Glossary · Orchard
Biennial bearing
Also written alternate bearing. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The habit of cropping heavily one year and lightly or not at all the next. It is marked in several major cider cultivars and shapes the whole economics of a mill’s supply.
- Subject
- Orchard
- Also written
- alternate bearing
In more detail
The mechanism is hormonal: developing seeds in a heavy crop suppress the formation of next year’s fruit buds, so an "on" year forces an "off" year. Thinning the crop early, before bud initiation, moderates the cycle; once the cycle is established it can persist for decades.
Whole regions can fall into step, because a spring frost that removes one year’s crop synchronises the trees that survive it. Mills manage the resulting swings by holding juice, by blending across vintages and by contracting fruit widely.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Orchard
June drop
The natural shedding of a proportion of set fruitlets in early summer, by which a tree reduces a crop it cannot carry. It is normal and self-correcting, not a disorder.
Orchard
Flowering
The blossom period, when the crop is set or lost. Cider cultivars flower over several weeks in spring, and the sequence is consistent enough between cultivars to be used for planning even though the dates move each year.
Cider
Vintage
A cider or perry made wholly from the fruit of one stated harvest year, as distinct from a blend across seasons.
Cider
Blend
A cider or perry made by combining juices or finished batches, either by mixing fruit before milling or by assembling separately fermented lots to a target balance.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset
Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001. ISBN 9781874336877 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library: Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001, ISBN 9781874336877. The author was Long Ashton’s cider pomologist, which is why this work is registered for Somerset cultivar identity at all — it is the nearest thing to a successor to the station’s own descriptions. No copy was opened. Not digitised in any open collection.
NIAB (incorporating East Malling Research)
NIAB · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
East Malling developed the M-series apple rootstocks that determine tree size in essentially every modern orchard, cider orchards included. The authority CiderHQ uses for rootstock behaviour.