I Have Enough Room In My Garden To Grow A Fruit Tree , Any Suggestions As To What And Why?
Posted by admin on February 23, 2010
What and why……hmmm.
Unless you are in a very warm climate where citrus rule, then the standard apple/pear/cherry/peach/etc type fruits are what you are going towards.
Problem is if you have room for only one tree, then you want one that will pollinate itself. This cuts us back quite a bit. Most apples need a friend, Golden Delicious might pollinate itself, but prefers a buddy. Pears also need a friend…..usually. Sweet cherries need a friend except for Stella. Sour or pie cherries Don’t! You can grow sour cherry.
Peach and nectarine don’t….you can grow just one of these. Apricots don’t and plums vary….blue plums don’t, reds are iffy.
Size…..ah, here’s the rub. How big is big? Standard apples are huge! Semi dwarf are just 10-15% smaller than huge. Dwarf…….ah, these are better, about 8 feet tall. Standard peach is OK for most areas as is a nectarine….they can get somewhat big. Pie cherries……Dwarf North Star is 8 feet, the other varieties are larger. Plums are 12+
We haven’t really touched on late spring frosts……..which kill the flowers of the early bloomers such as apricots and red plums.
So first do some homework: http://starkbros.com/
And then contact your Cooperative Extension Service (google your “state” cooperative extension service to get your local office) and ask them for varieties that do the best in your area. It’s there job to know what works best for you.
it depends on which zone you are in. I would love to have a cherry tree but we don’t get enough cold in Atlanta for them to produce. Citrus trees take a long time to produce so they would have to be in Fl. or Ca.We had a cherry tree when I lived in Va. I could walk up to the tree and pick cherries off and eat them. I was 8 or 9 yrs old and now 52 and still have fond memories of that. We have peaches here and orchards within 30 minutes drive, and I’ll be looking foward to having peach juice run down my chin.
i have a lemon tree in my garden, also a cherry tree and an olive tree. at the moment i have room for all them, as they are still small but i only have a smallish garden as its end of terrace. but you can get any tree you like if it is miniture and will not root out too far. also depends on what kind of attention you can give it. this has probably not helped at all but there you go
I would choose either an eating apple or dessert pear tree as these are the most popular fruits.
Well, next door have had a plum tree growing for years, and it’s never ever produced any fruit. But last year the lawn was covered in plums!! (what more proof do you need of climate change??)
Anyway, I’m going to go with an apple tree. Grow easily in the UK, and we have rhubarb in our garden which gives us loads of rhubarb a year, but we don’t have an apple tree. I’m thinking if you grow some rhubarb in the border and plant an apple tree, then you’ll have trouble free and ready ingredients for apple and rhubarb crumble
Apple trees also look nice. I know you can get “boring” trees but apple tree’s aren’t. They’re a bit of a novelty, actually. I like them.
I’ll leave the cooking apples / eating apples choice down to you. (You can make crumble with both).
An apple tree … they not only bear fruit, but they are beautiful when they bloom in the spring. The tree itself is a nice shape, they are good to climb when you are under ten years old, and they provide good shade. Therefore, a nice addition to your property.
you need to grow 2 fruit trees because they need to be polynated by bees if you want them to fruit. you dnt have to if there are trees already near your trees.