Which fruit trees should I plant in my "orchard"?

beebuzz168

We are fortunate enough to have a large enough garden that there is room for what I am rather grandly refering to as an orchard. In reality it's going to be probably five fruit trees, of the dwarf (I think that's the right word?) variety!

I'm after some suggestions as to what fruits and varieties would be best to grow.

The spot is sunny for the majority of the day, but the soil can get wet and slightly waterlogged through the winter. We are in the south east so generally the warmer end of the country. We are very novice gardeners to say the least so the hardier and more foolproof the better.

At the moment I'm thinking of two apples - a cooker & an eater, a plum & a pear, but am a bit stuck for the fifth one. And none of the ones I've suggested are essential.

We would like to be able to eat the fruit, but I'm also keen to make chutneys, jams etc.

I await your expertise with thanks!!

RAS

If the ground gets waterlogged you need to put apples on MM106 rootstiock which is not dwarfing. You need need to train them more efficiently but the alternative is that they will die. Not sure which plum, and pear stocks cope with damp. Have a look at frank Matthews web--site though.

Cherry? Medlar, Quince?

If you are picking one eating apple only, then you need to select one that has a good long period of ripeness, so somewhat later than most. Otherwise you will have tons of fruit and not enough time to eat it before it rots.

Personally (having boo-booed rather badly when I put in my own trees) I would go for a row of cordons which would give you 15-30 apples of 8 varieties with a long spread of eating seasons rather than 1 tree with a limited season. Ditto with the cooker - start with Grenadier or Keswick and go through the winter to Nancy Jackson for April/May.

silverwhistle

A couple of different eating apples - early and late season - might be an idea. How about a cherry if you're in the south, but be ready with the net! A cider apple also appeals.:-) How about a filbert, although I've no idea if you can get dwarf ones.

D&DD

I'm also in Surrey and TBH we are spoilt for choice as to what will grow as we have a better climate than most.

I have miniarettes from Ken Muir and they do a duo tree with two varieties and they used to do one with 3 varieties on one tree so that may help if you want variety.

I have Lord Derby cookers and can't fault them they produce apples big enough to almost fill a pie lol one is a miniarette from KMuir which I've trained as a cordon by the fence the other was a DTBrown bargain in their half price sale.Browns fruit is very good and if you are going to be planting next spring I'd wait for their half price sale

We also have conference pears bought from a local farm shop if you're near Woodmansterne the farm shop has kiwis for a fiver and large trees including nuts for £15

We have Victoria plums,merryweather damson and tommys island greengage and blue plums.The damson was a bargain 12.99 off Ebay and was a 2 yr old tree which is loaded this year.

We also have 2 nectarines, an apricot,citrus and cherries I wouldn't bother with a cherry personally unless you like netting,birds fighting noise and copious amounts of poop on your washing that doesn't wash out..ask me how I know...:rotfl:

splodger_seedswapper

particularly for apple trees - you want to have compatable pollinators - so bear that in mind when you are selecting your varieties

theoretica

As splodger says check carefully about pollinators - if your neighbours have the right sort of trees nearby they may serve as pollinators for yours.

SailorSam

silverwhistle wrote: »

How about a cherry if you're in the south, but be ready with the net!

I put a couple of Cherry trees in, last year i noticed the cherries coming out for the first time. Great ! Next morning i went out and there was nothing.
I've planted loads of stuff for the birds and i feed them every day. Why do the bl00dy things steal my fruit. I'm sure there are some old net curtains in the loft for this year.

gazzak_2

I have 2 Cherry Stella trees, 1 full sized and 1 dwarf. The dwarf I planted in my allotment this year and has started really well. The full sized one I planted in the garden last Autumn and is doing amazingly well, I just checked it and there are small cherries forming already.

I'd recommend a full sized cherry stella, it's self pollinating and the cherry's are beautifully sweet, (a friend has one too). If trained you can keep it any size you want.

Other than that I'd recommend an apricot tree.

Leif

I took the view that I wanted something decorative and unusual, since I can get good apples in the shops in the the season. So I went for Medlar, Quince, two plums, and two more will go in next year, maybe a cooking cherry as they look nice in Spring, even if the tweeters half inch the fruit. I think you are better off with bare root trees, planted in the dormant season, and there are a few specialist nurseries such as Keepers that have a very good selection of unusual varieties on dwarfing root stocks. My neighbour has some nice apples trained as espaliers.

Make sure you do not plant them near underground pipes! My neighbour discovered my Holly had grown into his drainage pipe. We sorted it out between us, in a sensible manner, but the Holly was planted by the previous owner in a bad place.

beebuzz168

Wow, some brilliant tips so far, most of which I will need a gardening dictionary to fully understand!

Lots of things I hadn't thought of, like where our pipes are and looking at grafted trees that to get a longer season of producing fruit.

I like the idea of an apricot, or maybe a quince. Or maybe both if I only get one apple tree.

Being an overexcited and enthusiastic novice, I'm tempted to buy all the trees at once and get going, but do you think I'd be better off buying one or two and having a practice before going for the full orchard?

Also, I assume the best time for buying / planting is the autumn? Not sure I can wait that long...!

mansars

I have 14 trees in my garden (apple, pear and cherry) of 30m x 30m.

I can do this by training them along the edge as cordon or espallier, I also have a couple of columbars growing up a fence surrounding my small veg patch.

Its not about the sqaure footage its about what you do with it.

Ill have to wiat and see how they all crop over the next few years...although so far there blossom is loveley covering the fences.