Apple Trees

[Simpo Two]

herbialfa said:

Millimetres!!!!!!

Whats my prize??????

A 'Teach Yourself Rootstocks' book :-)

Gareth79 said:

I got a pear and plum tree from Suttons last year and planted them in May, the pear survived with plenty of watering, the plum didn't do anything. £5 each though! I'm pondering replacing the plum before the spring.

Stone fruits (eg plums) are fussy about soil and climate - if yours aren't right you'll never get good results.

[campionissimo]

Stone fruiit trees take time. You may not get any plums until year 3. You have to wait 13 years for a greengage to bear fruit!!

[Pheo]

We have a very old apple tree in our garden which has seen better days and was clearly badly pruned a year or two ago (lots of water shoots), but still cropped ok.

Apparently the weather this last year was not ideal for fruit trees due to the drought in early summer, stressing the trees, and then comparatively damper later, which can cause fruit to be affect eg rotting.

My mother has an espalier apple tree against her house and still got an OK crop this year though.

If I get an allotment I hope to plant fruit trees and bushes like raspberry - less maintenance!!

[V8mate]

tim0409 said:

I planted an Apple tree three years ago, it grew really quickly for the first few years and now for some reason it has slowed up and doesn't produce much fruit; now I'm forced to consider chopping it down and buying a new tree which is a pain.

You shouldn't have left it to do its own thing in the first year.

It should have been pruned so that it didn't fruit in the first year. Possibly again in the second year too (fruit trees usually come with handbooks!)