Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Nicki85 on August 15, 2013, 12:23
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I've been lucky enough to take on a second plot... i'd like to get some fruit trees and bushes installed this Autumn. I'm thinking bare-rooted as they are cheaper :tongue2:
I was looking for some thoughts mainly on...
what variety?
which rootstock?
how far apart?
I know I want...
a cooking apple type
a eating apple type
a plum tree
a cherry tree
I will also be getting a fruit cage and i'd like...
gooseberries
black currents
raspberries (possibly, I know they can go a bit wild!)
black berry
I know this is a stupidly wide ranging post but any thoughts would be appreciated... i am feeling a bit overwelmed!!
Any other essential fruit bushes/ trees I should get to go in my fruit plot?
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No need to feel overwhelmed. Rome wasn't built in a day. No rush, so take your time.
I like a Ben Connan blackcurrant. Mine is grown in the hedge bottom and it's amazingly productive despite the hostile surroundings. It was only heeled in there when I first got my plot but it looks so at home that I've left it. Small, compact grower too
Avoid mildew-prone varieties of gooseberry
Blackberries from the wild are tastier and easy to find, so you could save space and grow another berry :)
Rasps - grow a few of each early, mid season and late so you have a long picking time
Apple wise you can get multipurpose varieties which saves on trees
My plum Czar is a bit mean with fruits so I'd go for something less stingy such as Victoria. If I had room I'd grow a greengage, the fruits of which are pure nectar :)
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This might help you pick which varieties you want.
http://www.which.co.uk/home-and-garden/garden/guides/grow-soft-fruit/
Having looked at this it helped me decide which varieties I am going to be planting.
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If you're going for a cooking apple then you can't really go wrong with Bramley's seedling. They produce good crops and keep for 6 months or more. There was a neglected one in my house when I moved in but it's back in full production now.
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It depends so much on what you like, what soil you have and what space you have. I like my apples sharp for example, my friend likes them sweet - so my recommendations wouldn't be the same as hers. I found Brogdales infinitely patient and helpful with all those questions: http://www.brogdaleonline.co.uk/ (http://www.brogdaleonline.co.uk/)
Also there is a wealth of information on here about rootstocks, eventual heights and the pollination requirements of different fruit trees: http://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/apple-trees (http://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/apple-trees)
Any good nursery or tree specialist will take time to talk you through options. There are also Apple Days in various places where you can try things you've never heard of!
And while I am all for growing heritage varieties that aren't in shops, some are popular because they are tasty and good. I love Bramleys and I can't wait to get one.
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Thanks all :)
I've gone ahead and put an order in with chris bowers as they had 20% of this week and requested delivery this autumn.
I decided a smaller root stock would be best....
I went for-
1 X apple- pixie, (Rootstock M9)
1 X apple- annie elizabeth, (Rootstock M9)
1 X cherry- stella, Gisele Rootstock
1 X plum- a surperb jubilee, (Pixy Rootstock)
1 X gage- willingham gage, (Pixy Rootstock)
2 X ben connan, Blackcurrant Bushes
1 X goose- invicta,
1 X goose- martlet
5 X raspberries- glenample
1 X tay- medana
1 X pear- invincible, (Quince C)
wonder if it will all fit....
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As well as what Simon and Surbie suggested. Can I join them and suggest you put one of these in. ....
This wonderful tree is a clone of the original Bramley. To me its lovely having one. I have a true type of the very first Bramley apple tree in my garden.
Apple Bramley Original £17.95 This is propagated, from the original Bramley in Nottinghamshire.
On rootstock MM106. (3-4M)
Mine, after a year, has three apples on it. I am growing it as a bush. I love that it is DNA related to the very first tree in Britain. Please read on further.
Source..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bramley_apple
The first 'Bramley's Seedling' tree grew from pips planted by Mary Ann Brailsford when she was a young girl in her garden inSouthwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1809. The tree in the garden was later included in the purchase of the cottage by a local butcher, Matthew Bramley in 1846. In 1856, a local nurseryman, Henry Merryweather asked if he could take cuttings from the tree and start to sell the apples. Bramley agreed but insisted that the apples should bear his name.
On 31 October 1862, the first recorded sale of a Bramley was noted in Merryweather's accounts. He sold "three Bramley apples for 2/- to Mr Geo Cooper of Upton Hall". On 6 December 1876, the Bramley was highly commended at the Royal Horticultural Society's Fruit Committee exhibition. In 1900, the original tree was knocked over during violent storms; it survived, however, and is still bearing fruit two centuries after it was planted. It is now the most important cooking apple in England and Wales,
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Agree about the bramley :) Also when you get your blackcurrants plant them deep !