I'm going to draw out the plot and try to get elevations and projected tree heights on there too. The sun will be coming from up the slope on our site too. Shorter trees at the top might be best.
The no compost thing sound logical, but so does giving the poor plant some nutrients to get it going
Does the family tree look weird? I saw a photo of one and it looked wrong.
At the front of out house we have two apples planted together. One with tiny crabapples, and one with horrible tasting apples (even cooked). How difficult do you think it would be to uproot it and plant something better there?
My family tree looks fine, but i did chose it at a garden centre rather than an internet purchase so it's a really nice shape. You could argue it looks odd when different branches have slightly different blossom/apples on it, but generally i don't have a problem with that.
Thanks everyone, that was, and will continue to be helpful when we plant. We spent most of the day at garden centres and a lot of time on-line too. We bought a Bountiful cooking apple on M26 rootstock.
We will probably also buy a Braeburn eater on M26, a Victoria plum on VVA1, a Morello cherry on Gisela5 and a Stella cherry on Gisela5. Sounds a bit boring and predictable written down like that, but I suppose they are favourites for a reason. I decided against a quince because I like cherries so much I wanted an eater and a cooker.
We need to decide exactly where they are going to go now, and do an awful lot of digging
The only thing i'd say is that the braeburn is a group 3, and the bountiful is group 4 so they won't really pollinate each other. You may want to also stick a crab apple in to pollinate them both.
Thanks pansy face.the man in the garden centre has tried them and said they taste pretty well as good as a Bramley. There was a Bramley there but even on a dwarfing rootstock I was concerned it would go mad. Didn't like the sound of the tip bearing thing either.
Good advice Andy. There's room down there for a small crabapple. Do all crabapples pollinate any "proper" apple. If an apple isn't a crabapple what is it called?
I need to investigate netting, no bird is going to get my cherries! I feed them plenty of other stuff. The initial problem is going to be deer. They are infrequent visitors, but I need to protect everything as soas it goes in.
We bought the other trees online last night, from ornamentaltrees and orangepippin. Got a Sunburst instead of Stella. The extended picking period sounded good.
From what i understand, all crab apples are universal pollinators. It's basically all about the blossom time, and crab apples usually have a much longer period in blossom than most edible varieties, hence they will be in blossom at the same time as all the traditional apple "groups".
I think they main varieties of crab apple are red sentinel and golden hornet, depending if you want red/yellow fruits.
Key points to consider with dwarfing trees are soil condition, proximity of planting and a void area (about the size of a old dustbin lid). Dwarfing trees are by nature shallow rooted and don't like competition. Recently VVA stock has become available for plums, gages and damsons making it possible to have 2 metre ish
cherry (G5)
plum, gage and damson (VVA)
apple (M27)
pear (QC)
Self fertile varieties that have caught my eye are -
cherry (G5) - Lapins Cherokee
plum, gage and damson (VVA) - Victoria, Oullins golden gage, Farleigh Damson
apple (M27) - James Grieve
pear (QC) - Concorde
This is of course subjective. With dwarfing varieties it does tend to be the greatist hits for commercial feasibility. Container planting is a option, London clay and compact gardens does sway people towards this option.
Thanks Ediblescape B... I liked the look of a Lapins Cherokee until I read that a load of green fruit falls off in the wind. Although they also said that left plenty to grow, I didn't like the sound of it. I bought Sweetheart (on Gisela5) instead of the Sunburst I mentioned before - I got the name wrong.
That last one hasn't arrived yet, I'll take a picture when we've planted them all. It won't be pretty for a while though.
Sweetheart is good variety, I have a lot to choose from Brogdale when I go (ahem) 'sampling'. Some of the nicest varieties are known purely by code and represent research taken to a point by MAFF/DEFRA then the money ran out to commercially develop.. madness.
Another very obscure fact is the industry wide shortage of dwarfing Krimpsk stocks as they are a tit for tat embargo commodity from Russia.
Posts
The Lady Lambourne sounds good.
