Is it possible to grow a fruit tree in a container?
Yes, the advent of modern dwarfing rootstocks has meant that quite modest containers can be used and fruiting trees grown even on patios.
The best fruit trees to grow in this way are apples on the very dwarfing M.27 rootstock - most of the popular varieties can now be obtained in this way. To avoid the need for separate pollinator varieties buy a so-called family apple tree which will comprise two or three varieties all grafted onto the same rootstock. Thus, you have both a built-in pollination mechanism and a range of apples. The best container to use for a fruit tree is, I believe, a wooden half-barrel, for its shape is such as to give adequate but not over-extensive root spread. Ensure that before you fill the barrel, you have drilled drainage holes in the bottom and then don't try and economise on compost. Your tree will be in the container for a very long time and it is essential to use a good quality John Innes No.3 Potting compost. Remember too, that once established, a tree in a container needs copious watering during the summer and a surface mulch will help in this regard.
What is the difference between an espalier and a cordon?
An espalier has a central stem with, on either side, opposite pairs of branches trained outwards at right angles. Usually, although not invariably, espalier trees are trained against a wall or other support. A cordon is much simpler training system, very useful for a small garden or where a large number of varieties are to be grown. The essential features are that the growth of side branches is restricted and the fruit-bearing spur shoots are induced to form along the length of an upright, either vertical or 458 angled main stem. In double and triple cordons, two or three such stems branch from the base of the tree and are trained upwards in parallel.
My apple tree only fruits properly every other year. What can I do to persuade it to produce a crop every season
Almost nothing. The phenomenon is called biennial cropping and is a feature of many popular varieties, including 'Bramley's Seedling' and 'Newton Wonder'. Other varieties sometimes adopt a biennial cropping habit after a season of particular stress - an abnormally heavy crop or a severe drought for instance.
How can I ensure that the fruit trees I have bought will pollinate each other?
All varieties we sell come with recommendations for accompanying pollinator varieties.
If you already have apples in your garden and want to match new varieties to them, the following table of popular varieties should help. A good rule of thumb is that varieties which blossom at the same time will generally pollinate each other.
Variety Recommended pollinator varieties
Dessert Apples
'Crispin' - 'Cox's Orange Pippin' or 'Discovery'
'Cox's Orange Pippin' - 'Discovery', 'Greensleeves' or 'James Grieve'
'Discovery' - 'Cox's Orange Pippin' or 'Greensleeves'
'Fortune' -'Greensleeves', 'Discovery' or 'James Grieve'
'Greensleeves' - 'Discovery' or 'Grenadier'
'Idared' - 'Cox's Orange Pippin' or 'Discovery'
'James Grieve' - 'Cox's Orange Pippin' or 'Discovery'
'Jupiter' -'Discovery', 'Spartan' or 'Sunset'
'Kent' - 'Cox's Orange Pippin' or 'James Grieve'
'Laxton Superb'- 'Cox's Orange Pippin' or 'Greensleeves'
'Spartan' - 'Greensleeves' or 'Discovery'
'Sunset' - 'Cox's Orange Pippin' or 'James Grieve'
'Tydeman's Late Orange' 'Greensleeves' or 'Spartan'
'Worcester Pearmain' - 'Cox's Orange Pippin' or 'Greensleeves'
Cooking Apples
'Bramley's Seedling' - 'Spartan' plus 'Discovery' (two varieties needed)
'Grenadier' - 'Discovery' or 'Greensleeves'
'Lord Derby' - 'Spartan' or 'Tydeman's Late Orange'
'Rev. W. Wilks' - 'Idared'
Pears
'Conference' - 'Onward' or 'Louise Bonne de Jersey'('Conference'
will set some fruit on its own but is always better with a pollinator)
'Doyenne du Comice' 'Conference' or 'Onward'
'Louise Bonne de Jersey' -'Conference' 'Onward' 'Conference' or 'Williams' Bon Chretien'
'Williams' Bon Chretien' - 'Conference' or 'Onward'
Plums
'Cambridge Gage' - 'Czar' or 'Marjorie's Seedling'
'Czar' Self-fertile
Damsons varieties Self-fertile
'Marjorie's Seedling' Self-fertile
'Rivers Early Prolific' - 'Czar' or 'Victoria'
'Victoria' Self-fertile
Cherries
'Morello' (cooking) Self-fertile
'Stella' (sweet) Self-fertile
Peaches
'Peregrine' Self-fertile but use a paint brush to aid set
Nectarines
'Lord Napier' Self-fertile but use a paint brush to aid set
Apricots
'Moorpark' Self-fertile but use a paint brush to aid set
Quince
'Vranja' Self-fertile
Medlars
'Nottingham' Self-fertile
What is the essential difference between a cooking and an eating apple, and can any varieties be used for both?
