Fruit Trees UK

There is nothing more satisfying than growing and harvesting fruit from your own garden and it is something that even the least green-fingered among us can turn our hand to. In this blog, we will highlight the most popular fruit trees and bushes and outline their specific growing and pruning needs.

Planting position

The positioning of your fruit trees/shrubs is dependent on the type of fruit and the variety of the plant. There are all kinds of different cultivars, hybrids and splices that can withstand almost every position. Most fruit however is happiest in a sunny, sheltered position, safe from strong winds, which can blow away the blossom or make it difficult for insects to land, and where there is enough light to ripen the fruit. 

Altitude

It is also important to understand how altitude can affect fruit trees and shrubs, especially if you have a sloping garden - generally, the higher the planting position, the cooler the temperature and the shorter the growing season. However, a plant at the bottom of a slope can sometimes be subject to cold conditions, as frost pockets can sometimes form here. So, in a way, you need to get to know your garden, before you go ahead and plant your tree or shrub.

Moisture

Although moisture is vital for healthy growth of fruit plants, generally, as a rule, you need to make sure that your plant does not sit in waterlogged soil and that you choose a spot  for it with good drainage. Too much moisture can lead to roots rotting, as well as fungal diseases in hot weather.

Space

If you are buying more than one fruiting plant, it is particularly important to allow each plant enough space to be able to meet its full cropping potential. Remember to take note of the ultimate height and spread on the plant’s label and plant according to this. It is also worth bearing in mind that a sunny wall, fence or trellis can be the perfect spot for a fruit bush or a smaller, trained variety of fruit tree, such as Espaliers, Cordons and Fans (which we will come to a shortly).

Pruning

Fruiting trees require specific pruning techniques to make sure the maximum yield can be achieved. In the same way that roses produce flowers only on the horizontal shoots, fruiting trees will only fruit on the horizontal shoots too.

"The simple rule for pruning fruit trees is to cut back all new growth back by half, to an outward-facing bud, making the cut at a 45-degree angle, and 6mm above the outward-facing bud.”

Move around the tree and cut evenly, the winter pruning sets out the coming season's growth so it is important to get a good balance throughout the tree. You should aim to remove no more than 10-20% of the overall canopy in the winter prune.

Very big and very little cuts should be avoided, generally the stems that want cutting will be between 1-5 cm in diameter so think twice before making cuts into large limbs especially older ones that are prone to decay.

Find out more tips and tricks from GardenWild…

Tree Fruit

Planting

Fruit trees bought in containers can be planted all year round. If planting in Summer, just be mindful that you will need to keep your tree well-hydrated. You can also buy fruit trees as ‘bare-root’ plants, which is exactly as you would expect - a small tree, whose roots are without soil. 

Planting Containerised trees

On digging a pit for your tree, make sure that the depth is the same as the depth of the pot that the tree came in and in terms of the width, the hole will need to be double that of the container. Position the tree at the same level that it is positioned in its pot. Be careful not to plant too deeply, as even an inch too far below the ground level can cause enough damage to kill your tree! 

If your soil is more of a light soil and drains water quickly, (these are usually sandy soils), dig in some homemade compost or soil improver when you have positioned the tree and are backfilling the hole. This will help to retain some moisture around the roots. And finally….you will need to buy a stake and a tie for your tree, which will need to be permanent for the first couple of years. For containerised trees, it is best to secure the stake at an angle, with the tie at about 1 inch from the top of the stake. Position the stake so that it leans at 45 degrees and into the direction of the prevailing wind (west to south in the UK).

Planting bare-root fruit trees

These should only be planted during its dormant period, between Autumn to early spring. If you do choose a bare-root tree, on digging a pit for it, give the roots the same amount of space that you would give a containerised tree and sprinkle some general fertiliser into the hole, (such as fish, blood and bonemeal) before you position the plant. Just as you would with a containerised tree, dig in some compost, if you have a sandy, quick-draining soil. Before you position the tree, you need to hammer in a vertical stake, which will need to be permanent for the first few years. Most trees will require an 8ft stake (with at least 1 ft below ground level). As the bare-root trees have no soil around them, it can be difficult to know how deeply to plant them, so as a general rule, look for the ‘graft union’ and position the tree, so that this point is 15 cm above the ground. The graft union is where the tree has been grown onto a different ‘rootstock’, which looks like a notch towards the bottom of the tree, (all fruit trees are grafted, which makes them fruit earlier, can restrict their ultimate height, as well as making them more disease resistant). 

Feeding

All trees and shrubs that produce fruit require a feed and a prune each year, in order to keep on producing healthy shoots, called ‘spurs’, from which the fruit grows. Without feeding and pruning, your tree will begin to produce less and less fruit over time. 

Generally, late Winter or early Spring, before the growing season is the time when your fruit tree will need a topping of fertiliser such as fish, blood and bonemeal.

Apple and Pear Trees

With around 7,000 different varieties or both apple and pear trees, you will not find it hard to get hold of the right apple tree for your garden. There are varieties that are better suited to larger spaces, as well as dwarf varieties, which are specially bred for small gardens or containers. A good idea is to visit your local garden centre or nursery, who will stock the varieties that are best suited to your part of the country, in terms of the soil type and climate. You may also want to double check a tree’s pollination needs, as some apple trees need to be near to others of the same variety, in order for the fruit to be pollinated. Apple and pear trees in the UK tend to fall into 6 different pollination groups, according to when they crop.  Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, this shouldn’t be too much of a concern, as there will usually be another tree in a nearby neighbour’s garden that shares your tree’s pollination group. So, as you can see, although you may not necessarily come away with your favourite variety, it is really important to invest in the right tree for your garden, rather than risk your crops failing.

Which apple or pear tree is for me?

There are several different forms of apple and pear trees, which means that pretty much anyone can grow one in their garden in one form or another. The main types are as follows: Free standing trees come as either Standards (for larger gardens), Half-standards, Bushes, Dwarf bushes and Dwarf pyramids. You can also buy what is known as ‘Restricted’ forms of apple and pear trees, whereby smaller plants are trained to grow on a framework, in a way which maximises their fruiting potential. The main forms include: Espalier, Cordon and Fan. These are easy to train against a south facing-wall or fence, in both large and small gardens.

Pruning

As I have already mentioned, all fruit trees will need pruning, to maximise their fruiting potential. Most forms of fruit trees need to be pruned in Winter and some also need to light prune