Fruit trees in gardens

[Reynard]

@Reynard Is the community orchard in an urban area? I've read a bit about urban community food growing projects in the last couple of years. They sound great though I think you have to accept at least a small level of vandalism/mindless damage.

No it's not - it's pretty rural. It's part of the nature reserve on the outskirts of the village where I live.

It's on a south-facing slope which used to be a vineyard in medieval times.

 

[Gillstay]

For people not in the know if you want a good eating apple, Cox's or Spartan are easy and excellent, for cooker little beats a Bramley, for pear Concorde is juicy and a good cropper, and Czar or Victoria for a plum. Any of then should get you off to a good start.

 

[Reynard]

For people not in the know if you want a good eating apple, Cox's or Spartan are easy and excellent, for cooker little beats a Bramley, for pear Concorde is juicy and a good cropper, and Czar or Victoria for a plum. Any of then should get you off to a good start.

Downside with a Bramley - it is a BIG tree, so not suitable for small gardens. Also, it's a triploid, which means you need two additional pollinators in the right group in order to have fruit.

BUT...

If you do have the space, it is one of the better cooking apples out there. I also rate Green Harvey, which is a bit later, and is a keeping cooking apple (some catalogues list it as dual-purpose). Stored properly, you can have cookers till April. It also has a more compact shape than a Bramley.

 

[Moon bunny]

We took over, among others, Keswick Codlin for cooking and James Grieve for cider here. We aren’t sure what the dessert apple tree is, but the apples are very sweet.

 

[Reynard]

We took over, among others, Keswick Codlin for cooking and James Grieve for cider here. We aren’t sure what the dessert apple tree is, but the apples are very sweet.

James Grieve is a good early-ish dessert apple. Does well on a dwarfing root stock.

Any chance of a pic of the eating apple?

 

[Gillstay]

Downside with a Bramley - it is a BIG tree, so not suitable for small gardens. Also, it's a triploid, which means you need two additional pollinators in the right group in order to have fruit.

BUT...

If you do have the space, it is one of the better cooking apples out there. I also rate Green Harvey, which is a bit later, and is a keeping cooking apple (some catalogues list it as dual-purpose). Stored properly, you can have cookers till April. It also has a more compact shape than a Bramley.

Its a big tree if its on a big rootstock, but a small one if on a small rootstock. Cox can pollinate it alone.

 

[Reynard]

Its a big tree if its on a big rootstock, but a small one if on a small rootstock. Cox can pollinate it alone.

Hmm... When the parentals bought me mine, it was only available as a standard. Pollinators... Mine's pollinated by a Jonagored and a crab apple, the variety of which I can't remember. I no longer have a Cox in my garden.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

@Reynard Is the community orchard in an urban area? I've read a bit about urban community food growing projects in the last couple of years. They sound great though I think you have to accept at least a small level of vandalism/mindless damage.

I know of a few community orchards. One is in the middle of a housing estate in a town. It's on a spare piece of land near a walkway cutting through into the town centre. No vandalism so far, it's been in a few years. The other is alongside a main A road in the nearby village.
On the canal near me, the Canal and River Trust have planted a number of apple trees alongside the canal. Been in a couple of years, no fruit that I've seen yet, but I may have missed them as there was certainly blossom on them in the spring.
In my area, I've been involved in planting apple trees on spare bits of land beside roads. The roads are the quiet back lanes and it's amazing when you start looking how many odd bits of land that there are that can accommodate a few trees. So far we've planted about a dozen trees or so (funded by the Parish Council and others) and hope to get more funding.

 

[annedonnelly]

Well done @Tail End Charlie I hope that when your trees bear fruit people will feel comfortable picking themselves some fruit to take home.

Getting produce growing into urban environments has to be a great opportunity to help teach urban children where food comes from.

 

[Milkfloat]

We have and apple and pear tree in the garden but don't know a huge amount about them and get fruit more by luck than judgement. The apple tree occasionally produces two varieties of apples but we are guaranteed a good crop from at least one variety on one side. The pear is a real disappointment, almost every year we get really bad rust which I am led to believe comes from a juniper that we cannot find. I am thinking of cutting it back really harshly and seeing if we can break the cycle. Anyone with any ideas?

 

[Reynard]

Well done @Tail End Charlie I hope that when your trees bear fruit people will feel comfortable picking themselves some fruit to take home.

Getting produce growing into urban environments has to be a great opportunity to help teach urban children where food comes from.

It's not a new concept, though... My grandad, who was a regional politician in pre-war Poland, did something very similar for the community he represented. He introduced a scheme where fruit trees (mainly plum and cherry) were planted along the roadside verges for the locals to harvest and then sell on or keep for personal use. For a few people, it was a game-changer in terms of their income.

I planted a conker and a cherry plum on some derelict land across the road from me. And I have a walnut sapling and some rugosa roses that will join them at some point.

 

[Reynard]

We have and apple and pear tree in the garden but don't know a huge amount about them and get fruit more by luck than judgement. The apple tree occasionally produces two varieties of apples but we are guaranteed a good crop from at least one variety on one side. The pear is a real disappointment, almost every year we get really bad rust which I am led to believe comes from a juniper that we cannot find. I am thinking of cutting it back really harshly and seeing if we can break the cycle. Anyone with any ideas?

Pears can be funny things. They don't do well out here in the fens, and I might only get useable fruit one year in every five. The rest of the time, I supply the military with ammunition.

Some apples are biennial bearers, but it sounds like one of the varieties on your dual tree doesn't have the right pollinator.

This is something gardening catalogues don't tend to mention when it comes to dual variety trees. For instance, I have a dual variety tree with golden delicious and jonagored. I'm lucky, I do get apples on both sides of the tree, but that's because I have other varieties, i.e. james grieve, egremont russet, bramley, plus crab apples, in the garden, as jonagored cannot be pollinated by its parent varieties - of which golden delicious is one.

 

[VelvetUnderpants]

I live in a flat and do not have my own back garden. Mysteriously, in the last ten years, various fruit and nut trees have appeared in the local grounds. An apricot, variety Tomcot from which I picked three carrier bags full of fruit, two walnut trees, one is the variety Broadview and the other grown from a nut, collected in the Czech Republic twelve years ago. A plum tree variety Opal has popped up and is producing beautiful sweet plums in late July.

All very, very strange

 

[mudsticks]

I live in a flat and do not have my own back garden. Mysteriously, in the last ten years, various fruit and nut trees have appeared in the local grounds. An apricot, variety Tomcot from which I picked three carrier bags full of fruit, two walnut trees, one is the variety Broadview and the other grown from a nut, collected in the Czech Republic twelve years ago. A plum tree variety Opal has popped up and is producing beautiful sweet plums in late July.

All very, very strange

Guerrilla Gardener unmasked

 

[Gillstay]

We have and apple and pear tree in the garden but don't know a huge amount about them and get fruit more by luck than judgement. The apple tree occasionally produces two varieties of apples but we are guaranteed a good crop from at least one variety on one side. The pear is a real disappointment, almost every year we get really bad rust which I am led to believe comes from a juniper that we cannot find. I am thinking of cutting it back really harshly and seeing if we can break the cycle. Anyone with any ideas?

most people decide cutting something back harshly will cure it. It rarely works in any form. I would dig it out and replace it or if you know somone, then get them to graft another variety on to it.