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  • Fruit/nut trees ideas
  • UrbanHiker
    Free Member

    Thinking of adding some fruit or nut trees to my south facing garden. It’s about 100m2, and so only looking at small things, probably 5 or 6 in total. Apples and pears are the obvious choice, but interested in other less common things too, like hazlenut and truffle…

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    thepurist
    Full Member

    Cherry & peach are obvious candidates though peach will need more protection) and plums of course. Both cherry & peach can be trained on walls/wires so you can manage the tree. Walnut is right out as it grows into a large tree. Hazel & Cob trees are reliable and can be coppiced so easy to control the size, and dark leaved varities could add interest to the garden.

    If you’re not familiar with fruit trees then many are a productive variety that’s grafted onto a base root stock. The root stock will control the vigour of the tree so you need to make sure you’re buying the right type – eg. M27/M9 for apples will keep them small but M25 will grow to be a much larger tree. You may need to consider pollination groups too otherwise you get a lot of blossom and not much fruit, though in my experience if there are apples/pears in neighbouring gardens it’s not a big issue.

    If you’ve got a greenhouse or conservatory then you can grow citrus too so oranges, lemons etc. They won’t stand a cold wet winter though so need to be in pots and brought indoors over winter.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Quince? Makes a lovely paste to go with cheese.

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    joshvegas
    Free Member

    i think you need two hazels if you actually want nuts.

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    for apples, pears, cherries, etc. all will be grafted on to a rootstock. pick the rootstock that will let it grow to the size you want (or train it or whatever). we had one that basically grew only vertically with no proper branches. easy to prune!

    we had a Kentish Cobnut tree too. kinda like a hazelnut, but better. had to get rid in the end cos it was too close to the house, and we just let it grow.

    neighbour had cherry tree – if you want the fruit you’ll need to use netting, else the birds will have them all.

    myti
    Free Member

    If I had space I’d have a fig tree and a walnut. Yum

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Plum trees at our old house were just wasp magnets, never again.

    Dickyboy
    Full Member

    Plum & Greengage trees at our old house gave us a beautiful fruit crop, much better than any I’ve ever bought in a shop – ones I’ve planted here haven’t fruited properly yet 😞

    Houns
    Full Member

    Damson and Hazel, as above you can coppice the hazel and find many uses for the wood

    rene59
    Free Member

    A truffle tree? I thought they grew underground?

    UrbanHiker
    Free Member

    rene59, the truffles grow of the roots of the tree.

    aweeshoe
    Free Member

    You will need 2 hazels but you can plant them in the same hole an twist the trunks together, or coppice as already suggested and burn it, craft it or sell it. Cherry is pretty but most varieties are sour, it’s not so easy to harvest either and you’ll have to be fast to get there before the birds. Apples need the right weather conditions to get a good tasty crop and can be inconsistent. Have you thought of fruit canes like raspberry or blackcurrant? They can be quite invasive though. If you’re into gin then juniper or blackthorn are good and elder makes a decent wine or Sambuca shot. I’d also get a pair of plums, Victoria plums are sooo sweet I’ve eaten them before the wasps get a whiff

    vazaha
    Full Member

    I have a pear(var. Comice) tree in my garden that was here when i got here so i can’t give any planting advice, but can very much recommend having one. I did end up cutting the top to restrict its height, probably a bit later than would have been preferable, but most of the fruit can be picked from a step ladder.

    Some years it is massively productive, last year i had more fruit than i knew what to do with, this year i had i think five fruits off of it – mad really. Some trees, and i think Pear trees are particularly so, will take a number of years before they start to produce in a prodigious manner so it’s worth doing a bit of homework.

    One thing i would definitely recommend, if you don’t already possess, is some cane fruit. I have just one blackberry(var. Loch Ness) cane that i did plant that has been incredibly generous every year for the last decade. Zero maintenance beyond generous watering whilst it fruits, it delivers staggered waves of wonderful berries so you end up with a constant ready supply rather than a glut. I keep meaning to put another one next to it because it is by far the best thing i have ever done to my garden.

    My Mum has about five raspberry(var. ?) canes that give and give, but they do tend to come almost all together so she freezes most of them.

    UrbanHiker
    Free Member

    Thanks for the input everyone. Really useful. If nothing else, has opened my eyes to just how little I know!

    Cane fruit is a great shout. Added to my list.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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