Fruit trees - what to underplant with?

[ldsau93]

I'd be interested in your experiences on this. We are looking to plant 4 trees (apple, plum, pear and a cherry) on our allotment. We have a space c. 5x6m where there will be planted.
The ground is very prone to sprout weeds which I wish to keep in check by some form of ground cover.
options under consideration:
- geotextile with wood chippings (bland, expensive, effective, have experience of)
- grass (cheap, not keen as wish to keep mowing effort to a mimnimum, have experience of)
- clover (cheapish, not sure on effectiveness, no experience)

What have other folk used - any other options i should consider.

Many thanks in advance!

[veggiechicken]

Cardboard covered with woodchip?

[Starling]

Although I don't really have many temperate fruit species, my understanding of apples is that although they are not monoecious ( plants only bear either male or female flowers but not both)for a good crop you must plant out two varieties for cross pollination, and that some will not yield at all without this arrangement. Even self pollinating varieties will benefit from cross pollination--this isn't just the case for apples, but for 95% of fruit species. Basically, this is because species change, and become stronger, by broadening their genetic makeup. This is accomplished by organisms favoring genetic material that is not their own--by preferring genes from foreign sources.This isn't just true of plants, but of animals also. Wolves, for example, will seek out mates from different packs in order to broaden their genetic diversity. Now, this isn't easy for them because it tends to result in turf wars and rearranging of social hierarchies, but they know that if they don't do it, their pups will be deformed and weak. Nature does in fact punish organisms that do not do this--which is why inbreeding tends to result in deformities and other organic abominations. Charles Darwin realized this far too late, having married his first cousin, and determined that the diseases reported by his children were owing to the genetic similarity between himself and their mother.

As wolves do, plants tend to reject pollen that comes from themselves, and will preference that of other varieties. One apple tree will not produce well as an apple tree pollinated by another variety, and this will be true for cherries and pears also. They might not produce at all. You should reconsider planting one of each.

On Mulch:

Grass is a very poor mulch. Does very little for your soil, and will make it soggy over time and with increasing applications.And it will grow grass around the base of your fruit tree, which will compete with your trees for nutrients, and will beat them most of the time. Cardboard has a low nutrient value, and depending on which type you use it can contain adhesives/bonding agents which are toxic.

Bark mulches are good, but you need to make sure that whichever bark you're using doesn't contain high levels of a trace element that is displeasing to the fruit trees it is applied to. For example, citrus absolutely hate manganese--so you wouldn't use hardwood mulch on citrus. Some trees are highly allelopathic (they inhibit germination of other species) and their bark will slow down growth rates of your fruit trees.

I suggest pine mulch. It's Acid, which your fruit trees will like, will not make your soil gluggy as it decomposes ( indeed it will lighten your soil) lasts a long time, looks pretty nice etc. Alternatively, you cannot go wrong with sorghum. It is by far and away the best, in a nutritional sense, mucl for everything.

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[PyreneesPlot]

I mulch with grass clippings, Bob Flowerdew style, but it is warm enough here for them not to (usually) go wet and yucky.

[Bigmallly]

Strawberries.................why waste the ground space.

[rosiepumpkin]

Bigmally, I love your reasoning.

I am in ecstasy at the moment as our plot with **** all light had a plum tree and a large ornamental taken down yesterday and it's like a new plot. We're putting a 2 year bush Summer Sun cherry on Gisela 5 where the plum was and my new Mediterrean herb/rose garden will be next to it. YES!

I'm going to plant low level thyme under the cherry as it'll be a while before it gets big enough for shade and as Big Mally says, I'm not wasting the space and the bees will love it (so will I). If the thyme starts dying once the cherry is full size, I'll look again at my options.

My tip for taking down trees is to ask about for the name of the glorious people in charge of maintaining your local wood/natural area. £150 for 2 trees taken down and while he was there he trimmed the leylandii and he brought me a broom handle for a tree stake.

[rosiepumpkin]

Actually, I take it all back. Strawberries is pure genius. I am relocating my overflow strawberry bed to the new cherry bed and planting thyme.

[yummersetter]

I thought the same - make sure you keep the strawberry beds free of weeds and grass though, I neglected mine and have lost the plants. I wish I'd put them in landscape fabric holes. You might find it interesting to read Martin Crawford's 'Creating a Forest Garden' which has a lot of information about underplanting fruit trees.

[rosiepumpkin]

A friend of mine does forest planting and planted comfrey right next to some of her apple trees. The ones with the comfrey are twice as big.

[BUFFS]

Strawberries.................why waste the ground space.

alpine strawberries so after planting there is no work except removing weeds and cropping, mine fruit from july to the frosts and have done for 7/8 years and they seem to thrive on poor soil and the flavour, wow, leaves the big strawbs standing..

[chrisdb]

What have other folk used - any other options i should consider.

Many thanks in advance!

Under my fruit trees and bushes I have at the moment all kinds of things:

Strawberries
Oregano
Bird's foot trefoil
Lungwort
Clover
Comfrey
Bugle
Borage
Marigolds
Pennyroyal
Heartsease
Lemon balm
Rock Cranesbill
Siberian purslane
Various bellflower species
Mallows

I'm probably forgetting some things.

Whatever you do, don't go for grass. Grass is one of the worst, least tree friendly plant imaginable, and the damn stuff will not die. You can mulch for years and if a single blade of the bloody stuff survives it'll be everywhere in no time. Your only hope is to weaken its hold and then fill in with other things as quickly as possible so it can't get too much of a foothold. Seriously, grass is The Enemy(TM).

Go for broad-leaved plants instead, preferably ones which can tolerate being crushed at harvest time.