What apple/ cherry tree to buy for a small garden?

rosie383

As a real novice, can I ask a question please? We want to have an apple tree in the garden, and don't have a lot of room. I was looking at family apple trees and wondered if they are a good idea to buy. There is Worcester Permain/ Egremont Russet/ Golden Delicious, OR Greensleeves/ Queen Cox/ Fiesta, OR Fortune/ Falstaff/ Idared. I am edging toward the latter as it seems that we would get the longest eating season with this one. Can anyone guide me here?
Also we want to put in a dessert cherry tree also, so any suggestions as to what is a good self-fertile variety?
I have 2 areas to plant them. One is in shade until afternoon, when it gets sun for a few hours into the evening. The other area is against a south facing fence which would get sun for most of the day. Which do I put where?
Any help appreciated. Thank you.

paybacktime2008

Lots of apple trees are grafted onto different rootstock. The different rootstock will determine how large the tree will grow. I think (but may be wrong) the higher the number the smaller the tree. Therefore M27 is a smaller tree than M15....this is how the rootstock is labelled. I grow an apple tree in a pot but is on dwarf rootstock so happy enough.

rosie383

The ones I am looking at are grafted onto M26, and they say it will grow to maximum of about 12', which seems about right to me. But I don't want something that looks a bit wee at the bottom of the garden, just something manageable. And I want to know if anyone has experience of the types of apple I have mentioned above.

angelavdavis

I like the self-fertile Stella cherry which is an eating cherry. Definitely worth investing in a good one. I am biased and would say to put the cherry in the South facing spot, but that is me!

The problem I find with apples and small gardens, is unless you have neighbours with pollinators, you only really get successful if you have two or even three trees, often not possible in a small garden.

Personally I would go for a self-fertile Nectarine or plum.

dazza001

Hi

I bought a Scrumptious apple tree just over 2 years ago and it was on a semi dwarf rootstock, (at the moment it is about 10 foot tall). I did quite a bit of research before I decided which one to go for and this one came up tops for me, I cant remember the exact qualities but the main things for me where, disease resistant, frost resistant, good cropping, self fertile, ease of growing etc.

I followed the instructions and dug a big hole, used tree planting compost and planted it in autumn. The following year it gave me about 30 big apples. The tree actually produced more but they fell off (I believe this was because the tree is not yet at full size to support the ammount of apples that it is capable of producing).

It has finished flowering again this season and there is quite a lot of little apples appearing where the flowers were, so I think that I will get an even bigger crop this year.

Anyway hope this helps.

ixwood

The sweeter the fruit (hopefully) produced, the more sun it needs. I'd put the sweet cherry in the sunny spot and the apple in the shadier spot.

Although having said that, Chery tress aren't as useful as apples. They produce their crop all in on go, the birds will probably have most of them and what you do get won't keep very well.

Stella as mentioned is a popular self fertile sweet cherry. Morello is a self fertile sour Cherry and can be planted against a North wall.

Family appple trees are good for pollination. In terms of the season, you need to make a little table (apple type, pollination group and season) and compare for a good mix.

You can get 4 or 5 variety family trees too for a bigger selection. I've got 4 quad family trees from Deacons.

You can also get Cherry family trees too.

rosie383

Thanks for all your advice. I didn't realise you could get family cherry trees as well, so that is worth looking in to.
Stella cherry does sound good. Might go for that one.
The ones I've been looking at are supplied in pots at this time of the year. Am I better to wait until autumn, and get my trees then and just plant direct into the garden, or if I do get them now, do I leave them in the pots for now?

wallbash

I planted a Egremont Russet fan/ pot at Easter.
As a complete beginner cant give you any advice :rolleyes:
But I was really 'chuffed' when I saw some tiny apples ( yes I know they will come off)
last week .

rosie383

Good on ya Wallbash. At least you are seeing some results, even if they are small.

Farway

rosie383 wrote: »

Thanks for all your advice. I didn't realise you could get family cherry trees as well, so that is worth looking in to.
Stella cherry does sound good. Might go for that one.
The ones I've been looking at are supplied in pots at this time of the year. Am I better to wait until autumn, and get my trees then and just plant direct into the garden, or if I do get them now, do I leave them in the pots for now?

Personally if you can bear to wait I would, let the grower have the problems with watering etc at height of summer

They will get away just as well by buying bare root [or pots] in Autumn or Spring and planting directly into ground

Spend the waiting time looking at catalogues, depending where you live maybe visit apple fairs in the autumn to finally decide

Mojisola

If it comes in a pot you can plant it as soon as you get it. There's no need to wait til autumn.