Mini fruit trees

Monsternextdoor

Im spoilt for choice looking at mini fruit trees for my garden, It is a large garden but will need to be home to a  few things but the kids want fruit trees. 

Is there a best choice for growing in the north ? Liverpool area. 

Am I best to wall train them or let them grow naturally ? 

Also what ones can I get now to plant in early next year and will they survive in pots over winter ? 

Any help is fantastic, Thanks ! 

Farway

There are lists of what fruit varieties are better in North, for instance Cox's is a Southern Softy, and Golden Delicious is a bit choosy. There is also the East West split, wet West, dry East

Any good fruit grower will have these details, one is here

The time to buy is coming soon you can order now & delivery will be when available. Try for bare roots because so much cheaper & more choice. If you put in temporary pots make sure they are in the ground ASAP to give them time to get decent roots by summer 2022

Do make sure you know what root stock they are on, don't believe a word in glossy TV magazine adverts about "Mini patio fruit trees" If the seller does not know the root-stock click away

Don't be swayed by desire, juicy peaches would be lovely but are harder work and more prone to problems than say plums

Wall training is ideal for some fruits, especially those were a spot of extra heat, or convenience of anti bird netting from a wall helps, like pears, figs, gooseberries or cherries, open ground is fine for most in UK

Don't overlook common fruit like currants, gooseberries, raspberries or blackberries, you can choose a thornless one of the latter for instance

And lastly, try & grow some you just cannot buy, either because expensive or not commercially viable, like James Grieve apples

No doubt more  advice will be forthcoming once our expert are up & about

Monsternextdoor

Cheers, I will have a look. 

Kids have decided on apples, pears, blackberries and redcurrants.

Altho my youngest wanted a pineapple tree Told her it's a wee bit cold for one of them here !

Farway

Monsternextdoor said:

Cheers, I will have a look. 

Kids have decided on apples, pears, blackberries and redcurrants.

Altho my youngest wanted a pineapple tree Told her it's a wee bit cold for one of them here !

I can recommend Merton Thornless as a blackberry, not only no thorns, blossom is beautiful in the spring & the berries are tasty as well.

This is mine right now in Hampshire, trained horizontally and over an arch

RAS

With a large garden you can cope with a couple of blacbberries, trained against the edges. For early ones either Sylvan (thorny) or Loch Maree (thornless) which has huge double pink flowers followed by huge fruit. Both taste good

For redcurrants my favourite early is Jonkheer van Tets with huge fruit; Rovada is a very reliable later variety. But if you know anyone with a redcurrant bush ask for a "cutting" from their prunings, anything up to two year growth and stick it in the ground. fifty percent will root. Or consider White Pearl white currant.

It is easy enough to keep most apple varieties small if you grow them on M27 rootstock, although the triploids like Bramley can escape and some are too weak to grow well. Think 6 foot high and 4 foot diameter although I know someone who grows several in a bed like rose bushes at 2/3rds that each way.

Pears are more difficult to keep small as there's no reliable very dwarf rootstock Rootstocks for Fruit | Frank P Matthews Trees on Quince C sometimes just fail around the 6-8 year mark but you could try it. 

If there are a lot of other gardens with fruit trees, then don't worry about the pollination groups, otherwise Matthews have a good explanation. Or grow a single crab apple instead.

A lot also depends if you have any storage? No point in growing good keepers like Conference if you've not got a cool cellar or rodent free garage.

Good reliable pears just the other side of the Pennines, Pitmaston Duchess, Williams Bon Chretien, Doyenne de Comice, Beth, Concorde (ripens 10 days after picking, not on the tree). If you want something different Precoce de Treveux is a gorgeous small eater and Santa Claus a late keeper.

Apples, you could start with Beauty of Bath (already over) and work your way through Discovery to Kidd's Red Orange and Spartan. James Grieve and Belle de Boskoop are dual purpose.

But before you spend a small fortune on trees, stop and taste. Supermarkets sell about 20 varieties of apple; there are thousands out there. I love russets; many loath them. Otherwise I really do not like Granny Smith or a lot of the other crisp eaters sold in supermarkets, although plainly many people love them. But in February a ripe Spartan is a lovely thing.

Find a good greengrocer, or a few apple days, or even raid whatever Waitrose sell. Get a couple of each variety (label with a biro). This autumn get the kids together once a week and taste a few different varieties. Some you will love, some hate. Use that to inform your buying, as long as you make sure that you get fruit that ripen in succession between August and November.

And check out the idea of cordons which allow you to grow a lot of varieties in a small area. They are also easier to prune once established and you can use more common rootstocks which give you more choice. They need to be 50cm apart.

Monsternextdoor

That looks like a good healthy plant ! 

I shall add it to my list of plants.

RAS

That's a good choice as a later blackberry.

Monsternextdoor

@RAS

We are a granny smiths, russett and crips pink family- thats what we were thinking as they will get eaten. 

With pears Id probably jar them in different spiced syrups so they keep longer and can be eaten thru the winter months. Rose and lemon poached pears are delicious as are the spiced ones with vanilla ice cream.

But thank you there is loads of fantastic ideas there ! 

Farway

Monsternextdoor said:

@RAS

We are a granny smiths, russett and crips pink family- thats what we were thinking as they will get eaten. 

With pears Id probably jar them in different spiced syrups so they keep longer and can be eaten thru the winter months. Rose and lemon poached pears are delicious as are the spiced ones with vanilla ice cream.

But thank you there is loads of fantastic ideas there ! 

Not tried but I think Cripps Pink is a non starter due to sunshine hours required, but very happy to be proved wrong

Monsternextdoor

Farway said:

Monsternextdoor said:

@RAS

We are a granny smiths, russett and crips pink family- thats what we were thinking as they will get eaten. 

With pears Id probably jar them in different spiced syrups so they keep longer and can be eaten thru the winter months. Rose and lemon poached pears are delicious as are the spiced ones with vanilla ice cream.

But thank you there is loads of fantastic ideas there ! 

Not tried but I think Cripps Pink is a non starter due to sunshine hours required, but very happy to be proved wrong

Thats good to know ! 

Kids will have to find another one.

RAS

Farway said:

Monsternextdoor said:

@RAS

We are a granny smiths, russett and crips pink family- thats what we were thinking as they will get eaten. 

With pears Id probably jar them in different spiced syrups so they keep longer and can be eaten thru the winter months. Rose and lemon poached pears are delicious as are the spiced ones with vanilla ice cream.

But thank you there is loads of fantastic ideas there ! 

Not tried but I think Cripps Pink is a non starter due to sunshine hours required, but very happy to be proved wrong

Absolutely; needs 200 days of high temperatures and sunshine. Designed for South Africa and Australia. Watch out for people selling "the Pink Lady", as this is often Discovery. OK, it's pink but not what people expect. 

There are a lot of other russets beside Egremont's which doesn't keep well unless you've got a cold store.  There appears to be a specific gene that causes some fruit to produce sports that are russeted and they all have similar flavours. Try Norfolk Royal Russset or Herefordshire Russet.