Fruit trees too close

Posts

• BobTheGardener Posts: 11,385

  May 2020 edited May 2020

  There are several things to consider, but I would start by looking at the shape and health of the trees.  If any are looking diseased or leaning at angles then I would consider sacrifice.  If any of them are not currently bearing fruit, I would consider sacrifice.

  Don't cut back or prune any of them right now as it's the wrong time of the year and you'll cause more problems than you'll solve.  If the pear or apple could be pruned to renovate them, do that in winter but do not remove more than 1/3rd of the tree.  If the gage could be pruned then do that in mid-summer.

  Other considerations:  Apples and pears are cheap and easily available.  Greengages are a rarer beast and take a long time to mature enough to fruit (although pears can also take many years.)

  Personally, I find bramleys of limited use and would have that out.  I have 3 pear trees but the leaves are always covered in orange rust spots in the summer and can easily end-up fruitless for various reasons in any particular year, so that would go too, leaving the greengage which is a superb and uncommon fruit.
  

  A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  

  0
• tamsinptFfFo3x Posts: 2

  May 2020

  Thank you Bob, that's really helpful. All 3 are healthy and have lots of fruit on. For some reason I'd not considered getting rid of the Bramley (probably because it's the biggest) but you're right that it's the easiest to replace. The greengage and pear are far enough apart that they'd be fine as they are. It grieves me to cut down a healthy tree but we're planning to plant more elsewhere.

  0
• BobTheGardener Posts: 11,385

  May 2020

  Sounds perfect - perhaps a bit lucky that removing the Bramley will provide the extra space the others need. 

  A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  

  0