Growing our own apples, pears and plums

The Quest for the Good Life web site . . . sharing ideas with others

Last updated

05 February 2012

Quest for the Good Life Garden Plan 2011

Orchard fruits are of course apples, pears, plums etc.. They conjure up visions of spring blossoms buzzing with bees. Lazy summer days beneath the green leafy canopy and then the golden autumn days with harvest a plenty. Perhaps a bit poetic, but an orchard certainly does create an atmosphere, one that has been admired for centuries.

We haven’t a lot of space to dedicate to an orchard. Indeed we’re creating more of a mini version, but looking to plant other trees in hedges and at corner of fences to maximise our fruit production.

Fruit is important to us. We want it for eating, cooking, making jams, chutneys, cider and wines. But the space needed is considerable and we have to balance what fruit we need with the space required for vegetables.

We have decided that we can have six trees in a dedicated area with more within the boundary fence line.

Apples are the most important. You can have dessert (eating) apples, cooking apples and cider apples. Then there are crab apples too. But then we love plums and pears. So this is how we decided to lay out our fruit growing trees.

The root stock is important. This is the type of root the apple tree is grafted onto. You can get some that will grow a little (dwarf) or some that will grow a lot (vigorous). There are several stages in between that determine how fast your tree grows, to what height and how long it can take to come into fruit.

We generally aim for in the middle. MM106 rootstock will grow 4-5 metres (12 - 15 ft) which may be too big for a small garden. Due to supply shortages one of our trees will be an M25 rootstock which is vigorous and will take longer to fruit, and grow a lot taller.

What about varieties? We prefer the older traditional varieties. We live in a Victorian house and like the idea of keeping the fruit in line with that. Ok in principle but you have to take into account other factors such as location and what you want the fruit for. So in reality there is quite a lot of tradition in the selection, but with a reference to use and overall benefit. Here they are, see what you think.

1. Dessert Apples > Mid Season Ellisons Orange MM106
2. Dessert Apples > Early Season Worcester Pearmain Rootstocks MM106
3. Cooking Apples > Early Season Arthur Turner MM106
4. Dessert Apples > Late Season Darcy Spice M25 Vigorous
5. Damsons and Gages Damson Merryweather
6. Damsons and Gages Oullins Golden Gage
7. Pears and Quince Comice Pear
8. Pears and Quince Conference Pear

Ellisons Orange is the local connection. Names after a Reverend Ellison in Lincolnshire, it should be used to local conditions. Worcester Pearmain is not local, but is a good performer and an early season variety. The D’arcy Spice is a lovely old variety with a spicy flavour. Between the three we have an early , mid and late season fruiters. Arthur Turner is a cooking apple and has impressive blossom in spring. Great for the bees.

Combined with the other types, we should enjoy a productive mini orchard.

We have registered our trees with the Orange Pippin web site. They are collating the whereabouts of fruits trees singly in gardens or small collections like ours. Each tree has its own record and you can report its flowering times etc. A great idea.

URL: http://www.orangepippin.com/

The Quest fruit tree observations 2010/11

Here we have a record of our trees growth, flowering characteristics and, in time, the fruit crop and flavour. Hopefully useful to those of you who might be interested in planted a garden fruit tree. We will transfer this information to Orange Pippin.

Name & Info	Photo	Flowering	Fruiting
Apple Arthur Turner Cooking Apple Poll Grp 2 MM106 rootstock	Awaiting image	Too early 2011	Not fruited yet
Apple Worcester Pearmain Dessert Apple Poll Grp 3 MM106 rootstock		18th April flowers just starting to open	Fruit did not set 2010
Apple D’arcy Spice Late Dessert Poll Grp 3 M25 rootstock	Awaiting image	Not flowered yet	Not fruited yet
Apple Egremont Russet Dessert Poll Grp 3 MM106 rootstock		About 10% of flowers open 10th April 2011	Fruit did not set 2010
Apple Ellisons Orange Dessert Poll Grp 3 MM106 rootstock	Awaiting image	Just starting to bud	Not fruited yet
Damson Merryweather Poll Grp 3		Superb blossom, light delicate flowers. By 4th April 2011 about 90% of the blossom open	Not fruited yet
Gage Ouillins Golden Poll Grp 4		Blossom about 40% open 4th April 2011	Not fruited yet
Pear Comice Poll Grp 4		More of a solid flower than Plum. By 2nd April about 90% open 4th April 2011	Not fruited yet
Pear Conference Poll Grp 3		Slightly more delicate than the Comice Pear. Seems to be a bit later flowering. By 4th April 2011 about 40% of blossom open.	Not fruited yet
Plum Victoria		Second year of flowering. 2011 looks to be a much better year than last. On 4th April 90% of blossom out..	About 6 fruit 2010
Apple James Grieve Dessert Dwarf Root stock Poll Grp 3		Just starting to bud	In 2010 this tree had around 10 apples and they were delicious.
Apricot Moorpark		Height of flowering around 20th March 2011. By 2nd April nearly all of the flowers have finished.
Apple Gala		New tree 2011, seems to be later than most of others. 22nd April 60% blossom open
Damson Shropshire Prune		Later flowering than other Plum species. By 4th April 2011 still tightly in bud, but showing signs of moving.
Cherry		Limited blossom (new tree) 6th April 2011
Cherry Morello		New tree 2011
Crab Apple John Downie		Flowering for first time in 2011 (Planting Autumn 2010)
Fiesta Apple		90% blossom open by 15th April 2011

Our garden plan shows how we have planted the fruit trees partially in a more formal orchard area (right of picture) and then dotted other trees along hedge and boundary fences to maximise our fruit and nut production without loosing any growing space for vegetables.

Apple blossom is one of the most attractive flowers