Fruit Trees / Strawberry Recomendations

anony-mouse

Hi,

My local nursery is looking to expand their allotment to actually produce some fruit that the children can eat [STRIKE]not just plant raised beds full of sprouts again this year![/STRIKE] It is a charity so I'm keeping a tight control of my budget!

I'd like to look at some patio fruit trees / some that could adapt to living in a pot without growing to 8 foot tall : on the basis that the unit is rented and if we were to move on we'd quite like to try to move them with us and not just let them be cut down.

Our allotment / field area is large and gets the sun for most of the day. The allotment has 5 raised beds that are about a metre square in size - I'd like to leave these to plant smaller salad type items / strawberrys / raspberries in but I can always change my plans.

I'm looking at trying a few of these;-

• Apples
• Plums
• Cherries
• Pears
• Blueberries

I admit that I have no idea what varieties to look at so I'd welcome some guidance from the experts here! I've always been tempted by the Redlove apple that Suttons do, but I'm conscious that there are probably better varieties that just aren't so pretty inside! I grow my own veg by a system of trial and error, and picking up bargain basement plants - but with money that we have been kindly donated by the local community at stake I want to get this right! My 'Top Hat' blueberries at home have been a disaster - one plant died in it's first year, the other has given me a grand crop of 3 blueberries so I'm a bit wary of trying these, but maybe another variety?

We need varieties that are;-

• Tasty - 3 / 4 year olds don't seem to appreciate tart foods!
• Early croppers - we don't need a glut of fruit in summer when the children are on holiday. I think this rules out cherries and plums?
• Produce a worthwhile crop
• Fairly fool proof to care for

If I plant them in pots - what type of pots do I need? I think those half cask things are way over our budget! Could they survive in a plastic bin (like the old fashioned black rubbish bins that were around before wheelie bins) or would the roots explode out? If they could grow in a bin, would it need drainage holes in the bottom? Could I get some huge bits of wood and make my own wooden container, like an over sized raised bed?

I'm also keen to start a strawberry patch. At home, I have a patch made up of the "whatever was in the dying section of the local garden centre" variety so I don't know what to recommend that we plant! I'd love some recommendations of varieties that should produce a good crop and that actually taste good. I think we need an early and a mid season variety so that they are being produced before the summer holidays.

Please help me! Thank you all in advance

RAS

Does the nursery close completely in the summer? For which weeks?

Re - growing stuff in pots - even big ones need a lot of watering. You could grow in the ground and uproot within 5 years quite safely

Mojisola

RAS wrote: »

Does the nursery close completely in the summer? For which weeks?

This is a big problem with growing stuff in nurseries or schools.

Do you have someone who will come in during the holidays to weed and water?

anony-mouse

Thank you both - we close for the 6 week summer holidays - so from the end of July, returning the first week of September.

The allotment seems to be an abandoned project that lots of people initially offered to work on with the children and maintain but then lost interest. Now I've ascertained that I'm not taking over someone elses project, I've offered to take over maintenance of the garden over holiday periods - it's a 5 minute walk away and I hate to think of all that lovely growing space being wasted! In the rare event of a weekend away I'm sure I can persuade someone to help!

I didn't know that trees could be moved once they'd been planted (and survive) - but as our lease has a 5 year break clause that would mean that trying to move them should we be moved out would definitely be viable.

Mojisola

If the trees have to be moved after 5 years, as long as they could be moved in the winter, there wouldn't be any problems.

There are some good allotment forums which would be worth reading through. People are generally very helpful and many will have children who are helping out.

Taste is a difficult thing - some people would love one variety and another think it's too tart. That's one of the experiences that it's good for children to have - cut up apples and share their ideas about flavours.

With top fruit, you'll need to look at mid to late fruiters so that they ripen when you're back in the autumn term. I can't advise on pears because I've always found them too fiddly to bother with!

For apples - have a look through the tree seller webpages. You'll find lots of information - eg - https://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Apple-Trees. What you buy will also be affected by where you are in the country.

radiohelen

Autumn fruiting raspberries. We've got some, the gold ones and normal coloured raspberries and my boy(4) loves them. They also just need cutting down to the floor after they've finished and they'll come again next year.
Other things based on my boy's level of interest!
Strawberrys - any and all will do.
Potatoes - big enough to hold and drop in the trench. Fun to find when they are ready.
Radishes/carrots (rainbow)/beetroot... buy the seed tapes.
Apple/plum trees - we got ours from Aldi
Thornless blackberries - just let them go wild along a wire.
Tomatos in pots
Coloured chilli peppers
Bright Lights swiss chard
broad beans...
runner beans - start them in a jam jar with paper and plant out later.

Basically you want stuff big enough for small hands. Seed tapes work brilliantly with kids. Bigger seeds like beans and beetroot are good, tiny seeds will get thrown all over. Brightly coloured results are good - stick flowers in there too!

HTH