garden bargains fruit trees , not happy

[divvy]

I bought a mini orchard collection from Garden bargins 4 weeks ago . They arrived, well packed. But when I opened them, Well , the pear , apple and plum were the right size but no leaves and looked dead , what few branches they had were all broken. The cherry on the other hand is no way a dwarf. It is 7ft high ( the height it's supposed to get to in 10 years ) and the trunk is about 2 inches across. All the lower branches had been stripped , leaving only the top ones which are rather robust for a dwarf tree. I have emailed them 3 times about this but no answer . I have planted them , and have cut the cherry down to a 3 ft stick in the hope that with some TLC they may start growing new shoots and leaves. So beware of garden not so bargins. I have probably wasted £40 on mine.

[veggiechicken]

I doubt that this will help you much but you're not the first to complain http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...website-3.html

[divvy]

I wish I had read that before.

[Bigmallly]

We live & learn Divvy.........lets hope they surprise you next year and give you a bumper crop.

[Llamas]

Aw, shame on them! Such a dissapointment. After having bought trees both on-line and in person at the shop and, despite having used a range from good to not so great online retailers, it's thus far usually been better to get them in person. Some times more expensive (£30 for a plum instead of say £20, but then theres shipping) some times though you can take advantage of sales [I]and[I] see the tree to decide if you even want it (got a 3-tier 'Fiesta' espaliared apple for £20).

I hope you can get through to them to give them an earful!

[Percy T]

I purchased this last year about this time and was very happy when they arrived, I happily potted them up in the containers provided and followed instruction and was even happier when I got two plums of the plum tree. I was too worried about the other trees giving them time to settle had signs of life on pear and apple but cherry nothing was advised that it may need more time to shock. This year cherry is definately deceased (think dead parrot scetch) the other three all have serious fungal problems. I have written/rung several times with no real outcome and am continuing the saga. but on this experience I would not recommend purchasing these.

[divvy]

I rang them in the end , after sending 3 emails with no reply . They are sending me my money back - the £10 postage of course. Can anyone advise on place to buy good dwarf trees that are affordable please .

[DuncanM]

Don't expect your money to be returned quickly. I received my cheque through the door today from an order I cancelled in April (they didn't deliver it after 6 weeks - order originally placed in March).

[FB.]

I rang them in the end , after sending 3 emails with no reply . They are sending me my money back - the £10 postage of course. Can anyone advise on place to buy good dwarf trees that are affordable please .

How big must they be on arrival and how big when mature?
For garden or pots?
How much is "affordable"?

Dwarfs don't necessarily need to be on dwarf roots. Some varieties are naturally dwarf and are so weak that they will often die when grafted onto dwarf roots, but perform spectacularly well when grown on a vigorous rootstock.
Powerful roots with a dwarf-ish and precocious variety grafted on top means rapid establishment and very early and heavy cropping - far exceeding anything that a dwarf rootstock can achieve because dwarf rootstocks can take many years for the roots to grow large enough, whereas lack of roots is never a problem with a vigorous rootstock, which can establish itself in a matter of weeks and if the variety is chosen carefully it can crop heavily even in its first year of planting.

[pepper]

I ordered egremont russet apple from crocus a few months ago it is a really nice healthy tree. Yesterday I ordered apple scrumptious from Blackmoor, I have never bought anything from them before so hope it is good when it arrives. I had 4 fruit trees which i bought from bakker about 5 years ago and got fed up waiting on them fruiting so i got rid of them so I paid more for these new ones to replace them

[Garden_Chris]

Yesterday I ordered apple scrumptious from Blackmoor, I have never bought anything from them before so hope it is good when it arrives.

I've used Blackmoor for loads of my Apple trees, a peach tree and lots of other bits and bobs. They've never failed to impress me, I'm sure you'll feel the same way too!

[FB.]

I ordered egremont russet apple from crocus a few months ago it is a really nice healthy tree. Yesterday I ordered apple scrumptious from Blackmoor, I have never bought anything from them before so hope it is good when it arrives. I had 4 fruit trees which i bought from bakker about 5 years ago and got fed up waiting on them fruiting so i got rid of them so I paid more for these new ones to replace them

In fairness, a tree which does not crop is expressing excellent health and vigour and is doing what it was meant to do: grow to outcompete its neighbours. A tree which crops early is expressing weakness and sickliness and, in the wild, would soon find itself overgrown by trees with more vigour. Young trees which crop heavily but don't grow (especially if the fruit is small and highly coloured) is not generally a good sign.

What were the old varieties (including rootstock) and what did you buy to replace them?
What kind of soil - and how deep - do you have?


Maybe your choice of varieties and/or rootstocks were too vigorous for your soil quality - or you fed them too much.
Or maybe they were varieties which are known to be slow to start cropping; it's not all about the rootstock. Bramley, for example, is usually very slow to crop on any rootstock, while certain other varieties will both grow and crop heavily from an early age even when on very vigorous rootstocks. The very vigorous apple M25 rootstock is amazing for its ability to both grow and crop heavily very soon afte rplanting (not that I'd plant it in Scotland; it doesn't do so well in cold and wet conditions).

In any case, I would have tried hard summer pruning; for me, it has never failed to switch a tree from strong growth one year to heavy cropping the next year.

[pepper]

the 4 trees I had were a mini orchard collection they had no variety names and it didn,t say what root stock. They did grow apples but they never got bigger than a grape and it took them to winter time to grow these. One of my neighbours bought the same collection and had exactly the same problem.

[FB.]

the 4 trees I had were a mini orchard collection they had no variety names and it didn,t say what root stock. They did grow apples but they never got bigger than a grape and it took them to winter time to grow these. One of my neighbours bought the same collection and had exactly the same problem.

Ah, your earlier reply suggested they would not fruit.
It actually sounds as if they did produce fruits, but either the fruits were varieties which need more sun and warmth than Scotland can give, or that the roots were so weak that they couldn't feed the fruits and presumably the tree couldn't grow either; "runt-out"?

Whereabouts in Scotland are you? Some parts have really difficult conditions where only a few varieties of apple will grow and ripen successfully.

[pepper]

I am in the scottish borders I hope the trees I have now are going to be ok

Egremont russet (has fruit now)
Discovery (has fruit now)
James Grieve
Scrumptious (waiting on delivery)