Forum home› Fruit & veg
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Growing rhubarb (& possibly veg or herbs) under Apple trees

KittyKKittyK Posts: 4
in Fruit & veg

I'm busy turning my gardening into an edible garden, including planting a few 2yr-old fruit trees (apple, cherry & plum) along a south facing fence.  My mum says that in 1960s the nearby orchards grew rhubarb under apple trees. Can anyone give me some advice please about whether this is a good idea to do in my garden?...it has plenty of well-rotted manure dug in to it. And if not, what else will be good companion plants to grow under the fruit trees?

My garden is long & thin (a ratio of 1:7.5) and is mostly sunny (apart from a 3 feet strip of deep shade running along north facing long fence line & the area under my neighbour's enormous 40 foot Christmas tree where not even grass grows!). So I need to make the most of the remaining 9'x50' south facing strip. 

Thanks for your help

Posts

  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841

    Sounds like you are interested in what is now known as forest gardening - useful link for you http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/forgndg.html

  • KittyKKittyK Posts: 4

    Oooh, sounds interesting...I'll take a look. Thank you Steephill

  • Kay8Kay8 Posts: 216

    KittyK, rhubarb will do fine under your trees... it's grows really fast at this time of year as well. Get some in! It spreads quite well too. image

  • KittyKKittyK Posts: 4

    Thanks Kay. Rhubarbs are now in, looking like patches of soil at mo, so fingers crossed they'll bounce into life soon ready to crop a little next year

  • Kay8Kay8 Posts: 216

    No worries image I'm sure it'll grow just fine x

  • KittyKKittyK Posts: 4

    Thanks Mike. I've already planted the rhubarb & apple tree, although the rhubarb is closer than 2 feet there's plenty of manure a foot deep. The rhubarb are 1st year crowns, and the tree is a 2yr-old, so if either shows signs that they are not doing well I'll move them in the winter to a more generous spacing.

  • Delia DumaresqDelia Dumaresq Posts: 5

    I am about to move a rhubarb to put it under a two year old apple tree. As we live in central Italy, the summers are very hot. But this crown seems to have survived despite the heat.  Like KittyK, I have limited space and it will have to be planted less than a metre from the trunk.

    I wonder how KittyK fared with her rhubarb under an apple tree?

Sign In or Register to comment.