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Advice for old fruit trees
Jopalmer1
Posts: 3
in Fruit & veg
Hello, we have recently moved home from a small urban garden to a large, neglected country garden. There are several very old fruit trees, the previous owner said they were old when she moved in over 30 years ago.
Apologies for the images, I can't seem to change the order.
The first and third image are the same tree, I think it must be a fruit tree as it's with the others, no idea what, as there is no fruit on it at the moment. The leaves are sparse and covered in brown spots. Any ideas on what type of tree and if it can be saved?
The second image is a Bramley, it has a few small apples, again any advice would be appreciated.
And finally the bottom one is a greengage. It did have some fruit but it's so high as to make them unreachable. Waiting for them to fall resulted in bruised, rotten greengage. Is it possible to reduce the height, will it regrow lower down?
They are all in need of some love and care and I'm not sure where to start.
Apologies for the images, I can't seem to change the order.
The first and third image are the same tree, I think it must be a fruit tree as it's with the others, no idea what, as there is no fruit on it at the moment. The leaves are sparse and covered in brown spots. Any ideas on what type of tree and if it can be saved?
The second image is a Bramley, it has a few small apples, again any advice would be appreciated.
And finally the bottom one is a greengage. It did have some fruit but it's so high as to make them unreachable. Waiting for them to fall resulted in bruised, rotten greengage. Is it possible to reduce the height, will it regrow lower down?
They are all in need of some love and care and I'm not sure where to start.
0
Posts
These are old trees so need to be treated with respect and as much as possible, you want to retain their fruiting.
It’s not the best time of year to look at these as there is so much growth just now. However I’ve seen a lot worse and they do have a basic fruit tree shape. I would look to do a bit at a time over 2—3 years. By no means an expert, more of a beginner really, but I love the idea of recovering trees to look their best and the satisfaction of doing so over a period of time i.e. sticking to the task and getting the rewards.
I've taken a look at the RHS website and will see if there is anyone close by who can advise also.
They are lovely old trees, I really want to do my best for them.
I looked out as the chain saw gang arrived and a couple of hours later there were 4 denuded tree stumps. My neighbours were very upset but nothing could be done, the damage was complete. The trees turned into lollipops as they all grew masses of new growth, not an apple in sight ever again. So sad.