I'm going to draw out the plot and try to get elevations and projected tree heights on there too. The sun will be coming from up the slope on our site too. Shorter trees at the top might be best.
The no compost thing sound logical, but so does giving the poor plant some nutrients to get it going
Does the family tree look weird? I saw a photo of one and it looked wrong.
At the front of out house we have two apples planted together. One with tiny crabapples, and one with horrible tasting apples (even cooked). How difficult do you think it would be to uproot it and plant something better there?
My family tree looks fine, but i did chose it at a garden centre rather than an internet purchase so it's a really nice shape. You could argue it looks odd when different branches have slightly different blossom/apples on it, but generally i don't have a problem with that.
Thanks everyone, that was, and will continue to be helpful when we plant. We spent most of the day at garden centres and a lot of time on-line too. We bought a Bountiful cooking apple on M26 rootstock.
We will probably also buy a Braeburn eater on M26, a Victoria plum on VVA1, a Morello cherry on Gisela5 and a Stella cherry on Gisela5. Sounds a bit boring and predictable written down like that, but I suppose they are favourites for a reason. I decided against a quince because I like cherries so much I wanted an eater and a cooker.
We need to decide exactly where they are going to go now, and do an awful lot of digging
The only thing i'd say is that the braeburn is a group 3, and the bountiful is group 4 so they won't really pollinate each other. You may want to also stick a crab apple in to pollinate them both.
Thanks pansy face.the man in the garden centre has tried them and said they taste pretty well as good as a Bramley. There was a Bramley there but even on a dwarfing rootstock I was concerned it would go mad. Didn't like the sound of the tip bearing thing either.
Good advice Andy. There's room down there for a small crabapple. Do all crabapples pollinate any "proper" apple. If an apple isn't a crabapple what is it called?
I need to investigate netting, no bird is going to get my cherries! I feed them plenty of other stuff. The initial problem is going to be deer. They are infrequent visitors, but I need to protect everything as soas it goes in.
We bought the other trees online last night, from ornamentaltrees and orangepippin. Got a Sunburst instead of Stella. The extended picking period sounded good.
fruit bushes next
From what i understand, all crab apples are universal pollinators. It's basically all about the blossom time, and crab apples usually have a much longer period in blossom than most edible varieties, hence they will be in blossom at the same time as all the traditional apple "groups".
I think they main varieties of crab apple are red sentinel and golden hornet, depending if you want red/yellow fruits.
Key points to consider with dwarfing trees are soil condition, proximity of planting and a void area (about the size of a old dustbin lid). Dwarfing trees are by nature shallow rooted and don't like competition. Recently VVA stock has become available for plums, gages and damsons making it possible to have 2 metre ish
cherry (G5)
plum, gage and damson (VVA)
apple (M27)
pear (QC)
Self fertile varieties that have caught my eye are -
cherry (G5) - Lapins Cherokee
plum, gage and damson (VVA) - Victoria, Oullins golden gage, Farleigh Damson
apple (M27) - James Grieve
pear (QC) - Concorde
This is of course subjective. With dwarfing varieties it does tend to be the greatist hits for commercial feasibility. Container planting is a option, London clay and compact gardens does sway people towards this option.
Thanks Ediblescape B... I liked the look of a Lapins Cherokee until I read that a load of green fruit falls off in the wind. Although they also said that left plenty to grow, I didn't like the sound of it. I bought Sweetheart (on Gisela5) instead of the Sunburst I mentioned before - I got the name wrong.
That last one hasn't arrived yet, I'll take a picture when we've planted them all. It won't be pretty for a while though.
Sweetheart is good variety, I have a lot to choose from Brogdale when I go (ahem) 'sampling'. Some of the nicest varieties are known purely by code and represent research taken to a point by MAFF/DEFRA then the money ran out to commercially develop.. madness.
Another very obscure fact is the industry wide shortage of dwarfing Krimpsk stocks as they are a tit for tat embargo commodity from Russia.
Are you on Carboniferous limestone or something more diggable?