Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: stompy on March 22, 2011, 12:24
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Hi all,
Im off to Morrisons tonight to get my bare root fruit trees for my new plot.
Im going to put them in pots until the beds are ready for them as when i'll be ready for them they'll have stopped selling them.
Just out of interest, what variety of fruit Trees do you all grow and which are your favourite for taste and crop size.
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None cos we aren't allowed any trees on our small plots :(
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Not even on dwarfing stocks ???
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We're not allowed trees either (although a lot do have them)...we are allowed fruit bushes though and so far we have goosegogs and a plum bush (tree ;))
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Not even on dwarfing stocks ???
Nope zero tolerance as well. The old plots have them but if you plant now, they make you take them out :(
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Is that in the rules, or is it someone trying to be a little controling?
If it's the council thats put it in place then i would check the other sites to see if it's on their rules too.
If it's not you can go down the discrimination route and they usually fold on that!
Just a sugestion
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I'm lucky enough to have an old orchard, although we have had to take out most of the old trees as they were too diseased to save and had been given too much of a hard time by the sheep that used to graze it. I also had to take down all the cordons as they finally decided to lay flat and no amount of coaxing up worked. They were at least 30 years old though so not too bad.
I'm not too sure what varieties they all were but did manage to work out that my favourite was a discovery and another was cox's orange pippin. We have now replanted these in the orchard. I think one of the others was a russet, which I hope to replant soon along with a pear (although hubbie grumbles about this as he doesn't like pears - I've chosen to ignore him on this as I love them!).
We also have a Bramley, another unidentified cooker/tart eater and 2 victoria plums. I'm also hoping to put in a medlar this year as well as a new morello cherry (in a better position than the old one so that it is easier to net to stop the birds getting them all).
Sadly, we also had to take the old damson down as it was starting to cause a risk to the stone walls with it's constant suckering habit. :( Luckily I know where to find some over the farm as damson jam and damson vodka are 2 of my favourite treats! :D
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I have three cherry trees, but at home, not on a plot, and quite a few berries and currants of various types
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No restriction on our site for planting fruit trees. Several have old apple/pear trees but they take up so much space. :(
I planted a dwarf plum tree as we have no space at home and I love the fruit.
I was persuaded to try an unnamed variety of plum (standard sized tree) from the place beginning with "L".... a cheapo. In it's second year and it's getting pretty big already so this summer it'll be having its first good prune. After that it needs to prove its worth or up it comes!
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I got 4 apples and a cherry, well my little lad has one of the apple trees and my daughter has the cherry tree. We still have plenty of space too as we got a full plot and a 3/4 plot there abouts. 2 of the apples were for our 10th wedding anniversary last year.
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I share the allotment plot with a friend and she has planted some sort of Cox apple tree and a Victoria plum tree. I'm a little worried that the plum tree will get too big, and it has taken a few years to start bearing fruit. But I threatened it last year that if it didn't produce any fruit I was going to cut it down, so it complied and produced a good crop. The weight of the apples produced last year nearly pulled the tree over, so I've had to do some heavy pruning to straighten it up.
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Is that in the rules, or is it someone trying to be a little controling?
If it's the council thats put it in place then i would check the other sites to see if it's on their rules too.
If it's not you can go down the discrimination route and they usually fold on that!
Just a sugestion
Why would it be discrimination?
There's enough serious discrimination in this world without frivolous use of the accusation.
Fruit trees can cause serious problems on plots, particularly if they are thoughtlessly sited or not on dwarfing rootstocks. I'm not saying they should necessarily be banned, but there are potential problems with them.
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No restrictions on fruit trees here.
I inherited an unknown apple and a pear. The apple`s fruit look like bramley but they don`t cook the same. The pear is Williams Bon Chretien.
I`ve planted a Victoria plum which cost £9.98 at Homebase. It`s 5ft tall and just breaking out in bud all over.
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Just planted a Gala in the garden at home as I love the sweet taste of these. Leaves are just coming out. Couldn't source one locally so finished up buying fron treesonline.co.uk (Manchester area I believe) after a goggle search. Arrived safely in a couple of days. It is a fine specimen of pot grown tree - another victory for the internet!
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Just looked at "treesonline" and all I need now (apart from a huge bank balance) is a few acres of land!! Oh it would be so easy to fill it. ;)
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I have planted 2 Victoria plum trees and 1 Stella cherry and inherited a terribly overgrown mess of a Victoria plum tree that bears a goodly amount of fruit ,and that makes me loath to prune it in case I kill it.
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Fruit trees can cause serious problems on plots, particularly if they are thoughtlessly sited or not on dwarfing rootstocks. I'm not saying they should necessarily be banned, but there are potential problems with them.
