Lidl fruit trees advice please

RAS

Hi

The pollination thing is a bit difficult for apples. I have two trees that were sold as both being C pollinators but turned out to be one B and a D, so they struggle to pollinate each other.

The two crab apples in the park are just a bit too far away, so I nick some flowers and hand pollinate each year. However, one of the allotment holders nearer the house has just planted a bramley, which will help my two trees, as my two will help them.

So it is what have you got and what is available within say 200 metres?

Farway

Stella is self fertile, as is Conferance and Victoria

All will do fruit better with a pollinator, but bees do get around so you should get fruit OK even without them

evie451

right i am even more confused now, should i try and swap my Cox for a jonagold/golden delicious and get a bramley while i am there? i got some lovely Cox's being sold by a National Trust garden in Scotland do they really not grow too well in the north?

angelavdavis

Picked up a Cox's and a Bramley today from Lidl. Both are 8-10 metres full height according to the label (no mention of the rooting stock). I have already got one apple in the garden although I can't for the life of me remember the variety!

They don't seem in bad order. I will give them a good drink and leave them in the unheated conservatory for now to keep cool.

Mojisola

Like daska said, Bramleys are triploid so they don't make a good pollinator for other trees. They also have a tendency not to fruit every year - but are well worth it when they do!

Are you sure it says 10 metres? That's very big for an apple tree and would make them too big for most gardens.

radiohelen

angelavdavis wrote: »

Picked up a Cox's and a Bramley today from Lidl. Both are 8-10 metres full height according to the label (no mention of the rooting stock).

Are you sure? Mine says 1.5 to 3m tall.....I have apple trees in gardens all around us and had one in the garden until it expired a couple of years ago...none of them are 10m tall - you'd need one hell of a ladder to harvest those babies

BobbinAlong

If you are planting in tubs, insulate the tubs with bubble wrap as they don't like frozen roots - just wrap it around tub and trunk.
Cox's are the unreliable fruiters from past experience, we also had a Bramley until September when it fell over due to overloading with fruit! Well, it was reckoned to be about seventy years old, poor thing, but it has always been a high yielder for us though we have pollinators around, as the area used to be cider orchards for the great house and a neighbour's was a pub until his lordship discovered the workforce there skiving!
:beer:

rosie383

Can I bump this thread please? I bought an Elstar and a Bramley from Lidl a couple of weeks ago and am going to plant them today. I thought that they would pollinate each other, but reading this now I'm not so sure. I ahve them out of the packaging to soak the roots, so I can't take them back now anyway. Should I look for another tree now?
My other question is..... We are possibly going to sell our house and move this year. Can I put them in pots? They aren't labelled as being on dwarf root stock, but would they be okay just for one year until we move?
And if I put them in pots, do I just put them in the biggest ones I can, and use a mixture of soil and compost?

Farway

Quite frankly, if you are going to move, and the trees were quite cheap, and may not pollinate each other, I would just put them in the garden and forget them and not bother with all the faffing around buying pots, compost, watering pots etc

After you have moved, do a bit of research and buy new trees on named rootstock and pollination types

Loads of reputable nurseries, try Blackmoor or Ken Muir as a starter

PS, other tree for pollination, are there any apple trees near you, even crab apples? If so they will do do the job, bees travel quite a distance

Mojisola

As long as there are other apples or crab apples around in nearby gardens, there's a good chance your apple will get pollinated. I would pot both trees up for this year and see what neighbouring apples and pears you have when you move.