Small trees - apple or pear

[Rach]

Hi

I have quite a small garden but would really like to have an apple or pear tree. Could anyone recommend a variety that wouldn't grow too big so not to take over the whole garden! Thank you!

[Hellbell]

I don't know anything about fruit trees, sorry, but I've just been looking at these dwarf and columnar trees you can get for growing in pots.

Hmm, tried to attach some pics but don't think it's worked. Anyway you can get them from Spalding Plant & Bulb Company and J Parker Dutch Bulbs.

They look very interesting but I don't know if anyone's had any experience of growing them and if they really do produce the abundance of fruit they claim to.

[Rach]

Thank you!!

Anybody had any luck with any of these and know how much fruit you get them from?

This is the link to one of the sites.

Spalding Plant & Bulb Company - versatile garden shopping

[Tam]

Unless you have an extremely small garden, go for an apple on M9 rootstock and you will have a tree that will only grow to 8 or 9 feet. You will find that it will fruit fairly early in its life and you will be able to keep it in the shape you want and make sure it keeps on fruiting well by regular pruning. If you want something even smaller rootstock M27 will give you a tree half the size of M9. Both these should be well staked.

[FB.]

I've been dabbling with fruit trees for a few years now - especially apples.
Soil and rainfall make a huge difference. I'm in a low rainfall area with a sand/gravel subsoil at 15-18" depth. In high rainfall areas, trees will grow much larger.
I am of the opinion that plants should find their own water most of the time (except in droughts), so after the first couple of seasons, they ought to learn to find their own water and not rely on me!
In a dry area like mine (half the national average rainfall), that appears to reduce the above-ground size of trees by about half, while increasing the root system to perhaps double what you'd expect.
Having started with M9 and M26 rootstocks, I found that with my low-rainfall/poor soil, they could not grow at all without regular watering. In order to grow apples to about 8ft height/spread, I am using rootstock M26 for very strong varieties, MM106 for average varieties and MM111 for the weaker one's.
I'm using M26 and MM106 for cordons instead of the usual M9. In fact, most of my "cordons" were re-shaped from failed M26 bushes and re-planted elsewhere.
Woolly aphids are a nuisance in my area, causing knobbly growths on stems of the susceptible M9 and M26 rootstocks. Parasitic wasps, hoverfly larva and lacewing larva (and maybe earwigs?) eat the woolly aphids eventually, but not until the damage is done.

Examples from mine are:
D'Arcy Spice / MM111 - very weak variety, strong roots to compensate.
Discovery / MM106
Ashmead's Kernel / MM106
Bramley / M26 - very strong variety, weak roots to slow it down.

Choosing old, traditional varieties from your local area may be beneficial because of possible resistance to diseases prevalent in your area. I'm all in favour of natural disease resistance, so that I can avoid sprays.

Probably the weakest variety that I know of, is D'Arcy Spice. Even on the "vigorous" M111 rootstock, it's a painfully slow grower. On rootstock M26, it barely grows at all - even with regular watering.
Another slow-ish grower is "Discovery".
Both seem very resistant to diseases in my area.

My Discovery and D'Arcy generally produce small "child size" apples (not usually more than 2" across) but with delicious flavours. I believe the size/flavour is because the trees struggle to find water, so the apples are a little lacking in water, which makes them more concentrated and sometimes sweeter. I'd go so far as to dare to say that I've never eaten such tasty apples as the one's I've grown.

FB

[barney]

Hi

I have quite a small garden but would really like to have an apple or pear tree. Could anyone recommend a variety that wouldn't grow too big so not to take over the whole garden! Thank you!

Eighteen months ago I planted 4 minarette trees- 2 apple- Red Windsor, 1 pear and 1 plum.

This year I have lots of apples on the trees which are just about ripe, the plum tree -unsure of variety without a major hunt in the shed has 5 plums on and the pear tree - again unsure of variety has 3 pears on.

Minarettes are upright trees ideal for smaller gardens.

[FB.]

Yes, I had to rush off, but I meant to add that a selection of several cordons would be an idea worth considering.
However, I am not a great fan of M9 or M26 rootstocks, due to woolly aphid attack - especially on the roots, where you can't protect the plant. Woolly aphids make large knobbly lumps on the roots, which badly weakens the plant.
But the woolly-aphid-resistant rootstocks such as MM106 are probably too vigorous for cordons in most areas, although MM106 is ideal for training flat against a wall or fence as a fan/espalier.
There's a crab apple about half a mile from me that is stunted and completely knobbly-barked from past woolly attacks. When I last passed it a few months ago, it had many hundreds of woolly aphid colonies.
If you go for cordons on M9 or M26 that are in full view as a garden feature, any woolly aphids must be removed immediately (squash them!), before they get out of control and cause extensive, unsightly and debilitating damage.

You can plant several cordons in the space of one bush/tree. You can grow most apple varieties as cordons (but beware the tip bearing varieties because summer cordon-pruning will cut off all their fruit buds for the next season) and the summer pruning controls their growth and increases their fruit bud formation in the case of spur-bearers.
You can have a cordon to produce apples for each season: late summer, autumn, winter and spring - plus perhaps an early and a late cooker.
With several varieties, pollination should be very good and you probably won't need to match up specific pollination partners.

I'd recommend going for at least some of your local traditional varieties that are not available in the shops and for their resistance to local diseases. They will add some interesting flavours that you won't find elsewhere - and shop bought apples tend to be from trees that are dependent on numerous chemical sprays for their health.

FB