The first edition of ‘The Best Practice Guide for UK Apple Production’ was funded and produced by Defra in paper form and distributed to growers in a ring binder. The objective was to collate information on the ‘best practice’ of all aspects of commercial apple production in the UK, thus providing commercial growers with a useful reference document to help them to achieve high standards of production.

With the passage of time, new research and commercial practices lead to changes in the ‘best practice’ and inevitably, a guide of this nature requires revisions to be made.

Through funding provided by the HDC, the guide has now been revised and edited in light of new research results and commercial developments and has been laid out in an electronic format which is currently available on HDC’s website. In so doing, it is now easier, quicker and cheaper to revise it on a more frequent basis, as new information comes to light.

The original guide was written and constructed by a number of industry experts including Dr Tony Webster, Prof. Jerry Cross, Dr Angela Berrie and David Johnson (all East Malling Research), Tim Biddlecombe (FAST Ltd), Dr David Pennell (ADAS) and Dr Martin Luton and John Guest (WorldWide Fruit/Qualytech).

This revised version has been produced by Prof. Jerry Cross, Dr Angela Berrie and David Johnson (East Malling Research), Tim Biddlecombe (FAST Ltd), Dr David Pennell (Ellis Pennell Consulting) and Dr Martin Luton and Caroline Ashdown (Worldwide Fruit/Qualytech). The HDC is indebted to all the contributors for the considerable time and expertise they dedicated to completing the revised guide.