Two Fruit Trees, a Small London Garden. Am I Mad?

[Shortie]

Last weekend I bought 2 fruit trees, a morello cherry and green gage tree.

Now, the fact they can grow to 7m tall isn't so worrying as I plan to just keep them in check. I've now got two different worries...

How much root space do fruit trees like this need as I have a relatively small London garden and have one patch I planned to put aside of 2m but 2m.. me thinks it's now not enough. Plus it's near next doors brick deviding wall. btw the 2mx2m space isn't all that's free, I just thought it was the best placed...

Then... how close can I plant two different fruit trees before the fact they are different fruits cause problems? Or does that not matter anyway?

Oops.... what have I done? If I knew I'd definately kep the lottie long enough, I have plenty of space to grow them there!

[nick the grief]

You could always grow them as espaliers Shortie. You can plant them about 6ft apart.

[Shortie]

By Jingo Nick... that's perfect! So any fruit tree can be trained into a cordon then? I've got a book I'll dig out to check how to get it started.

Two more questions though... being planted so close to a brick wall, will the roots be likely to cause damage, and secondly will the cordon form itself damage the wall? It's not my wall but the neighbours you see....

[GardenFan]

Hi,

If you pot grow them in the largest pot you can find then you can also restrict root growth and it will limit height, it does have knock on effect in terms of yeild of course. If your trees are on dwarf and mini root stock then they will be happy to live in a pot. I don't think a cherry will respond well to cordon pruning and may be happier in a wine glass shape.