This is my main dispute with fruit trees on allotment plots, especially if it's not grafted on to a semi-dwarf rootstock. I'm not against having fruit trees on plots, but I do wish there was some sort of "planning permission" where the trees can be sited as these are long term and more difficult to move/remove, and new tenants may think they intend having the plot for as long as possible, but circumstances can change - I've seen enthusiastic new tenants come and go, leaving behind no end of problems for new tenants and neighbours :(
I don't have fruit trees on my plot, but there is a huge apple tree right next to the boundary footpath on my neighbours plot which means I have to go round it and is a loss of growing space on my side. Having said that, the tree was planted many years ago and both plots were vacant for a long time before waiting lists - despite total neglect, every October/November I harvest loads of apples on my side (for some reason my neighbour doesn't want them) and the fruit are lovely - I think it is called Empire (only a guess but the fruit look and taste like the ones in the shops about the same time)
I have several fruit trees in my garden which I planted - 6 different apple varieties, 2 Conference pears, Victoria plum, 2 Morello cherries and a Stella cherry, as well as 6 established elders and a hazel when I moved in the house :D
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Five damsons, two cherries, three apples and a pear. Also soft fruit plants and canes (strawberries, raspberries, tayberries and loganberries) three gooseberries, two cultivated brambles, four redcurrants and four vines. That's in my garden and small orchard, I grow veg only in the kitchen garden.
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Well, i purchased 5 bare root trees last night from Morrisons.
1 Victoria plum
1 Opal Plum
1 Grenadier Apple
1 Doyenne du Comice Pear
1 Stella Cherry to be increased to 2 when more stock arrives.
The overall cost for all 5 was £25 £5 each, which i thought was a bargain.
I will be adding at least 1 more apple to the list of which variety i can't remember the name of at the moment, but that will be from one of the nurseries and a little more costly.
All 5 will be going into pots for the next few Weeks/months as the plot isn't ready to take them yet but as i'll be potting them i'll be able to plant them any time i wish.
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I hope you have a big plot Stompy... they will cover a huge area once they reach full size. :ohmy:
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Both plums will be grown as espaliers as will the apple tree and the pear.
The eventual 2 cherrys will be grown as a flat piramid if you know what i mean!
All of them are on dwarfing root stocks and it says they will not reach more than 10'
My plot is very big though 350sqft about 20ft wide by what seems like 10 miles long. :lol:
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On my plot (1 and 1/2 plots) I have 3 cox, 1 discovery, 1 James Grieve, 1 pear Conference, 1 Damson Merry-weather, and 1 plum Pershore Purple The plum is Worcestershire bread.
They have not taken over yet! keep them well pruned.
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Both plums will be grown as espaliers as will the apple tree and the pear.
The eventual 2 cherrys will be grown as a flat piramid if you know what i mean!
All of them are on dwarfing root stocks and it says they will not reach more than 10'
My plot is very big though 350sqft about 20ft wide by what seems like 10 miles long. :lol:
On dwarf root stock for that price is excellent. I wish you luck with them. ;)
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I bought a Victoria plum and a Stella cherry from Focus last year, but the cherry didn't have any roots to speak of and didn't survive the winter. Luckily I kept the receipt. I may look for another one tomorrow as I am hugely fond of cherries.
I also have a big apple tree that is probably 30 or 40 years old. It has been badly neglected and barely fruited at all last year because it was so badly affected with downy mildew. It's not of any recognisable type and the fruit is susceptible to scab as well. Still, it would be a great shame to get rid of it (and a lot of work) so I'm giving it another year to see if it does any better with regular doses of fungicide.
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I've got a nice dwarf victoria plum (exceptially well flavoured)from local garden ind garden centre £20 but fruited year of planting
and a dwarf Bramley apple - for lots of lovely crumbles and pies
One's that have been unsucessful :
stellar cherry (poundland)- the wind always took the blossom so i never had any fruit I was on a quite exposed site then. So, it might be an excellent cherry elsewhere.
A unnamed variety of plum tree which just grew and grew (bought from poundland or similar type store) but didn't produce fruit - this was definatly not dwarfing rootstock so it became fire wood - I think it's quite common for the cheap tree's to be commercial varieties and not on dwarfing root stock.
I inherited a doyenne du commice pear on my first allotment which didn't give much fruit (I thinkbecause of the wind exposure ) but did taste really good - I will probably give this another go now i'm in a much sunnier and more protected location.
things I think you should consider before buying the tree...
the size of tree you want - smaller rootstocks need staking and feeding and watering
siting of the tree is important: there needs to be other trees for fertilisation if not self- fertile. windy or frosty condition early in the season will kill the blossom and you get no fruit so exposed sites are bad.
lastly but most importantly flavour in fact this is where I would start from...
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No allotment, but in the garden I have a dwarf apple, an Olive tree and a Fig, all birthday gifts from my parents last year, I noticed today that the Fig already has 2 fruits on it and my apple is bursting into blossom
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On plot 20 we have;
Victoria Plum,
Sunburst Cherry,
Elstar Apple.
On plot 6B;
Morpark Apricot.
All are new trees purchased in the Autumn and planted then. All are currently in bud.
At home we have an Conference Pear!
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We have: Apple, Pear, Plum, Apricot, Cherry, Lime, Orange and Lemon Trees.
All budding /or flowing....so hopefully get some fruit for the first time this year!!!
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We have: Apple, Pear, Plum, Apricot, Cherry, Lime, Orange and Lemon Trees.
All budding /or flowing....so hopefully get some fruit for the first time this year!!!
I guess the lemon and orange are indoors. ;)
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They are all on dwarfing rootstocks, have a look in or ring your local Morrisons, they've got them in at the moment.
This is what i planted on my original plot 6/7 years back and had fruit from year 2 onwards, and they all cropped very very well, i got fruit on the first year but removed it all (took alot of wilpower) so the trees could put their energy into roots and top growth.
£5 each at Morrisons now.
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£5 each at Morrisons now.
Worth a cycle ride into town I reckon - thanks ;)
The only other thing I will need is an extra half-acre of land ::)
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Two Cherry, Three Apple, Three Pear, Five Plum and two Damson. By the end of next season I fully expect a full crop from them all. This is not the only fruit I'm growing,but I think your question was specifically about trees :) :)
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The thread has got me thinking. Two of my damson trees are probably a bit past it. They did not give very much fruit last year and according to the previous owner, he got little from them over several seasons. If I removed them, is it possible to plant new ones, or even something like plum trees in roughly the same positions, or, like roses, is that not possible?
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I would have thought that so long as you prepare the planting hole well (plenty of organic material and BFB) then there should be no problem!
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On the alloment I have 3 plums, 1 cherry, 1 apple, 1 family apple, and at home 1 pear,
1 nectarine, 1 peach and a lime.
Never really thought about it before but thats one heck of a lot of fruit :blink:
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We used to get through all of ours, even the vast amount of apples.
I just put them through the juicer and make apple wine.
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I would have thought that so long as you prepare the planting hole well (plenty of organic material and BFB) then there should be no problem!
No problem with the organic stuff - there is a house down the lane with stables and three horses. They have a pile there going back years, give the stuff away willingly and are glad to see the back of it.
I shall hire a stump grinder to get rid of that part of the tree, the main part can go into the woodshed for next winter. To be honest (ambition may be getting to me) all the damsons may need replacement in the next few years as they are all quite old, so if I have the grinder for a day, (and space in the woodshed) it may be a good time to replace them all. The other fruit trees are quite young, none more than 5 years or so and crop well.
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How big are the trees?
I used my Landrover to pull several very large elderberry trees out of my friends land.
It did it with ease, could have done it with a car probably if we could have got some grip, thats why we used my landy
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How big are the trees?
I used my Landrover to pull several very large elderberry trees out of my friends land.
It did it with ease, could have done it with a car probably if we could have got some grip, thats why we used my landy
Unfortunately there is no access for vehicles into the orchard part of my land, so it will have to be the stump grinder and that will only just get in! That and a lot of digging out of roots and residual wood chippings. I made a start this morning and took down one tree from 20+ft to a stump of about 1 ft. The second is due to be cut this afternoon. Chainsaws are wonderful things.
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Greengage on my plot. Concorde Pear and Damson (merryweather) in my garden.
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The thread has got me thinking. Two of my damson trees are probably a bit past it. They did not give very much fruit last year and according to the previous owner, he got little from them over several seasons. If I removed them, is it possible to plant new ones, or even something like plum trees in roughly the same positions, or, like roses, is that not possible?
Before you give up on your Damsons why not give them an overdose of phostrogen? One full packet per tree! I'm serious about this because we had a really old apple tree in our front garden that didn't produce fruit for years,or very little fruit in a good year!. By chance,I had an old packet of phostrogen at the back of our shed and for some unknown reason I sprinkled the contents all around the base of the old apple tree. None of us could believe the result.... a fully rejuvenated apple tree full of lovely fruit. Maybe I got lucky,but it just may be worth a go :) :)
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I have 3 plums on dwarf stock (Victoria, Czar and Opal). Purchased Autumn 2008 kept in pots for a bit planted out 2009. First few fruit 2010 and hopefully plum jam and crumble this year. So expect a few years until you get fruit.
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I have ...
1 apple tree
2 Plum trees
1 Cherry tree
2 Gooseberry bushes
I keep threatening to put in a Pear tree but done nothing about it yet.. :blush: