Fruit trees and orchards

[Conor Wright]

13 minutes ago, Mark2 said:

Conor, thanks for that one ! Had’nt thought of that but hell why not, i’m game. My first thought is— why can’t us brits grow nut’s ! Oops now the jokes i’l start !

Not just you brits, us Irish could too! We had some roasted chestnuts over Christmas and it got me thinking.. surely we could manage a few chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts etc with little effort.. something like a wood pasture, maybe encompassing the orchard too, add a few wildflowers and a bee hive or two and it should take minimal input.

[Mark2]

Conor, i here that ! But have a go! Get excited! get very excited! —- couple of points. When you get your plants don’t be tempted to just find plants from hedge or wood, no good. By good cultivars of proven nut size and heavy cropping, hazel you want cob or filbnut types. Cultivars of chestnut and walnut are much better to! Grow all three on single stem, makes it easier to keep the pesky squirrels at bay. Hope the above helps!

[Will Heal]

Thanks for getting back to me Will ! This is a part of tree care that really needs looking at, Big possibilities for the professional and the home owner. Do you have fruit trees or are you thinking of getting some ?

I have a mature dessert apple in my garden and 4 bramleys in an old orchard behind my house. I have a pig aderyn and a bardsey island apple that I grafted my self last year in pots and a Jane cider apple that I’ve just planted.
Was planning to stay at this house for a good few years and plant more apples in my garden and restore the orchard behind, but that might not happen now[emoji853].
I’m a tree surgeon and most people with apple trees in their garden want the tree reducing and less apples, so I tend to prune them like any other tree.
If I try to prune them properly, or as properly as I know, it takes me forever!

[Mark2]

Thanks will !! That’s a good point ! A very common problem ! But no problem. Prune little and often ! If it is turned into a major task, we dread doing it , same as an over grown hedge, there’s a long list of stuff we could be doing. Little and often !

[Steve Bullman]

Good idea; can someone remind me in a week and I’ll set it up.  Moved house before Christmas and still have no WiFi so everything is taking longer than it should 

[Mark2]

Thanks Steve ! I’v jumped in at the deep end here !  but it’s very worthwhile, good luck with the move. take it steady moving’s a stressful time, eny fruit trees there?  If not pop some in !

[trigger_andy]

1 hour ago, Mark2 said:

That’s a classic problem trigger. Couple of points to say, Apple’s are grafted on slow,medium or fast growing root stock sounds like yours is fast! Second point when you prune it, it takes 2 years to reform new fruit buds and give a crop ! People get into a situation of never getting a crop being unaware of that fact.watch this space for more info thanks.

Thanks for the reply. The Tree in question is old, Im guessing at least 30 years (not that old in general Apple Tree terms though.) 

 

Good to know about the two year period till it starts fruiting again. Guess the coming season will be a good indicator. 

 

Any tips on what to do with my tree now? 

Edited December 30, 2018 by trigger_andy

[Conor Wright]

7 minutes ago, Mark2 said:

Conor, i here that ! But have a go! Get excited! get very excited! —- couple of points. When you get your plants don’t be tempted to just find plants from hedge or wood, no good. By good cultivars of proven nut size and heavy cropping, hazel you want cob or filbnut types. Cultivars of chestnut and walnut are much better to! Grow all three on single stem, makes it easier to keep the pesky squirrels at bay. Hope the above helps!

Not much of a squirrel issue here.. have yet to see one within 20 miles of where we live, that's not to say we may attract them once they find out there's nuts to be had!.. to be honest, I wouldn't mind having some wild varieties.. space isn't an issue, we are still building soil fertility across the couple of acres we have. The idea of a multi purpose wood pasture appeals to me more than a formal orchard.. maybe I could do both using the same varieties  and see which system gives the best returns, not just in terms of amount, but quality, tree health, external inputs etc.. my overall knowledge of fruit production is fairly limited, my knowledge of nut production even more so.. I will take any advice on board and see if I can apply it!

[tree-fancier123]

9 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Any tips on what to do with my tree now? 

it looks like the hedge shades it for at least part of the day? even so I would let it spread horizontally and take the highest vertical growth back down

[trigger_andy]

Just now, tree-fancier123 said:

it looks like the hedge shades it for at least part of the day? even so I would let it spread horizontally and take the highest vertical growth back down

The hedge and the much taller Cherry Trees behind.  But was fruiting well before I hacked at it. 

 

Ok, so lop the higher sections off? What about all the water shoots?