EVEN SMALL GARDENS CAN BE FRUIT FUL
Imagine picking your own apples or pears. Growing fruit trees is easier than you think – and you don’t need acres of space
Many people are scared of growing fruit, I think. They worry that it takes great expertise in pruning and pollinating, and are confused by rootstocks, fruit groups, disease and pests. But growing fruit is not just fun, it is also easy.
For a start, you do not need a lot of space. If you have a small garden there are small trees that will fruit just as well as large ones. And if you are very limited for space or want to try a number of different varieties then you can easily train fruit trees to grow in a range of ways against a wall, fence or trellis. Apples, pears, plums, damsons, quinces, crab apples — these will all more or less look after themselves. Even some of the more particular fruit like peaches or apricots are no more trouble than tomatoes or cabbages.
A key tip is to keep all fruit trees clear of grass and weeds for a diameter of at least a metre around the trunk — and ideally twice that. Mulch with compost or well-rotted manure thickly each year to suppress weeds and retain moisture. This will do more than anything else to keep them healthy.
APPLES
By far the most common fruit tree is the apple. It can make a wonderful spreading tree big enough for a child to climb, or be small enough to grow in a pot.
All apples need a pollinator within 100 yards so either grow two or check that there are apple trees in your neighbours’ gardens. Apples flower from the middle of April to the middle of
May, with each tree’s blossom lasting about ten days. This means they do not all overlap and cannot all pollinate each other, so make sure your trees flower at the same time.
Every variety is in a pollinating group from 1-7, with 1 flowering first and 7 the last.
Choose varieties in the same group to guarantee pollination. Summer pruning restricts growth and is essential for training restricted forms such as cordons (see below). Apple trees are grafted onto rootstocks (a stem with roots), which determine the size of the tree. The rootstock type M9 is best for containers and very small trees, for example.
MY PICK OF THE VARIETIES
■ EATERS ‘Jupiter’, ‘Ribston Pippin’, ‘Rosemary Russet’
■ COOKERS ‘Blenheim Orange’, ‘Arthur Turner’, ‘Newton Wonder’
QUINCE
Quinces look like a hybrid of apple and pear and although inedible raw, are fragrantly delicious when cooked. Quinces make a small tree with an ungainly tangle of branches that resists training, and the most lovely, scented blossom of all. They do not need pruning. They are self-fertile so a single tree will usually bear fruit after a few years. VARIETIES ‘Vranja’, ‘Lescovacz’, ‘Champion’
PLUMS
Plumsareknown as stone fruit, and include greengages and damsons, plus native plums, bullaces (Prunus domestica, the wild plum), myrobalans (Prunus cerasifera, the cherry plum) and sloes (Prunus spinosa, the blackthorn).
They grow well in a soil that is heavier and wetter than most fruit prefer, with damsons being exceptionally hardy and greengages needing a sheltered, sunny site. But all plums ripen best in full sun, with only ‘Czar’ and ‘Victoria’ growing successfully in shade. Because the blossom is some of the first to appear the trees are very susceptible to frost damage and this is often the cause of a lack of fruit.
Plums fruit on one and two-yearold wood so any regrowth after pruning (see panel, below right) will not produce fruit for a couple of years. VARIETIES ‘Czar’, ‘Victoria’, ‘Oullins Golden Gage’
PEARS
All fruit eaten in season is lovely, but a good pear is the best of all, impossibly juicy and sweet. They don’t travel well, so are a treat to be savoured in their season.
Pears will tolerate slightly colder, damper conditions than apples, although the fruit need more sun to ripen. If you have a large garden they can become magnificent, long-lived trees, but for most of us they are best trained to fit into the available space. They are ideal to grow against a sunny wall or fence. Like apples, you must have more than one pear to cross-pollinate, although ‘Conference’, a good old-fashioned pear which is great for cooking as well as eating raw, is self-fertile so can be grown as a solitary specimen.
OTHER VARIETIES ‘Beth’, ‘Doyenne Du Comice’, ‘William’s Bon Chretien’