[3759allen]

this all sounds very hopeful. i like the idea of sitting back and letting nature do the work.

i am a little concerned about the apricot and peach, they are blossoming now and minimal insects or bee's about.

i think they don't bear many fruit as i still have to prune them to train, wish i had done it last year but run out of time and had no materials to make post and wire set up.

i have heavily mulched them with rabbit manure for a year and they seem to absolutely love it, most have put lots of growth on and look really healthy. i haven't put the mulch right up to the stems as suggested, can't remember who now.

thanks to everyone for all the help and advice.

[AnnieB]

I would expect the apple to get pollinated from other nearby apples, that includes crab apples. So that should be OK. The cherries are different and would be expected to take care of each other.

The pear and the plum are reliant on other local trees although I have a plum that is not self fertile and known (apparently) for being not a heavy fruiter and there are no other plums around me to the best of my knowledge - each year it crops well. I am in the middle of a small town so not really an abundance of wild plums.

The difficult ones may be the peach and the apricot - how closely related are they to each other? As in will they cross pollinated each other? I suspect not, but there may be a chance.

[3759allen]

the peach and apricot were very much a impulse buy, just sounded like a good/ interesting idea, looking at the early blossom and singular tree's i'm starting to think i may have made a mistake.

think i'll see how they get on, hopefully they will produce enough on their own.

failing that i may look into grafting, as long as the trees are still looking strong and healthy enough to make grafting more viable.