Fruit Trees

[dirtgirl]

Having never grown any type of tree before, I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew, so would appreciate any advice please.
One of the fences in the back garden is south facing, and currently has a conifer type hedge growing along it. I would love to replace it with fruit trees grown cordon/espalier style. It would be great if I could include a nectarine, but gather from what I've read so far that this is a very tricky fruit to get results from. My youngest would also love a pear, though we love apples, plums, etc, too. To be honest, any type of fruit has to be an improvement on the wall of green that currently occupies the space.
Am I going to have problems growing in this space once we've removed what we can of the current occupants? (I think it's been there for a number of years, and doubt that we will be able to remove all of the roots)
If this is the most ridiculous idea ever, then please be gentle, I have lots of stupid ideas, but don't often air them publicaly

[FB.]

You'll probably be able to grow some fruits there, but the soil will be rather hostile and you may need to take some measures to re-juvenate the soil.

I believe that conifer roots produce substances that reduce growth of other plants nearby.
Also, over the years, the conifer roots will also have sucked quite a lot of the nutrients out of the soil.
There will also be lots of root-munching bugs, grubs, fungi and bacteria in the area, which might cause "replant disease" (i.e. these pests have built to such large numbers that they will severely stunt a young tree when it tries to grow new roots).

So....unless the soil in your area is deep and fertile, you'd probably be best to avoid really dwarfing rootstocks.
I would suggest look at MM106 (apple), Quince A (pear) and St.Julien A (plum).
Apples are generally happier in more difficult conditions.

Apples also have the benefits of:
Flowering later (so miss blossom-killing frosts and more bees flying as spring progresses).
Apples have a longer range of seasons.
Apples tend to keep better than pears.

The suggestions below involve easy-to-find varieties. You may have better results with rarer varieties, but they are often difficult to find and usually sold out at this late stage of the planting season.

The plum "Victoria" is reliable, self-fertile and heavy cropping, although the fruit flavour is only average and trees resistance to disease is quite low. Although prone to disease (such as canker and silver leaf), my old Victoria plum didn't suffer too much from pests such as "maggots" in the fruit (a very nasty surprise to find!), although all plums are attractive to wasps once the fruit is nearly ripe. The fruit is best peeled, as the skin can have a bitter taste that might deter kids.

The pears Concorde and Conference are also fairly reliable and self-fertile. Not many pears have much disease resistance (although pears are quite rare nowadays, so there often aren't trees nearby to infect yours!), but my Conference and Concorde are relatively trouble-free; very few with "maggots" in the fruit and not particularly attacked by wasps either. However, irregular water supply can cause the fruits to rot from the core, despite looking lovely from the outside!
Fruits are soft, juicy, sweet, reasonably well-flaovoured.

A spread of fruit seasons is also wise, so that you don't have to eat it all at once.

Victoria ripens late summer (Aug-Sept).

Conference/Concorde ripen early autumn (Sept-Oct)

You might then want to choose a fairly late-ripening, or longer-keeping apple, to take your fruit supply up to Christmas.

Some virtually-trouble-free, self-fertile apples, with tastes that aren't too sharp for kids, that (from my experience) are easy to find and should keep for a couple of months after picking in late September, include:

Egremont Russet
Fiesta (Red Pippin)
Spartan

...................

Remember: with home-grown fruit, always cut it into quarters before eating, to be sure that it isn't a grub's home.

[dirtgirl]

Wow, thanks for that FB.
Any advice on which way to train them, cordon or espalier? Or will either be suitable?

[FB.]

How large is the space?

All of the varieties above are very well behaved (well-branched, lots of fruit spurs, not too vigorous etc) and easy to train almost any way that you wish.

There's also a tree size estimator here:

> Link <

Some areas from Kent to Oxfordshire have prime orchard land, with very good soil. Other areas in Kent/Oxfordshire area are rather poor.
I suggest dig down into your soil to see how deep is the topsoil and what lies beneath.
Once you have an idea of your soil depth/quality, you can add that to the size estimator. Fruit trees are happy to be pruned so as to grow to only half of their "potential" size by hard pruning of new growth in July (as opposed to the invigorating winter pruning). Remember to consider that the ex-conifer soil will be a grade lower than your main soil.

[dirtgirl]

Thanks again FB. will do as you suggest