FRUITS OF YOUR LABOUR
Nuture your own apple and pear trees and you’ll soon be living the sweet life, says Alan. It’s easier than you think
‘Why go to all the bother of growing your own fruit” people ask, “when you can just buy it instead?”
Well it’s true: you can have Australian apples all year round, but when the first Cox’s Orange Pippins come into the shops, around now, there’s nothing to beat their rich, tangy, aromatic-raisin flavour. And any apple picked straight from the tree in your own garden tastes far better than anything you can buy.
And it’s not just apples. Pears, plums and all sorts of fruit trees are brilliant buys because, aside from the obvious benefits of a well-filled fruit bowl and a freezer full of free pie filling, they have spring blossom that knocks spots off most ornamental trees. Plus they are very wildlife-friendly.
Fruits make great dualpurpose trees to grow in a lawn or at the back of a mixed border, but for small spaces, go for trained shapes grafted on dwarfing rootstocks to grow against walls or trellis.
Results don’t take as long as you might think. You can expect to be picking your first fruits a year or two after planting – dwarf trees will be cropping quite well within three to four years, while semi-dwarfs take a couple of years longer.
But when you want to be sure of a decent crop, it pays to choose your varieties with care. A lot of fruit trees need a mate for cross-fertilisation or they won’t bear fruit. The partner needs to be a different variety of the same type of fruit, whose flowers open at the same time, and both must be compatible. Now, that’s usually no problem with popular fruits such as apples, which your near neighbours probably grow – and even ornamental crab apples will do the job. If you don’t have room for three compatible kinds of your own, plant a family tree – each branch is a different variety, selected to pollinate one another.
But pollination can be a problem with plums, cherries or pears. If there aren’t any others within bee-distance (about 100 yards), play safe and buy a self-fertile variety. There are several around – conference pears, Stella cherries and Victoria plums, to name just a few. Mulberries, medlars and quinces are quite self-sufficient, so one is enough. Peaches and nectarines don’t need partners either but, because they flower so early, you need to go round handpollinating them with a small brush
to shift the pollen from one flower to another.
The next thing to watch out for with fruit trees is where you plant them. Anywhere won’t do. A sunny, sheltered spot with good, fertile but welldrained soil is essential for good crops of fruit. It also pays to plant them properly.
If you’re planting a fruit tree in the lawn or in a border, clear a circle of ground about four feet wide, then bury lots of compost, take the tree out of its pot and plant it so that the top of the root ball is about an inch below lawnlevel. Knock a stake in alongside and secure the plant using proper tree ties top and bottom. Most trees grown on semi-dwarfing rootstocks will only need support for the first year or two and, once established, you could allow surrounding grass or plants to grow back up to the trunk. Trained trees such as fans and espaliers, and any others that are grown on very-dwarfing rootstocks, need good soil preparation. Since the roots are small, dwarf trees need supporting all their life. Keep the area around them free from weeds, too.
Finally, don’t forget aftercare. A good feed every spring is essential, so when the foliage starts to appear, sprinkle a handful of organic general-purpose feed around each tree, mulch and keep the trees watered in dry summers.
It might sound like a lot of bother, but there’s less to growing a fruit tree than looking after a hanging basket – and the satisfaction when you pick your first crop is unbeatable.