advice on garden and fruit trees please

[manda74]

Hi everyone, my name is manda. I'm also a newbie at gardening, and tend to pick things i like or want and then just plant them I'm hoping you can give me lots of help, so here goes.
I need a little advice on how to go about planting the fruit trees i got today. My garden is on 2 levels and i've decided to block the top off for the dogs and i'm planning on slabbing the bottom area(26' x 20' approx) with some fruit trees in between the slabs with slate round the bases and a couple of benches to sit and relax on.
Anyhow i got :
Cherry : Helderfinger
Peach : Red Haven
Plum : Victoria
Pear : Doyenne Du comice
Nectarine : can't remember
All from aldi, i've been told peaches do better againgst a fence- is this true? Have i got too many for my garden? should i put one up the top near the house (it would be about 2 metres away from my back door)to space them out more?
Things tend to grow in my garden without too much hassle as i don't tend to mess once i've planted things. can you tell i'm new to this? Please offer your advice, i'm really excited about gardening for the first time in my life and it would be lovely to have fruit growing in our garden, i don't have loads of time so thats why i decided i'm going to slab the bottom half of the garden to make it easier but i am open to other peoples views as long as it can be easily maintained.

[Alison]

Hello Manda. I've found one of the best sites for advice on fruit planting is the Ken Muir site (.: Ken Muir :.) and go to the Ask Ken section. This contains loads of fact sheets in pdf format which explain about the different ways of growing and pruning etc. From experience, unless you have an enormous garden I've found that you are better training your fruit trees to a restricted form eg cordon, espallier for apples, fans for plums etc but have a look and see what you think. Another thing is there any info on root stock on the trees you've bought, if it's a vigorous type then they may get too big too quickly if you don't prune them VERY hard! Nice selection though, assuming that you're OK on the pollinators.

[manda74]

all the trees i got say that they are self pollinating on the cards, i have had a look at them all on the net but i can't find any info on the helderfinger cherry I will have a look on the site recommended to see how to train and prune them and will have a go at training the peach and nectarine against fences. it doesn't say anything about rootstock so i am assuming it isn't small. i will have to prune hard but not sure when will be best to do this, any suggestions? any hints and tips will be more than welcome as i am complete novice at this and would love to shock my family by actually growing fruit

[sharonr]

I`ve brought a Pear called Doyenne Du Comice from Aldi. On the card it say`s it needs pollinating with Concode or Gorham.

[manda74]

I've just been to check and your right, the pear does need a pollinator. I must have pick the wrong pear up as i thought i'd chosen everything that was self pollinating. back to aldi tomorrow to see if they will allow me to exchange it

[sharonr]

I think they had a pear called confrence which might be self pollinating. I`m going to get another pear as mine is already in the garden.

[manda74]

Thanks for saying or i would have just planted it and not realised. i was that excited about getting them i think i got a bit carried away

[FB.]

I think they had a pear called confrence which might be self pollinating. I`m going to get another pear as mine is already in the garden.

Conference is partially self-fertile, but the self-pollinated fruits tend to be of lower quality; smaller and mis-shapen. If you ever see a pear tree full of bent pears, it's likely to be a self-pollinated Conference.
Most "self-fertile" trees tend to produce more fruit, bigger fruit and better fruit when pollinated by a different variety.

[FB.]

all the trees i got say that they are self pollinating on the cards, i have had a look at them all on the net but i can't find any info on the helderfinger cherry I will have a look on the site recommended to see how to train and prune them and will have a go at training the peach and nectarine against fences. it doesn't say anything about rootstock so i am assuming it isn't small. i will have to prune hard but not sure when will be best to do this, any suggestions? any hints and tips will be more than welcome as i am complete novice at this and would love to shock my family by actually growing fruit

Rootstock is likely to be medium size - about 4metres when mature but careful pruning from a young age can make them into almost any size and shape that you want.

"Pruning hard" may or may not be the best way to manage them. Hard pruning could completely stop a tree growing for a season or two, or it could completely stop the tree fruiting for a season or two.
Simply "hedge trimming" and randomly snipping around the edge of the trees will not be successful in the long term. Skilful pruning is done by making as few cuts as possible on each tree - and at the right time. Too many pruning cuts and pruning at the wrong time of year for that type of tree can have all sorts on unintended consequences.

Type and timing of pruning depends on the size and shape that you eventually want and may be influenced by your local growing conditions. But you must carry out the correct pruning in the earlier years, to save you from a lot of problems in later years. Due to poor growing conditions here (dry, sandy soil), I often don't need to prune much and the stressful conditions here make the trees very eager to fruit (they want to reproduce because the stress makes them wonder how long it will be before they die!).
To describe the best pruning techniques for all the trees that you have bought would take hours to type out. It would be better if you run some searches to get the info you need.

[FB.]

I've just been to check and your right, the pear does need a pollinator. I must have pick the wrong pear up as i thought i'd chosen everything that was self pollinating. back to aldi tomorrow to see if they will allow me to exchange it

If someone has a pear tree in a nearby garden, you might not need a pollinator. Another option would be to graft one branch with a pollinator variety (get a cutting from someone), or I have heard of people taking flowers from someone else's tree and putting them near to their own tree, in the hope that the bees transfer the pollen (or you could try to hand-pollinate, if you can get a few flowers from someone else's tree).

[manda74]

Thanks for that FB. I've been having a look at the website suggested on how to prune and train different trees but it all sounds very complicated. Does anyone know of a website that tells you in plain english for the novice gardener

[jemma_charlie]

I have found Gardenaction good for things like this, they have pictures too so it is easy to follow the instructions

How to grow fruit articles with pictures

[manda74]

Thanks Jemma, will have a look now. I took the pear and nectarine back and got a Stella cherry instead, i don't know if this will help pollinate the other cherry(which does say on the card it is self fertile but i have been told by some people it may not be) but they are pretty trees anyway so i don't mind. I've just got to figure out how to lay them out in the garden now.