Fruits of the earth
Thinking of growing your own fruit? Here’s a healthy slice of advice from Leigh Bramwell.
SOME TIME IN THE LATE 70s, my then-partner and I took a road trip through Central Otago. We had a very cool little Fiat Spyder convertible, and we drove with the roof down, ate Central Otago cherries and leaned back and spat the stones out into the air. It took a while to figure out why the guy on the motorcycle behind us kept ducking.
When we pulled up beside him at a pub in Cromwell, the red splotches on his visor were the giveaway. We apologised, bought him a beer and gave him the rest of our cherries. Lucky we weren’t eating apricots.
There’s no question that the best fruit in the world comes from Central Otago (I was a Mainlander born and bred so I would say that) and it explains why we have stone fruit — peaches, nectarines, plums — in our orchard in the Far North. I have to admit that they don’t do all that well because the climate isn’t right for them and, at the time, I didn’t know enough to choose varieties that might tolerate warm, wet weather.
But I’m on a mission now to extend our orchard and my knowledge, and this is the ideal time to plant. Deciduous trees are dormant in winter and planting about now gives roots time to settle and grow before the spring flush.
I’ve noticed a lot more interest in fruit and vegetable growing over the past year or two, as Covid makes us aware of the common sense of growing your own food.
The simple way to get started is to decide what fruit you want to eat, and do some research to see if those trees will grow at your place. You also need to figure out if you have the space for them. Happily, many fruit trees now come in small, medium and large — or, more scientifically, dwarf, semi-dwarf and standard. There are even dwarf fruit trees such as columnar apples, figs, pomegranates and many types of citrus.
Make sure to take pollination into account. Some trees are self-fertile and are happy with the single lifestyle, but a lot grow best with at least two different varieties planted. They should bloom roughly at the same time and have pollen that’s compatible. Google will give you numerous charts to show which trees like to co-habit with which. But if you only have room for half a dozen trees, choose self-fertile varieties so you don’t limit yourself to just two or three fruits.
Read up on the trees you fancy and make sure they’ll be productive, pestresistant and taste good. We planted a fig a few years ago which grew into a gorgeous, shapely tree with fruit the texture of old tyres stuffed with damp cardboard.
If you want a real orchard you can keep all your fruit trees in one area. Ours got off to a good start because we already had half a dozen fully grown limes — the remains of the original 100-tree orchard on this land. Now we have many other varieties of fruit trees in the same area and we’re running out of room. But I’m coming
around to the idea of planting the odd fruit tree in different areas of the garden. Coming across a lemon or a tropical apricot while you’re wandering through your native area is totally charming. And selfseeded trees, like the tamarillo that grew spontaneously in the middle of our camellia hedge, can be quite good at choosing the right conditions for themselves. Our tamarillo was as healthy as a horse and as prolific as a bunny — just a pity I don’t like tams.
A lemon tree or two close to the kitchen is the go if you fancy gin and tonic, and a big, spreading cherry or plum tree can made a fine centrepiece for a lawn.
The most successful trees we have — of any kind — are the left-behind tangelos that have been growing along our roadside for decades. There are about 50 of them, and despite total neglect they fruit extravagantly year after year. And they’re a favourite of the pukeko, who take the unripe fruit down to the edge of the stream and cache them in a rock pool to soak. When they’ve softened up, they split them and share them with the whanau.
Read up on the trees you fancy and make sure they’ll be productive, pest-resistant and taste good.