Steve, thank you so much for the very helpful information. I am tending to favour bushes or a half standard as the allotment association only allows dwarf trees. It is quite a windy spot in the winter, should I stake them.
Yes, use a good thick stake (oak if you can get one) and a quality adjustable tie as dwarf fruit trees are best staked for their entire lives in windy spots. There is nothing worse than finding a tree you have nurtured for years being broken by a storm. That most often happens in the autumn when they are loaded with fruit, too.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
I have an M27 apple tree, I fear this explains why after two years it hasn't grown at all and any fruit produced, even after thinning it out, has been tiny and rubbish...
Yes - definitely agree about staking - and put it in at the same time as the tree so you can thread it through the roots instead of damaging them. I'd recommend a bush type too, unless you want them higher. But check with the association - their idea of 'dwarf' may be different from ours!
I'd check out some other sellers too, Deacon's don't have a huge choice. Blackmoors, Adams Apple Trees, Keepers, Reads, Parker's, if you saw BBC Countryfile last week Matt Baker was tasting a Redlove apple from Lubera (also available from Blackmoors). I ordered it from Blackmoors immediately for fear of it selling out but then remembered that Lubera did four apples called Redlove, so which was it? It took me a week to track that down with the kind help from Francijn Suermondt from Lubera and Ross Newham at East Malling. Ross kindly tracked down the clone number, he could only remember the row it was from, then Fran was able to confirm that clone 119/06 was Odysso. I ordered it today after Matt Baker's reaction to it describing it as a cherry crossed with an apple, I thought it was so worth a try. Can't wait for it fruit now.
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Steve, thank you so much for the very helpful information. I am tending to favour bushes or a half standard as the allotment association only allows dwarf trees. It is quite a windy spot in the winter, should I stake them.
Yes, use a good thick stake (oak if you can get one) and a quality adjustable tie as dwarf fruit trees are best staked for their entire lives in windy spots. There is nothing worse than finding a tree you have nurtured for years being broken by a storm. That most often happens in the autumn when they are loaded with fruit, too.
I have an M27 apple tree, I fear this explains why after two years it hasn't grown at all and any fruit produced, even after thinning it out, has been tiny and rubbish...
Yes - definitely agree about staking - and put it in at the same time as the tree so you can thread it through the roots instead of damaging them. I'd recommend a bush type too, unless you want them higher. But check with the association - their idea of 'dwarf' may be different from ours!
I'd check out some other sellers too, Deacon's don't have a huge choice. Blackmoors, Adams Apple Trees, Keepers, Reads, Parker's, if you saw BBC Countryfile last week Matt Baker was tasting a Redlove apple from Lubera (also available from Blackmoors). I ordered it from Blackmoors immediately for fear of it selling out but then remembered that Lubera did four apples called Redlove, so which was it? It took me a week to track that down with the kind help from Francijn Suermondt from Lubera and Ross Newham at East Malling. Ross kindly tracked down the clone number, he could only remember the row it was from, then Fran was able to confirm that clone 119/06 was Odysso. I ordered it today after Matt Baker's reaction to it describing it as a cherry crossed with an apple, I thought it was so worth a try. Can't wait for it fruit now.