knowledgable gardeners required

[mr Mag00]

I have 1 apple and 1 cherry tree in my garden. now too large for where they are agaianst a wall. i want to train them along the wall.

can i pollard them or coppice and effectively start again by training them as i should have done from the start

 

[Candaules]

I think you will have to start again. Cherry trees tend to be big, and I had to chop one down when it spread too far and shaded half the garden. Apple trees need regular pruning to keep them in shape, but I don't think they like to be hacked back to a stump (or 'pollarded'). They are grafted onto different types of rootstock, which limit growth. If you google it you will find lists of apple rootstock and the heights the trees will grow to. Starting with a new tree with the right rootstock, and training it to the wall, will give you the result you are hoping for.
I think it is possible to buy cherry trees grafted onto dwarfing rootstock, but I haven't found any yet, much as I would like to.
Good luck!

 

[Mr Pig]

What is the best time of year to prune an apple tree?

 

[Amanda P]

Depths of winter, ideally.

You can do it anytime, but of course later in spring or summer you are cutting off wood, leaves or even fruit that the tree has put stored energy into growing, thus weakening it. If you prune in winter, before the buds break, the tree can put that energy into new growth.

 

[rich p]

I'd pollard it and remove the branches that go the wrong way. Train the remaining branches along wires. I saw loads of pollarded cherry trees in Belgium espaliered - it's obviously a local tradition.

I pollarded a silver birch a few years ago to make an umbrella shape and it worked fine.

 

[Mr Pig]

Thank you. If the blasted tree hasn't blown over by then!

 

[Amanda P]

If that's a real danger, prune the dodgy bits now, before the tree commits itself any further. Perhaps save any really radical surgery (like pollarding or coppicing) until winter, though.

 

[Headgardener]

What is the best time of year to prune an apple tree?

As sugested before, winter and depending on how it bears it's fruit depends on how it is pruned.
<goes off to look in big gardening book>

 

[Maz]

What's the best weedkiller money can buy? Any recommendations?

 

[Mr Pig]

What's the best weedkiller money can buy? Any recommendations?

Do you want to kill everything or just weeds?

 

[Amanda P]

Roundup is pretty good for spot-treating individual plants you don't want (dandelions on paths and in lawns and the like). Simazine (various brand names) is good for treating large areas like gravel drives, but often doesn't kill off the root of big, tap-rooted weeds like dandelions once they've got established. "Lawn sand", containing ferrous sulphate is useful for discouraging broad-leaved weeds and moss in lawns.

Depends what you want it to do exactly.

In fact, last time I looked, there weren't many other active ingredients Joe Public could buy for amateur garden use.

Boiling water or a blow torch are pretty effective if you don't want to use chemicals and there aren't any other plants nearby you don'twant to kill.

Whatever you use, this time of year (ideally a bit earlier, before most weeds got a first crop of seeds off) is a good time to use it, when weeds are growing at full speed.

Next question?

 

[longers]

Next question?

Do trees which are Bonsaied grow their leaves in scale to their restricted size?

Diddy trees = diddy leaves?

 

[longers]

You did ask.

 

[Amanda P]

I did ask. But I don't know. However, politician-like, I will evade the question by answering that I think most bonsai trees are of species that have small leaves anyway - possibly because the answer is no,they don't grow leaves in scale and a six-inch tree with six-inch leaves would just be silly.

 

[Mr Pig]

Roundup is pretty good for spot-treating individual plants

That's my favorite. I use it in a skooshy bottle to spray directly onto the weeds. I like it because you can use it right next to other plants without harming them as it only kills the plant you spray it on, it's neutralized in the soil. Things like Pathclear just kill everything and keeps working once in the ground.