15:13 - 21 September 2010
After a summer of wet and warm weather one of the crops that have really performed this year are tree fruit. A warm spring nurtured the blossom, enticing the bees out early to perform their magical pollination ritual and then a summer deluge watered the trees, swelling the fruit to perfection. What a crop. Trees are completely laden with fruit bursting with flavour and goodness.
Imagine next year plucking your own home grown apples, pears, cherries and plums straight from the tree. It’s like having a living larder in the back garden and a fantastic way to keep the kids enthralled. Once the trees are established you’ll save £££’s every year and have plenty of fresh fruit for the table.
Traditionally large houses had their own mini orchards with a few trees of most of the fruit varieties to feed the family throughout the year. Few people these days have that luxury, but you can provide a decent amount of fresh fruit by planting wisely now.
You don’t need an orchard to grow fruit; in fact you can choose to grow just one apple tree if you choose it wisely. Look for a reliable self –fertile variety such as Cox. Or if you’ve a small garden then choose a suitable wall and consider training apples or pears to grow as espaliers. Stone fruit such as cherries, plums, peaches, and apricots can be grown as fans. Be creative and make your trees work for you, you can actually train apples low to the ground in horizontal cordons called step over apples; this can make an attractive border edging.
If space is a consideration then choose to grow something that makes your taste buds tingle, whether it’s crisp apples, juicy peaches or ripe strawberries, there’s no point growing something you won’t enjoy eating. Be realistic though, whatever you choose won’t make a bumper harvest in the first year.
There are several different types of fruit. Most can be divided up into two main groups. The soft fruit include the cane fruits like raspberries; bush fruits like the currants and also strawberries. Tree fruit include all those that grow on trees from apples and pears, to peaches and medlars.
Tree fruit are one of the easiest crops to grow in small garden. They are relatively low maintenance and once established they keep on producing fruit year after year. If you’ve never grown any, this year, more than ever before is the best time to plant them.
Under control
Apple trees don’t need to be monsters. Today’s growers utilise what are called ‘dwarfing rootstocks’ to control the ultimate size of the tree. These make fruit trees ideal for domestic gardens and still produce a generous crop of fruit. Look out for the M27 rootstock that keeps trees to an ideal size for growing in containers and small gardens, or if you’ve got a bit more room go for the M26 that allows the trees to get a bit bigger. Simply check the labels or ask for assistance.
Remember that unless there are plenty of apple trees nearby you will need two or more trees that flower at the same time to ensure a good crop. Bees need to be able to transfer fresh pollen between the same kind of fruit trees to facilitate pollination. Crab apples make excellent pollinating trees for other apple varieties.
Pears tend to be grafted onto an M106 rootstock, but also require other trees to flower correspondingly for pollination. Look out for self-fertile varieties that can be grown on their own, however even these will fruit better if they have a partner pollinating tree nearby.
The birds and the bees
Pollination is an important consideration with tree fruit. Apples and pears are divided into three pollination groups that relate to their flowering times. It’s important to ensure that there are other trees of the same pollination group nearby to ensure good fruit set. Apples cannot pollinate pears and vice versa.
