how do i grow a tree from scratch

[neil1280]

i have seen fruit trees at garden centres and some can be quite expensive, i think iwould enjoy it more to grow them myself can someone please tell me what seeds do i use? or post me a link?

im particularly interested in ones to grow the likes of oranges, raspberries, blueberries, grapes

my dad once told me if i put a pip into the ground then it will grow from that??

im very new to all this so sorry if i come across a bit silly lol

[ginger ninger]

Well to coin a phrase... "Dad's know best", as long as you have lot's of time to wait for them to grow and fruit, Apple, Orange, Lemon trees can be grown from a pip. Whether they'll be disease free is another question.
Blueberries, Cranberries, Raspberries etc are easy to grow from seed, make sure if you grow Blueberries from seed you use an acid soil/compost there none too keen on your everyday muck.

[WrexTheDragon]

Trees grown from pips tend to grow quite big, and this is the reason they graft them onto different root stocks. Also the varieties of fruit that you buy in your local shop my not be suited for your location. Check out the labels, Chile, China, South Africia,Egypt.

It's always worth a go and is fun, but if you are looking for something to eat at the end of the day then buy a proper plant from your local garden centre.

Orange and Lemon pips are easy to grow, I like to soak them overnight and try to peal the seed from the hard outer coating.

[zazen999]

They're not that expensive when you think of the work that has gone into them to produce a tree that is going to give you the fruit that you want. Go in on a sale weekend and you can bring the price down significantly.

[mrscorpio]

i have seen fruit trees at garden centres and some can be quite expensive, i think iwould enjoy it more to grow them myself can someone please tell me what seeds do i use? or post me a link?

im particularly interested in ones to grow the likes of oranges, raspberries, blueberries, grapes

my dad once told me if i put a pip into the ground then it will grow from that??

im very new to all this so sorry if i come across a bit silly lol

I planted 2 apple pips last year and they are both 3 ft tall this year and looking very healthy. As wrexthedragon said they will grow very big. Apples purchased at the garden centre are grafted onto varying rootstocks to keep their sizes down. I also read a long time ago that when planting pips the chance of germination was something like 70%, the chance of the plant growing on was 50%, the chance of it bearing fruit was 20%, and finally the chance of it tasting nice was 5%. This is all due to the fact that the pip is from unknown parents - it may come from a granny smith apple but what pollinated it.

I dont know if this is the same for any other fruits.

[sarraceniac]

I tried growing an apple from seed when a child of 6 or 7. It never did fruit. I cried for ages. But just the other month my granddaughter made me pull myself together and buy one from Wilko's or Morrison's for a fiver.

[Two_Sheds]

Raspberries aren't a tree, and are uber-easy to grow from cuttings.

Oranges: move somewhere a lot hotter if you want to grow fruit

[Zenithtb]

Raspberries aren't a tree, and are uber-easy to grow from cuttings.

Oranges: move somewhere a lot hotter if you want to grow fruit

I live in Valencia, and I'm sick of the sight of orange trees ;-)

[Guttata]

If you can actually find grapes with pips these days then yep they will grow into vines, not sure how long it would take to fruit from seed though. Every pack I have seen to date in supermarkets and even market stalls is labeled seedless.

How do you mean expensive for raspberries and blueberries? Keep an eye on Aldis and Lidl you can get them for less than £2 there. Also the pound shops sometimes have them in, especially Poundland, and obviously they are £1.

Oranges will fruit here but need a lot of thought, and it is better to buy them from the shop. Yes they can be expensive but a lot of work has gone into them and so has growing time. That is what you are essentially buying when you buy them the growing time.

As for fruit trees Aldis get them in at the correct time for planting and they are about £5-£10.

[tamsin]

We've got a grape grown from seed, it must be about 25yrs old now at least. It's never flowered/fruited though. My understanding is you get males, females and mixes. They vines you buy are mixes (self fertile) when you grow from seed you've only got a 1 in 3 chance of getting the self fertile one that can produce fruit.

[FB.]

Fruit trees at garden centres can be expensive (depends where you are). But if you can find some from an out-of-town tree nursery for around £15, it's actually a very good price. Sometimes B&Q, Homebase, ALDI, LIDL, Wilko or Tesco sell fruit trees for £5-£10.

With a proper fruit tree, someone has to grow the rootstock (which controls size, fruitfulness, nutrient uptake/tree health, anchorage and other desirable features) for a year or two, then cut off the top and graft the chosen variety on top, then grow it for another year or two - watering and fertilising the young tree for 2-4 years before you buy it.

Growing your own fruit trees from pips has all kinds of potential problems. They often only fruit well after spending many years growing into very large trees. Additionally, sometimes the roots are not suited to the local soil. Sometimes the leaves, fruits or stems are not suited to resist your local fungal diseases.

After having waited 5-10 years for your first crops, you may be disappointed to end up with fruits that are poor quality, poor taste, too small, too hard, too soft or all kinds of problems.

I would just cough-up the £15 and be fairly confident of a reliable crop of tasty apples at a young age.

If you like, you can have some of the pips that I retained from last years apples if you send a return-addressed stamped envelope to me.
The pips were from my own trees - all of which are extremely pest/disease resistant. However, I can only confirm the identity of the mother tree (i.e. the apple variety that the pip came from). The father tree could only be narrowed down to a "best guess" of maybe 3 other varieties. Besides, the pip may have inherited the good or the bad genetics from either parent.

[Tam]

My grandmother planted an apple pip for four of her grandchildren and they all grew into mature trees. One had edible fruit, not a bad taste, but not great and very few fruits each year. One had very tasteless, very woolly little fruits and the other two flowered a little but the flowers fell off each year without ever producing viable fruit.

When I look at my apple trees in the garden - there are eight - and think of the weight of fruit they have produced in the past thirty years, I reckon that the purchase of them was one of the best investments I have ever made.

[Madasafish]

We have a damson tree which grew from seed at our last house and we transported to our current one. It took 5 years here to fruit. It is now 24 years old and about 4metres high.

Recipe for growing trees. Sow a seed/cutting, wait 5 years....

That's why they cost so much.

[neil1280]

i appreciate why they charge for them, i think i will just buy one although i just dont think i will get the same satisfaction.

i got a blackcurrant bush or tree whatever it is from pounland i have noticed a difference in the leaves and branches already

maybe nip over to homebase today and get a raspberry bush and maybe a grape vine

[kalimna]

If you are looking to get a little more satisfaction from growing your fruit trees, may I suggest a couple of options that might be of interest (though perhaps a little technical and beyond me for sure!) :
If you start off with a maiden whip (one year old tree) you will have to do all the training of shape of the tree yourself, and these trees are often a little cheaper as they havent been looked after by the nursery for so long (may I suggest Bernwode plants?) and it leaves entirely up to you the choice of how the tree will grow.
Secondly, if you are feeling a little more captivated - obtain some rootstock and try grafting your own trees from wood taken (with permission!) from apple trees that you know/have a connection with (say, a favourite tree from a relatives garden).
Just a couple of ideas

Adam S