Last weekend I finally managed to finish grafting and planting all of my fruit trees.
I planted them in two separate beds quite close together to try to encourage them to grow straight and true. I 've also experimented a little bit as one lot was planted through some old weed suppressant matting I had left from ages ago and the other will be mulched with straw
In these two little beds is hopefully my future cider orchard, some apricots and nectarines to see if I can get them to grow in our cold spot, cherries so we can have delicious stone fruit in the summer, plums and pears to grow around the veg garden and some more apple trees to grow and sell.
140 in total this year, should be interesting to see how they do.
Did anyone else get round to doing any grafting this year?
I have a question ,as I have only just started doing this. I found an old apple tree on the side of the road and took some cuttings. I put them all in little individual pots and they have since started sprouting leaves . We have winter coming so I will need to keep them in the hot house now , but I wondered what is the next step. In spring should I put them in garden beds as you have done or do I put them in a larger pot until they are ready to plant?
ReplyDeleteCuttings taken in that way will grow but the trees could turn out to be any size. A better way woube to let them overwinter then buys some rootstocks (to the size you need e.g. m25) andgraft them to these just before the onset of spring. The rootstock will then control the size of the tree and the bit grafted pn the top will control the type of fruit you get. As for planting I think it's best to keep them in a nursery bed for a year or two before you plant them in their final location as ot gives them a good head start and keep competition to a minimum. Hope this helps
ReplyDeleteThose are pretty impressive beds Kev. Will await the results with interest as I still haven't got around to doing any grafting.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how well they will do as some of the tape has started to fail. I should have used the proper stuff but its tricky to use.
Deleteno grafting here, but after reading one of your posts I ran around the garden and made sure no dirt was higher than the graft.
ReplyDeleteAround our apple trees we have put weed suppressant fabric and then gravel on top. I hope this will still let the rain through
I'm experimenting with the matting a little bit this year so I guess we'll both see how it goes! I'm also planting my strawberries this way this as well.
DeleteHavent done any grafting before, so I will be interested to see how it goes, whenever they show it on TV or in books they explain and show the princples of it but you never see the results over time.
ReplyDeleteI'll do a post and show you the ones that I grafted last year.
DeleteThat's so interesting to grow so various fruit trees in our garden.
ReplyDeleteThe more the better!
DeleteWow - well done, Kevin! That's a lot of future fruit in that nursery :)
ReplyDeleteIt should all help stock our larder in future autumn's.
DeleteGrafting is not something I have considered and my new allotment would only have room for two more small/medium cider trees tops if I'm to incorporate some raised beds. Did you mention you may be selling some? I'm sure that I'd be able to give them a loving home 😉
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we could come to an agreement but they won't be ready for at least a year so no good to plant now! If you see the commercial cider growers they plant their trees really close together so you might be able to plant a few more.
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