Kitchen Garden Forum

Cant find a tree section? . . . so recommendations and practicality of the Espalier type fruit tree?

Whoops, I think I've got it wrong?? I think I'm talking about 'Ballerina' type trees, small, dwarf, straight up growth, or very compact, is what I want.

I have not got much room so I need a dwarf type tree, I dont know if I want apple or pear, tend towards apple? are multi variety on one root stock a good idea . . . The real burning factor, how does one choose variety . . . we only see a few commercial fruits in the shops, so one has no idea what the lesser known types taste like?

I am particularly interested in investigating old English eating apples, they say??? they are so much better than modern varieties??? . . . perhaps this thinking does not marry up with dwarf stock/multi fruit. My desire is a 'Blenheim Orange', but can it fit the small size. Grandads tree was enormous, but the flavour is to die for IMHO it eats, cooked and stored wonderfully.

CJS

Dear CJS, i think i would contact one of the large fruit growing nurseries and just have a chat about your requirements.
I think most of them will also do a catalogue with useful infomation in.
You could also google Ballerina fruit trees, and you are bound to get some good sites come up.

Good luck.

Look up Keepers Nursery, Isle of Wight, website has loads of helpful stuff.

Espalier are.very good for limited space as they can go against a wall or be used as a fence / divider. They are quite attractive as well, start with a maiden and train it yourself.

I agree with Peter, espaliers are expensive to buy, I am training a sweet cherry as an espalier, it was much cheaper purchased as a maiden.
Triple apples can be a bit difficult if one variety dominates the other two. Another option you might consider is a step over if you have a suitable place to train it.

The variety of Apple being produced is less relevant to rhe size and (trained/pruned) shape of the tree than the variety of rootstock it has been grafted onto.

Blenhiem Orange will be fine as an espalier on a dwarfing or semi-dwarfing rootstock.

Either read up on Keepers website or buy a copy of the RHS "The Fruit Garden Displayed".

See http://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/ & http://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/stock.aspx?fruittype=0 which has lots of help behind the red words.

Thanks all, looks like 'Keepers' webb site needs some of my time . . .

CJS

Matthews at Tenbury Wells are brilliant, but it's too late to buy anything this year. They have lots of native varieties and are very knowledgeable, even if their website isn't the best! You can order now for the autumn.