which variety

[Anita Plot]

I am considering growing plums, apples and pears but am not sure which varieties to grow. I do not have a huge garden so cannot have trees with a big spread. I had heard of tasting days but cannot find any in the North West.

Advice needed please

[Helgalush]

Sorry I cant help but I will be interested too, especially to know about pear trees.

[FB.]

Choice of varieties varies with different locations and sometimes even in different soil types. Some varieties much prefer certain soil types, certain pH levels and certain amounts of rainfall.
For example:

Tydeman's Late Orange apple prefers a warm, low-rainfall climate.

D'Arcy Spice apple prefers to grow on a strong rootstock on a poor, dry, sandy soil with lots of sun and a long, hot growing season.
This is because it forms a very large root system - but with a very small, slow-growing tree on top the tree never has a shortage of water or nutrients even on a soil where few other apples will grow.

Annie Elizabeth apple prefers to grow on deep, fertile, moisture-retentive soil, with at least average rainfall and will make a large tree, yet on a dry soil it is smaller than average. This is because it forms a surprisingly small root system compared to the tree above.

Barnack Orange prefers to grow on a strong rootstock on a poor, shallow, chalky soil.
Without the higher pH of chalk soil, it may not grow or fruit as well. Most apples will not grow well or healthily on chalk but this variety (and a few others) are an exception to the rule.

James Grieve prefers a cool, low-rainfall climate on a soil of fairly good quality such as the NorthEast. It despises poor dry soil or heavy rainfall and may be small and sickly. It is also not overly happy in the sunnier parts of the country; some varieties really do suffer from sun scorch!


In simple terms: don't plant a common variety because they are often qute prone to disease.
Choose a more unusual variety. Even better if it is both rare and local to your area, or from an area with similar soil and climate.
The soil type, the amount of rainfall relative to the UK average and even the variety grafted can make the usual "size guides" look completely wrong.
Vigorous varieties and/or vigorous rootstocks tend to handle difficult conditions better and often have better resistance to disease due to their extra vigour to shrug-off problems.
As an example: my Belle de Boskoop/MM111 suffered a grievous injury due to accident which would have crippled a dwarf or low-vigour tree. It left a huge, wide, deep, gaping wound in the trunk which I would expect to become infected in a dwarf tree. I deliberately left the wound open to wind, dirt, disease and rain to see just how tough the tree was.
This tough Boskoop/MM111 has very quickly healed-over the wound in just a matter of months, without disease being able to get established. It has continued to grow just as well as its companions.

The commonly-available apple, plum and pear rootstocks (MM106, St.Julien A and Quince A) definitely prefer a moisture-retentive soil of at least average quality. They are easily stunted on low-fertility soils, especially those which dry quickly (often the sandy or chalky soils in the Eastern half of the UK) and on such soils the medium-vigour roots will be lucky to get the tree to reach half the stated size; in some instances MM106 "medium vigour" can be smaller than M26 "semi-dwarf".

In drier soils, or low-fertility soils, much stronger rootstocks are advisable, to allow normal growth.

Additionally, different varieties of the same fruit don't grow at the same rate, even when grafted on the same rootstock. This is contrary to what "the books" claim, but I can assure you that it is true.
For example: Bramley apple trees grow very quickly and become large trees, often being slow to start fruiting.
On the other hand, Court Pendu Plat apple trees grow quite slowly and usually remain a very small tree (about half the size of a Bramley on the same rootstock).
Another quirk is that some varieties - such as D'Arcy Spice - grow very slowly, but they keep growing at the same rate until they die, unlike other trees which slow down considerably as they age. Tip-bearers (Bramley and D'Arcy Spice are partial tip-bearers) also mean that the tree will reach a larger size than its companions because cutting back too hard means much less fruit and even more growth.

In the above-average rainfall Western locations, scab and canker can be serious problems, killing branches and causing fruits to rot.
In lower-rainfall Eastern locations mildew can be a serious problem, killing new shoots and eventualy branches.

..........


As for what to grow.....

In the NorthWest, plums should be easy. Apples do-able. Pears may be troubled with canker and scab, to which they don't have much resistance. Of course, if there is no nearby pear tree to pass on disease, then there is no source of infection for your tree, even though conditions would suggest it being prone to certain disease.

Pick almost any plum you fancy, as long as it's not Victoria (which is disease-prone). I'd go for rootstock St.Julien A. I'm not too "hot" on plums because they won't grow in my poor soil and low-rainfall climate; I gave away my 10yr-old Victoria (St.Julien A) because it barely managed 5ft in size. When I dug it out, the roots had barely grown since planting because the soil just wasn't good enough.

Personally, I would consider the pear variety "Hessle" on Quince A rootstock for your location. It is one of the tougher, more reliable, more disease-resistant and more vigorous varieties of pear, which also appears to be self-fertile. The fruit is only average quality and often rather small.
The Quince roots should control the growth rate.
Remember that all fruit trees need pruning for optimum cropping and health; even very vigorous ones can easily be calmed-down and persuaded to challen all that energy into fruiting.
All fruit trees will get large and untidy if not properly pruned, so blaming an over-vigorous tree on its rootstock is a poor excuse for lack of pruning.
Pruning properly in the early years is very important to create a well-shaped, structurally strong and productive tree in its later years. Poor pruning will result in straggly, crowded trees often with weepy or broken branches - sometimes badly-shaped trees will even split in half during a storm.

As for apples, you'll probably be OK with the common MM106 rootstock, although I personally would go "up" to MM111 or "down" to M26 because they are more predictable, hardier and more resistant to root rots - especially in heavier soils.
Just because MM111 is normally considered "vigorous" doesn't mean that all trees on MM111 will be large; it depends on how vigorous the variety.
For example: I have a Bramley and a Blenheim on "semi-dwarf" M26 and they easily outgrow most varieties on "medium vigour" MM106 and match many on MM111.
I have a Tydeman's Late Orange on "vigorous" MM111 and it grows faster than Crawley Beauty on "very vigorous" M25.

As for apple varieties with reasonably good canker and scab resistance and not particularly prone to mildew:
Annie Elizabeth, Grenadier, Reverend Wilks, Belle de Boskoop, Alfriston, Crawley Beauty, Brownlees Russet, Cockle Pippin, Lord Derby.

Varieties with reasonable scab resistance and not especially prone to canker or mildew:
Beauty of Bath, Edward VII, Golden Harvey, Saturn, Ashmead's Kernel.

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

Whichever fruits you decide to grow, you may need to consider pollinators (of a different, unrelated variety) for good regular cropping.
For example: Belle de Boskoop or Ashmead's Kernel apples do not produce much viable pollen, so is not a good pollinator of itself nor any other variety. If you grew a variety to pollinate the Boskoop, you'd still need a variety to pollinate your other tree.
Another example: Cox's cannot be pollinated by some of its offspring, such as Kidd's Orange-Red. Not that either are suitable for the NorthWest.
If fruit trees are common in your area, pollination may not be a problem.

If fruit trees are not common: ask yourself "Why?".
It may be that the climate or soil is not ideal. In my area, most fruit trees will not thrive and I have been forced into growing mostly apples and a few pears on unusual rootstocks or unusual varieties.