The ups, the downs and the insides out of growing your own in 2025!

Farway

ArbitraryRandom said:

My pears have also not been doing particularly well (a conference and Williams/Bartlett) - nor have my two cherry (stella and sylvia).

First year could be because they were new, but the second year (last year) also resulted in no fruit (forming, never mind ripening). 

The 'local' view is that the weather's not been great in April for the last couple of years, but the trees are also still young. 

This year they got a good mulching of manure in early December and I'll get another delivery in late March. If they don't do well then I'll look to move things around a bit for next year (while they're still small enough to move relatively easily). 

FWIW mine were the same, and so was next door

Next door is a Concorde pear and that is always dripping with fruit

I think last year was an odd one for fruit, some of my apples were laden, others just one or two

RAS

Concorde is partly self-fertile, so sets fruit when very few others do. You can tell because they aren't pear-shaped because there's no proper core.

rtandon27

We have what is supposed to be a heritage dwarf cooking apple tree.  The first two years I pruned it and we barely had fruit, though according to the neighbours it has always been prolific.  Last year I did naught and it was laden.  The tree also had a growth spurt and is no longer dwarf!  We let the pigeons and blackbirds have most of the fruit, but I still got about 4 freezer bags worth for crumble and sauce to serve with pork.

RAS

rtandon27 said:

We have what is supposed to be a heritage dwarf cooking apple tree.  The first two years I pruned it and we barely had fruit, though according to the neighbours it has always been prolific.  Last year I did naught and it was laden.  The tree also had a growth spurt and is no longer dwarf!  We let the pigeons and blackbirds have most of the fruit, but I still got about 4 freezer bags worth for crumble and sauce to serve with pork.

You may just have a tip-bearing variety, any idea what it is? Because pruning removes the flower buds, unless you summer prune carefully and force it to produce short stems.

rtandon27

@RAS - absolutely none - the garden came with the 100 year old house and along with the heritage roses has a heritage apple & heritage cherry - so says my neighbour with the amazing garden!  What exactly she means by heritage I do not know! 🤣🤣🤣  Thank-you for the advice, I'm off to g00gle tip bearing apples!

All we know that the first owner of the house lived here from about 1918 to 1980ish (and is responsible for most of the established plants in the garden.  Her son lived here for a few years after then sold it on to a couple who were avid gardeners & lived here until about 2017.  The avid gardeners left plastic and metal tags on everything they planted so anything without a tag predates them! 

The last couple to live here were terrible gardeners and the only thing they did was dig up lawn and bulbs to put in a silly veg patch during the pandemic!  We've been here 3 years and I'm still digging up self-seeded parsnips from everywhere in the garden!  Very tasty but only in soups & purees.  Every time I found an errant bulb I rehomed it with the patch it belongs with - so the tulip clumps and daffidol clumps are now mostly corralled by colour/type!

Suffolk_lass

Ah yes, tip bearing fruit. My approach (not infallible!) is to prune just as the leaf and fruit buds are starting to look ready (so February here in the east). We remove:

1. Dead
2. Dying or diseased
3. Crossing that are going to contact other branches
4. We then look at the tree and what we have taken. The golden rule is one third - so if we have already taken a third we stop there.
5. The following year or if less than a third - we always revisit 1-3 then consider the height and openness of the tree. It ideally has an open middle with the branches forming a goblet shape.
6. We reduce any vertical "water spouts" by at least half, to an outward facing bud
7. We reduce the spread by up to a third rule by trimming back the longest branches by a third, again, to an outward facing bud, being sure not to take all the branches if you are not sure whether it is tip or spur bearing
8. in year three we trim back verticals and different spreading branches.
9. After that it is simple maintenance. Keep your loppers and secateurs clean and sharp and always prune before the leaves but not when there is a frost due

It's much easier with a new tree. So-called heritage usually means nobody is quite sure what it is these days. 

RAS

Sounds great. Yep check out tip-bearers as they need pruning completely differently. If necessary look at how to prune plums and cherries, as it's closer.

And start now to look for Apple Identification Days in your area. Check out RHS Rosemoor, Wisley, Harlow Carr, The Big Apple Day, Acorn Bank etc. You'll want 3 apples with no codling moth damage. There'll be a lot of other smaller events. And look at FruitID.

Re cherries, pigeons harvest them when the size of small peas. You need to prune from May, so will lose fruit but may be able to work out netting some branches.

FreeBear

Still waiting for my tomatoes to ripen from last year (plants have produced more flowers over the last few weeks). Have taken some cuttings and popped them in a jar of water. If they root, I'll have something to plant outside when (if ?) things warm up.

droopsnoot

^ I gave up long ago on mine, one or two ripened when put in a dish of supermarket toms, but a few just went on the compost heap. My plants go so tall and thin that they went there, too, and I'll try again this year.

zafiro1984

Suffolk Lass, The pear trees we have are Beth and Conference. I had no idea what variety they were so went to them earlier today to have a look at the labels. They still look sick. They are in an area surrounded on two sides by conifers the third side is a row of beech trees and the fourth side just goes down to the drive, it's sheltered and I'm told south-west facing. I have a feeling it's too acid for them as we are mainly on acid sand, it's well draining but poor quality soil and needs loads of manure to grow things. 

I've started - Spent a couple of hours last week in the greenhouse, tiding up and throwing away anything broken or soggy. As soon as the weather allows I'll start cleaning the glass, it's a gentle shade of green and there are four of broken panes which need replacing. I can get around inside quite easily as the floor is all concrete - I've found the pots in which I used to grow tomatoes. I've also found all the soil cable heating things - just hope they still work.

What I haven't done is order any seeds. I want to make sure I still have the time and energy to do this.