It's all in the taste buds. The only difference is that cooking apples have a higher acid content. They are grown and treated in exactly the same way.
There really is a blurred line between cooking and eating or dessert varieties and it's largely tradition that prevents many people from cooking with certain varieties. One highly respected expert used to say simply that an apple pleasing to the palate is a dessert apple. This tends to be truest of those apples low in sugar, acid or tannin. Conversely, an apple makes a good cooker if it forms a soft, juicy pulp and this tends to be true of the acidic and moderately acidic types. Highly acidic varieties include the cider apples as well as some of those traditional thought of as cookers, but very few dessert varieties. Even within the broad categories, there are variations and some apples are more suited than others to certain purposes. Some types of cooking apples ('Emneth Early' and 'Rev. W. Wilks' for example) are called codlings because they become soft and frothy even when coddled or parboiled. Dumpling apples are generally large, and among modern varieties, 'Bramley's Seedling' is most often used. In former times, a group of cooking apple varieties suitable for drying were also popular but these are now seldom seen. The dessert apples best for cooking, therefore, are the more acidic varieties and 'James Grieve' and 'Cox's Orange Pippin' can be used very successfully, but good dessert apples among traditional cooking varieties are rarer; my personal favourite is an old, early apple called 'Stirling Castle', unfortunately rarely seen today.
Why does my grape-vine produce all leaves and no fruit?
Almost certainly because it has been fed with too much nitrogen and little potash.
When planting a new vine, dig a pit of about 1 m cube and line the sides of this with concrete slabs to confine the roots. Later, when pruning, build up a framework of 'rods' on which fruiting spurs will form. Assuming that you have planted a one-year old rod in winter, cut this back to within several buds of the base. In the first year, train one shoot under the greenhouse roof or along the outside wall, as shown in the illustration. Stop this by pinching out the tip before it becomes too weak and then similarly train the lateral shoots and stop them as they reach about 50 cm. Try to develop a system of trained laterals about 45 cm apart, and remove any intermediate ones. Sub-laterals (shoots growing from the laterals) should be stopped after the first leaf. At the end of the first year, in December, cut back the main stem to about half its length and prune back the laterals to one or two buds. In the second year, allow the main stem to elongate again, and again select and train laterals. At the end of this year, again cut back the most recent growth on the main stem (not the entire stem!) by half and continue this process annually until the plant has filled its allotted space. Thereafter, treat the main stem in the same way as a lateral, prune back to basal buds each winter and stop laterals at about 50 cm and sub-laterals after the first leaf each summer. If you have a large greenhouse or a very large wall to cover, two main rods may be trained instead of one.
What soft fruit varieties, and in what quantity, do I need to satisfy the requirements of an average family?
Ideally, you need an area of about 7 x 7 metres and this will enable you to grow a row of raspberry canes, two blackcurrant bushes with gooseberries, red currants and white currants as cordons.
We stock a wide range of soft fruit varieties but the following are good, easy and reliable:
Raspberries: two rows, comprising five each of the early and later mid-season varieties Malling Jewel' and Glen Prosen' together with five canes of the autumn fruiting variety 'Autumn Bliss'.
Blackcurrants: two bushes of the compact variety 'Ben Sarek'
Redcurrants: two plants of 'Redstart' trained as double cordons planted 1 m apart.
White currant: one double cordon of 'White Versailles'.
Gooseberries: two plants each of the new, mildew resistant variety 'Invicta', trained as single cordons planted 45 cm apart.
Berry Fruits
Blackberry: one plant of Fantasia'
Loganberry: one plant of 'LY 654', a compact and thornless variety.
Tayberry: one plant of 'Medana Tayberry'
Japanese wineberry: one plant of Rubus phoenicolasius.
How much space do I need to grow strawberries?
More than you might think. Strawberries are best grown in, like vegetables, using three plots of a minimum area of about 4-6 square metres each and leaving the plants on each for two years.
Calculate how much fruit you need and then plan on the basis of about 1 kg of fruit per plant after the second season; (there will, of course, be much less in the first year). The rows of plants should be about 75 cm apart, with about 45 cm between the individuals. I have recommended summer planting, for this gives the plants a very much better chance to become well established before the first winter. Once established, strawberries are not very demanding plants. They will benefit from an early season dressing with potash and should be watered once the fruit have set. A mulch of straw (which always has much more appeal than black plastic) will help keep the fruit clear of the soil. The main disease problem is Botrytis grey mould, which can be devastating in a wet summer. A spray with an approved fungicide when the flowers open and repeated at ten-day intervals until the fruit reach the stage of turning white will help keep it in check.
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