Duo fruit trees -dwarf fruit trees

JodyBPM

I'm hoping to plant some dwarf fruit trees on the new allotment, and I have come across these

http://www.vanmeuwen.com/fruit/fruit-trees/apple-and-pear-trees/apple-duo-pear-duo-plum-duo/16300VM

They appear to be mainly for planting in pots, but I'd want to plant directly into the ground. The allotment rules state that fruit trees must be dwarf rather than full size. Would these work directly in the ground? and would they remain dwarf? There's no mention of rootstock etc.

What do you think of these. Are they just a novelty, or will they produce some decent fruit for us?

Price wise, they seem a bargain, but generally if something seems too good to be true...

Does anyone have an idea how long it would be before trees like this fruit?

I'm ideally looking for 4 dwarf fruit trees, apple, pear, plum and cherry. I took a look around the local garden centres at the weekend, and it seemed to be around £35 per tree which is loads of money, where as online it is much cheaper. What is the difference with the online ones? Are they much younger?

Any advice appreciated

RAS

Hi

What other trees are on the alloment? As many varieties of fruit require another different tree to pollinate them. And some apple are triploid (need two pollinators).

If you are only allowed dwarf trees you need to make sure they are on a dwarfing root stock (possibly M9 or M27 for apples, Gisela 5 for cherries). You will struggle to get a good dwarf pear or plum. So I would advise buying from a good fruit nursery on-line, rather than at a garden centre that does not specilise in fruit.

Having seen some duo trees, personally I would not go for them. Either one graft becomes a main stem and the other is meagre, or they both grow but neither gains the stregth to support their fruit crop.

Also have you considered cordons for the apple and pear, as you can get more in the space?

JodyBPM

Thanks. I can understand what you say re the duo trees not properly supporting both varieties, it just seemed such a nice idea to have small quantites of lots of varieties rather than lots of one or two!

The allotment itself has no other trees on it at all, it is literally a patch in the middle of the field - its a new site, so just a field at this moment in time, but I'm sure other allotment owners will plant trees etc too! We're going to have loads of work to do, but I thought this year would be good for planting fruit trees, fruit canes and asparagus, as those take a few years to establish.

I'm a very novice gardener, so I'm off to google cordon trees now - don't know much about them apart from that they are trained in a certain way - is it easy to do?

Thanks for the advice about rootstocks etc. Do you have any recommendations for online nurseries to use? And I assume we would want to buy the trees as one year maidens - but how long would it be then until they estabish and begin to fruit?

When looking around at the weekend, I'd worked out that I need trees on dwarf rootstock, and self fertile as we're only planning one of each fruit. Is there anything else I need to consider?

RAS

Cordons are realy easy to grow, as long as you select spur-bearing trees. Just buy a good size maiden and plant it at a 30-35 degree engle. Attach to a 8foot cane and you are away. Cut side growth to 5" in August and it will form spurs for you the year after. Don't use a M27 for these though. Personally I would go for M26, as you will be letting the tree grow a lot and then taking off almost all the growth every summer, so it needs to be a bit stronger.

There are some apples that are partially self fertile, some pears and some cherries.

Where about are you, roughly, as that may affect where you buy your plants.

Lotus-eater

Even most self fertile trees, do better with a pollinator.

If I were you, I'd put 2 varieties of each fruit in. On a dwarfing rootstock, they won't take up much space and you can put them quite close.

I've always liked Blackmoor nurseries, they give helpful advice and they do good quality stuff.
But other nurseries are available.

The ones you are looking at, are like upright cordons, useful where space is limited, but if you have the space of a full allotment I'd go for the proper dwarf trees.

JodyBPM

I'm in the South East, in Surrey towards the Sussex border and the Kent border.

Just read up on cordons, and it all sounded quite complicated to me, including the need for permanent structural supports? I'm sure its not as hard as it sounds (hopefully!)

JodyBPM

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Even most self fertile trees, do better with a pollinator.

If I were you, I'd put 2 varieties of each fruit in. On a dwarfing rootstock, they won't take up much space and you can put them quite close.

I've always liked Blackmoor nurseries, they give helpful advice and they do good quality stuff.
But other nurseries are available.

The ones you are looking at, are like upright cordons, useful where space is limited, but if you have the space of a full allotment I'd go for the proper dwarf trees.

We only have a half plot, so 125sqm. I have been playing around on some allotment planning software, and had set aside an area 2.5mx2.5m where I thought I could plant 4 dwarf fruit trees.

I'm open to suggestions though, as we are starting from scratch, so we could always increase the area.

ginvzt

JodyBPM wrote: »

I'm ideally looking for 4 dwarf fruit trees, apple, pear, plum and cherry. I took a look around the local garden centres at the weekend, and it seemed to be around £35 per tree which is loads of money, where as online it is much cheaper. What is the difference with the online ones? Are they much younger?

Any advice appreciated

I have been considering duo trees for our garden, but they are pricey I thought. Instead, there was a post recently about the offer on idealworld, the 4 trees you mentions for £29.99 +P&P. I am waiting for them to be delivered now.

The Ultimate Mini Orchard

This price is not unique to idealword, and if you look around online, you can find similar offers. I think I saw some with different fruit varieties, if you wanted to get 2 sets of these.

JodyBPM

ginvzt wrote: »

I have been considering duo trees for our garden, but they are pricey I thought. Instead, there was a post recently about the offer on idealworld, the 4 trees you mentions for £29.99 +P&P. I am waiting for them to be delivered now.

The Ultimate Mini Orchard

This price is not unique to idealword, and if you look around online, you can find similar offers. I think I saw some with different fruit varieties, if you wanted to get 2 sets of these.

Thank you! That looks like the selection I would like (apple, pear, plum & cherry).

Are they likely to be decent trees in a selection like this? And is one of each enough for pollination purposes (I'm guessing they are self fertile)

My sensible side is screaming out to me that I should go to an online nursery and buy ones where I know the rootstock etc, but my more frugal side thinks that they are a bit of a bargain!

RAS

This company http://www.rvroger.co.uk/index.php?linksource=stockgroup&webpage=apples&listgroupfile=fruitandnuttrees&parentpagefile=opengroundfruit&season=MAIN&caller=Header

do a lot of different varieties. The more popular ones are 12.50-£15 for maidens, and you can get a choice of rootstocks.

ginvzt

JodyBPM wrote: »

Thank you! That looks like the selection I would like (apple, pear, plum & cherry).

Are they likely to be decent trees in a selection like this? And is one of each enough for pollination purposes (I'm guessing they are self fertile)

My sensible side is screaming out to me that I should go to an online nursery and buy ones where I know the rootstock etc, but my more frugal side thinks that they are a bit of a bargain!

I can't comment on the trees yet, as I haven't seen them. From what I found out, they should be self-fertile. But then I do have another cherry and apple in my garden, so hope that would help. Then again - it is the first year for our garden - we are clearing all the leylandiis, etc and I am planning the whole raised beds, etc. I hope they will work - fingers crossed!