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Archive Pages: 1 | 2 |
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 APPLE TREES04 February 2004 The most popular tree fruit sold in the garden centre has to be apples and with the correct decisions in the first place they can be very productive. The first choice you will have to make is whether a dessert apple or a cooking apple is what you want, bear in mind that to get a good harvest it is necessary to have two trees to pollinate each other and therefore you can have booth. In this part of the country I would recommend choosing mid to late flowering varieties to reduce the risk of the blossoms being damaged by late frosts. Just to add to the confusion another thing that needs considering is that some varieties are triploids. These are very poor pollinators and therefore if you wish to grow one that is a triploid (i.e. Bramley Seedling) then two other trees will need to be planted to ensure the best possible chance of pollination. Below is a very brief list of a few popular varieties and their flowering times: Mid Season Flowering Cox’s Orange Pippin (d) Discovery (d) Elstar (d) Epicure (d) Fiesta (d) Granny Smith (d/c) James Grieve (d) Worchester Pearmain (d) Bramley Seedling(Triploid) (c) Crispin(Triploid) (d/c) Mid/Late Flowering Gala (d) Golden Delicious (d) Howgate Wonder (c) Laxtons Superb (d) Jonagold(Triploid) (d) (c)=culinary (d)=dessert Ideally you would be better of choosing two varieties either from mid season or mid/late season however all will pollinate each other. Another major factor when choosing a fruit tree is what root stock the tree has been grown on. An apple growing on its own root i.e. if you planted an apple seed and just let it grow into a tree, would not be strong and it would take many years to fruit. However if the tree is grafted onto a specially selected root stock the eventual size of the tree can be determined and fruiting takes place much sooner. The very dwarfing root stock (M27) will only allow the tree to reach approx 6ft but the disadvantage is the cropping capacity is quite poor. A more successful alternative would be a semi dwarfing root stock such as MM106 which can support a tree of 14ft but can produce five times more fruit on the same variety of apple than a M27 root stock. The final decision to make is whether you want the tree free standing or supported. A freestanding tree can be trained into various shapes for example as a bush (where the plant has an open centre and a short trunk. The advantage is it will come into fruit early and are easy to maintain but not very attractive as a centre piece), a standard (the tree has a long trunk and a round top. Suitable where space is not restricted and high yields are important. Larger trees can be difficult to maintain). Alternatively the tree could be supported (trained) along a frame as a cordon (where a single stemmed tree is planted at an angle and trained along a support. An ideal solution to growing a few varieties where space is at a premium.) or as a espalier (where pairs of branches on opposite sides of the trunk a trained horizontally. Advantages are high yields and decorative however it takes up quite a lot of space and takes quite a lot of time to maintain). |
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| HOMEGARDEN
CENTRETEA
ROOMCONTACTNEWSTRADE |
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