Altitude; This is secondary information and will be taken from a map. Again the height of the land where an orchard is placed will determine how well the apples will grow. If of an orchards height above sea level is high then it is an advantage to the farmer because the frost in winter time will not affect the trees as much as a low lying orchard.
Slope; This is the measure ment of how steep the slope is and can be measured with a clinometer as i have explained on the previous page. This factors has to do with how much sun each tree would get. With a slope of 7 degress each tree would get more sun than trees on a slope of 4 degress there fore promoting more growth.
Shelter; Shelter is a very important here to stop or reduced the amount of wind that is let down onto the orchard thus keeping it warmer. Most shelter or shelter belts for orchards are positioned in the north and north-east to stop the cool north-easternly winds swooping over the orchard and causing the apple crop harm. And are not needed all that much in the south because mild winds come from this direction.
Rainfall; Is of course a higly important factors because water is needed for anything to grow and thereore plays an essential part in the apple location of orchards.
Soil pH; Although we will be taking the samples in the field we will be bringing them back to school to find the pH as is would be time consuming in the orchards.
Analysis of Results
Now I will write down what we saw in the orchards and give an overview of each of the physical factors.
In the orchards we saw many different examples of how these physical factors influence the location of the orchards..
Aspect; We saw that on most ocassions (5 out of 20 times) the aspect had a generally south to south-easternly direction, which means that one quarter of the orchards we visited have the ideal aspect for apple farming. Although the remainder of the orchards either had a north or westernly aspect which is not as good for apple production because the sun does not visit this part of the sky until it is ready to set. We seen that on the north side of the orchards we visited that the growth was lessened slighty because of its position in relation to the sun.
Altitude; The Altitude of most of the sites was around 30 metres above sea level which shows us that good growth for apples occurs around this height. This is also why the apple farmers choose to place their orchards at this height. Although this factor, altitude, cannot really be changed because it is not possible to move a huge amount of land just for and orchard, most farmers would tend to buy a site for farming apples at a fairly high altitude. This is because of the frost that gathers on the ground at low altitudes and therefore as we seen a high altitude is best because the frost would destroy most of the crop.
Slope; All the sites we visited had an altitude of 10 degres or under and so and this tells us that a good slope for orchards is around 10 degres because at this angle we seen that the apple production was good. However on some of the sites there was often no or very little slope and the growth at these site was not as well as the sites with a higher steeper slope. This is because the steeper the slope is then the more sunlight will be evenly distributed over all the trees in general and of course each individual tree will also get more light. Shelter; On site we evaluated the shelter amount simply by looking around and spotting were there farmers had placed their shelter in accordance to wind direction. We found that either the farmers had grown trees or hedges to protect their orchards from strong winds or that the surrounding landscape provided well enough shelter either by the mountains, hills or natural tree row and hedges. We seen that most of the orchards we vivsted had a block of some sort in the north and north-easternly sector. As i explained earlier the shelter belts are needed in the north because the cold wind that could damage the crop and not as much in the south because mild winds come from this direction but tend to bring some frost in the winter.
Rainfall; The annual rainfall reading for the entire area in which we took our readings was between 800 - 900mm which means that this amount must be a good influence on the location of orchards otherwise there would be very few orchards located in this area.
Soil pH; The soil pH turned out to be an important location factor because if the soil was not the correct pH then of course very little or poor stunned growth would occur and would not be a good site for an orchard. We found that although the pH reading on most ocassions did not reach a score on the score sheet the growth was fine regardless of the score sheet.
Interpretation
Now in my interpretation i will explain why we got the results we did. I am now asking myself the question, "Why did i get the the results that i did?" And intend to answer it the best i can in this section.
Altitude; As we found most of the altitudes where around 30 metres above sea level, this is because at this height the frost of winter cannot destroy the apple harvest by intruding the orchard when the frost is the worst. Alas if the altitude were too high the air would be too cold for succesful growth because for every 100 meters in ascending altitude the temperature drops by 1 degree. Although Armagh is a very good county for growing apples because throughout the county there are hill or drumlins, hence place names such as Drumanally and Drumgor.
Aspect; We got these results of a quater of the orchards having a south, south-easternly aspect and the rest having a general north direction because the southern facing orchards get more sunlight and therefore promotes more growth and greater benifit on behalf of the farmer. As for the rest of the orchards having the northern aspect, this is due to weighing up the advantages and disadvantages: all farmers cannot have what they want, sometimes they will have to buy land that has an unidealic aspect but there may be other factors that are better such as soil pH altitude and rainfall. On the other hand there could be a farmer with a perfect south-easternly facing orchards yet his other influencal factors may be poor.
Slope; The result for slope angle were as so because there needs to be at least a slope 7 degrees for a good growth rate and if the slope were to little or flat there would be not be as good growth as in the orchards with a fairly steep slope. There slope is also needed for drainage so that the orchard floor does not become saturated with water and give an overdose to the trees.
Shelter; The shelter of course is very important to maintain a healthy orchard status because it blocks the cold northern breeze. Most of the orchards we visited had shelter on north-easternly side and on most sides but the shelter is more needed in the north east because of the wind whereas it is not as needed in the south, this is why it was not particularry relevant becase of the warm wind that comes from here. But in the winter time winds that bring frost come from the atlantic ocean so some shelter would be need in this area.
Rainfall; This factor can not really be put into a "why did I get this result" catagory, because unlike shelter and altitude man can not decide what rainfall he would like. The reason however would be more along the lines of because we got 800-900mm for the readings then a good rainfall measurement must be around this mark otherwise not too many orchards would be situated in County Armagh.
Soil pH; The reason for this again is not what a farmer did do his land to enhance apple growth but simply again a natural factor which can not be changed by a farmer. However for most of our results the readings did not reach a score on the score sheet and even if they did it was a fairly poor result.
