Really cheap fruit trees and the garden economy – make your own by grafting

RAS

I am like a small child at the moment, or an anxious parent. Every time I go to the allotment I check a series of twigs tucked away in the fruit section and am thrilled. I learned how to graft apple trees this spring and the fruits of my labours are just beginning to show; two or three new shoots or expanding buds on each scion. I am assuming that if the scion is growing well, the grafts have taken.

I joined the Northern Fruit Group that runs grafting workshops at Harlow Carr. I came away with 3 trees and another 3 stocks plus the scion wood and grafting tape required to practice at home. i have 5 positive outcomes and one late planted tree that is still alive but I am not sure the grafts have taken. if not, I will re-graft it next year.

The costs make Lidl look expensive – membership £5 and £1 per tree for the stock, grafting wood, grafting tape and wax, and tuition. The most expensive item was travel to Harlow Carr, but NFG members get free entry for NFG events, so this compensated. If you count the other freebies that seem to come with the NFG membership, apple tasting and free gooseberry cuttings in October for example, the cost is certainly less than £2 per tree.

Yes, you have to wait to get fruit from a tree that you have grafted – at least two years – but you get a much more interesting choice of fruit trees than you can get commercially.

The back-story goes to when I decided to grow two apple trees in my garden a decade ago. I bought two maidens (I was just keeping my head above water financially) and trained them as espaliers. I chose carefully; according to the catalogue they were a B and C flowerers so would cross-pollinate. When my trees started flowering one was almost over before the other started flowering. In the end I started to hand-pollinate by nicking flowers from a couple of crab apples in the nearby park and have had decent crops since.

I read up and realised that the catalogue had been wrong – the flowering period for the second tree is D. This means I need to introduce some C blossom and all three varieties would cross-pollinate happily.

What to choose? I actually get more apples than I eat; giving a away a few bags full last year because both are autumn eaters and do not keep much past New Year. Virtually all the varieties available in places like Lidl and the ordinary garden centres are the same, with a few earlier eaters and Bramley Seedling. I want an eating apple that ripens in the spring and/or a cooker. Sadly Bramley Seedling is a triploid; needing two other trees to fertilise it and unable to contribute pollen to the other varieties. Whilst I love some early eaters, at that time of year I am stuffing myself on soft fruit.

Amongst the other commercially available cooking apples only Charles Ross flowers in the right period but does not keep. So i decided to make my own trees instead, I was exploring the cost of getting a nursery to graft my tree when I encounter the NFG at the Yorkshire Show and the solution became obvious.

The workshop was excellent, led by Charles but with other members helping, about 1:2 ratio. The session started with basic class-room stuff and a demonstration of how to hold the wood and tools safely.. We practiced on waste wood for a while, until we could cut a scion and the stock to match, with individual feedback and help for those of us making wavy scions. Once we had all mastered the basics, we were let lose on real stocks and scions.

There were about 25 apple varieties to choose from, more recent commercial offerings, classic heritage varieties and some only available commercially to order (at about £25 per maiden). One participant had asked for very rare variety which had been sourced.

I now have two trees, one eater and a cooker that flower at the right time and store until spring. Next year or the year after these will be cordons in my garden, ensuring my existing trees set fruit easily, although i will not let the new trees fruit the first year.

The other trees I will probably give away, although I might nick a bit of graft wood and modify the existing espaliers first. If importing gets more expensive, then it might make a come back at the domestic level anyway.

Oh and I have three new gooseberry bushes sprouting as well, from those cuttings. I was very restrained and could have a dozen or more.

And the NFG run budding workshops in the summer, probably at Huddersfield.

Farway

For us southerners you may be interested to know Brogdale in Kent, home of the National fruit tree collection also do grafting, and other courses, no idea of price as no info I could see

http://www.brogdalecollections.co.uk/brogdale-courses.html

cjb02

nice post. I am not far from any of those places and I might join.

Ta

ceridwen

Good one - to do this thread.

I read somewhere that we import 95% of our fruit - :eek: - so the more we can help ourselves out here the better. I've certainly already noticed there dont seem to be many varieties available of apple tree to choose from - as I now have my eyes open for a duo-minarette apple tree (to join my plum tree and pear tree).

ixwood

There's hundreds of varieties of apples available from nurseries/online. I've got 17 different varieties myself for a good mix of use/taste/season.

And no my garden isn't huge, it's actually small-medium (by modern standards). I've got 4 quad family trees and one minarette.

That's not too say learning to graft wouldn't be good. It sounds brill. Look out for some of the more unusual combinations you can graft. I've got a "Fruit and Nut" tree with 2 sorts of plum and an almond on it. If you can make family trees cheap, you could make a fortune from carboot sales etc.

RAS

Thanks for the responses. Both the trees I am going to transplant to the garden (now 3 and 4 shoots) are available commercially, but only to order. They get the scion wood and graft the tree for you.

The tree that may not have worked would have been a triple family with two eaters and a cooker. Spent too much time locating the third graft. Will try again next year.

If i was to plant my garden (15x30 foot) from scratch now, I would use cordons only. That would allow me to get a good range of apple varieties which ripened over a longer period and to fit in some pears and other fruit as well. But at the time finding £12 for the two maidens was a challenge. Which is why slowly modifying my existing espaliers to introduce more range is a good option now.

What i noticed when i went to look at the Lidl trees was that they had Cox's Orange Pippin which does not grow well in the north and Golden Delicious which I do not like. Then one or two other varieties for which apples are sold in the shops. They were all in the top 10 apples sold in the shops. However the pear selection was good - Doyenne de Comice, Conference etc.

There are over 250 varieties of apple that grow well up here and probably over 100 that were developed in Scotland, and it seems a pity that so few ever get into the shops.

I know the specialist nurseries are more adventurous; my local one has increased its range massively in the last three years and 15-20% of the varieties on the web-site now are new to them, although only 2 are new varieties. But for a lot of people the cheap option is Lidl or Wilkos, where the choice is very limited.

Another useful link http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/

Had not thought of car boots but was going to make very cheap trees to sell to the TT group.



Any votes on family trees being more attractive that single ones for cordons?

And anyone know of community orchards or other fruit groups?

ixwood

I was in 2 minds deciding about cordons or family tree/bushes. Although cordons are more space efficient, they're more work and require regular pruning. If you happen to forget or be busy/unavailable one year, the bush/trees don't mind so much.

I also like the different fruits on one tree. Might be a bit unnatural to some though.

You could do some of each. And some espaliers, step overs etc. The highly trained forms and family trees are the expensive ones.

ixwood

You could make specific trees for your location. Find 4 or 5 varieties that grow well, pollinate each other and have a good range of season and I'm sure they'd be very popular locally. A lot of people only have room for one tree and don't want much maintenance.

RAS

Hi

I am on a hillside. If I planted anything over 5 foot on the lower side, my immediate neighbour would get no sun at all, so I am restricted to one side of the garden.

Actually I do not find pruning a problem, just go out with a cuppa after work and do a bit at a time.

Having said that I have a high branch that got away when I had trouble with my neck and needs to go - possibly today.

RAS

ixwood wrote: »

You could make specific trees for your location. Find 4 or 5 varieties that grow well, pollinate each other and have a good range of season and I'm sure they'd be very popular locally. A lot of people only have room for one tree and don't want much maintenance.

Really good idea - like that. Will think it over during the summer and plot for next winter.

ixwood

What about putting a branch of a crab apple on each tree for pollination? Pollination groups (and rootstocks) can seem a but complicated and overwhelming to newbies. You could sell them and the family trees as no hassle, plant and forget trees.