[Bobble_off]

Hi guys I’m new to all this allotment business. My local council only allow the growing of fruit trees on m9,m26 and m27 root stock. And the local garden centres and nursery sell trees on these root stocks but at a premium around £25-£30 per young tree

Now I’ve seen supermarkets like Tesco selling fruit trees and the tags all say they grow to 5m+ which is obviously too big. But today I found a ton of fruit trees in a local discount retailer for £4.99 and the tag on all of them says they grow to 1.5-3m which is what I’ve read is the expected size of the allowed root stock but there’s no mention of the root stock on the tag. I was going to look for signs of grafting but couldn’t see due to the way they were packaged. Do these sound like their on m9,m26,m27?? If it helps the trees were cox apples and conference pears??

[Eblana]

Not sure which discount store but if it is either of the German ones don't believe the labels.  My father in law bought apples and plum trees from one of them which also had 1.5 to 3 meters on them.  Three years later they were nearly 5 meters tall when I looked at them I discovered that they weren't grafted they were on their own rootstock.  Try googling bareroot fruit trees, I am sure you will find a nursery where you can get barefoot fruit trees on the rootstock that you require at a far more competitive price than your local garden centre.

[sunshineband]

I bought some cheaper "dwarf" trees when we got out first plot and the cherry & plum trees grew into massive trees, which we keep heavily pruned.

The two apples and the pear were fine however, so it seems it is pot -luck.

There is still just about time to plant bare root trees, so I would go with Eblana's advice, unless you are prepared to run the risk of a huge tree

[Bobble_off]

Thanks for the advice guys. Think I’ll give the trees a miss this year.  Not 200% easy to plant any yet anyway I’ve still got a few beds to dig and cold frames to build