion OP, a group of producers based in Maine-et-Loire who produce apples using agro-ecological methods. For a number of years now, we have been managing our new multi-axis plots in the form of a fruit wall to promote good access to the trees and facilitate all stages of production, as well as colouring."