All courses are BASIS and NRoSO registered where applicable.

Many involved in practical decision-making come into farming without a background in fruit farming or knowledge of biological sciences. The course is designed to provide an injection of relevant knowledge which will support practical management decisions. This course has also helped many in marketing and quality assurance roles to gain a better understanding of production methods.

Evolved from our Strawberry Course, the content has widened to include information about cane fruit and blueberry growing. We recommend attending this course before joining us for level three courses.

Know the biology of berry plants, their morphology, physiology, and annual growth cycles. Choose the best growing systems and the factors influencing their success.

Learn more about pests, diseases and beneficial organisms: Recognise them and develop a better understanding of lifecycles and the interaction between environment, crop and pest or disease.

Find more about how nutrition affects plant performance and gain a basic understanding of soil and substrate feed programmes.

The course also concludes with a module devoted to the study of production and investment costs, bringing focus to many of the practical ideas concerning the manipulation of crop timing discussed in other modules.

Having the right soil nutrition, planting systems, crop loads and pruning all contribute to the growing of a successful orchard. Of similar importance is an ability to identify pests, diseases, and beneficial organisms, combined with knowing how to use prediction models.

This knowledge is essential as we seek to reduce reliance on, conventional pesticides and seek to better integrate production systems with a healthy natural environment. Having grown a crop, quality at and after harvest becomes vital. These depend on identifying optimum harvesting methods, picking dates, storage regimes.

The course concludes with a module devoted to the study of the market value of top fruit and production/investment costs, e.g. planting costs, profitability, investment appraisal techniques etc.

Course objectives include: