[nij]

As all this is new to me, I wanted to ask some questions, probably easy answers to many, but fruit is new to me.

I am wanting to plant a very mini orchard/fruit area in my allotment.
What I am hoping to grow, apples (eating and sweet cooking), blackberry's and currants (red & white).
* I know ideally you need more than one apple tree, do they both have to be of the same varety? I am thinking about having two or three max trees.
* Blackberry's i was going to run up against the boarder fence, a few bushes (again threeish).
* Currants - do these need staking or are they ok to grow as they are?

And lastly, where is the best place (cheapest and good crop) to buy (either local to me if anyone knows - Huddersfield/Halifax region - or online).

Many thanks in advance.

[daisy1990]

You can grow different apple trees and it really is a matter of taste.  I personally think you cant go wrong with granny smiths for cooking and there are plenty of eating apples to choose from.  On the labels it will always say whether they are self propagating or need to be planted with another, but again in my experience if you are growing near to someone else's trees you cant go wrong.  For blackberries I would always go for thornless varieties which taste as good but dont have the ability to scratch you whilst picking

Whatever you choose enjoy!

[pigeonpie]

Hi,
You can get some good fruit trees that have been grafted on to dwarf stocks so they stay a manageable size.  I have also seen some that have a couple of varieties on the same root stock but I've never grown them so have no idea if they are successful or not.  I know J Parker's sell them and they deliver but might be worth doing a bit more research on them.
There is a great thornless blackberry (I think it's called Merton) which makes it easier to pick them and is easily trainable up a fence.
Currants are easy, just bung them in the ground with some muck and keep them nicely watered.  Don't forget to cover them when they're due for fruiting so that the blackbirds don't steal them all though!
There really is something so satisfying about growing your own fruit.

[nij]

Cheers guys.

I was looking at thornless blackberrys lol http://www.mailordertrees.co.uk/Rubus_fruticosus_'Merton_Thornless'_(Blackberry_Merton_Thornless).htm

The problem is there are so many varietys and fruit I had not even contemplated like grapes, olives, cranberys the list goes on.......the way I am dreaming now i will need about ten allotments lol.

[Yorkie]

Apples - you don't need the same variety but if memory serves me right, you need a pollinator from the same or adjacent group so that blossom is flowering at the same time.  So a Group A and a group C wouldn't necessarily succeed but A & B, or B & C would.

You don't need to have the second tree on the plot, just nearby.  I think  :blink:

R V Rogers in Pickering are said to be very good, and will know about local (northern) growing conditions.