Help advice needed for total novice.

[danyboy]

Firstly I would like to say hello to everyone,this is my first post,so please bare with me.I have a piece of scrubland to the rear of my house,the only problem is I have to access it,by a lengthy walk along a farmers field,so it has no water supply etc,unfortunately there is a neighbours path along the bottom of my garden,in between me & this land.I have cleared all this land approx. 6m x 3m.I now want to plant 6 small fruit trees in a line along it,i have seen these Standard Plum Victoria - 1 tree Buy online order yours now If anyone could advise me,i only want the trees to be a max height of 1.5m,these looked ok,the rootsock is on st julian A & there apple trees are on M26,do you think these would be ok,im not sure how they keep the height down using these rootstocks,any advice would be great before I purchase them.
The other problem is going to be getting water to them,i was thinking water butts with guttering along the fence to catch the water,not to sure how much this will collect,has anyone used this method.
any help or advice would be most welcome
many thanks dan..............

[bramble]

Hallo Dan and welcome.
I am not the person to advise you as I only grow one plum tree and no apples.
Someone with more knowledge than me will sort you out with wise words.

Regarding the collection of water from your fence, what type of a fence is it.?

[Plumpudding]

Hi Dan

I think that your Victoria will be a lot taller than 1.5 metres once mature. All depends on the quality of the soil and how much rainfall it will get.

I have found the tree height calculator below very useful for me in the past. Says that Victoria should reach 4 metres given average conditions. Apples on M27 will be small, but they will also need a lot of looking after ... Water, feed etc

Find the estimated mature height of your fruit tree

[danyboy]

Hi thankyou for your replays,the fence is only a wire one,I was going to fix 6 metres of guttering to it,I do not know if this would collect enough water to fill up a water butt or not,as for the trees,I telephoned the company in the Netherlands and they assured me that the trees would not grow bigger than 1.5 metres.i really can't see how when the rootstock is St Julian a,the lady on the telephone said they have fixed a trunk to the rootstock that dwarfs the growing,sounds like Frankenstein's monster,I'll order some and see what turns up.
Many thanks regards Dan....

[veggiechicken]

Hi Dan and welcome to the forum. If you're uncertain about the trees from this company, why don't you look elsewhere.
I'm a bit rough on my fruit trees, once planted and given a good soak, I rely on rainfall to take care of them.
You won't catch much water in a length of guttering unless you have some sort of catchment, like a roof, that runs into it.

[bramble]

I wouldn't think a wire fence would be sturdy enough to support guttering Danny but you could slways give it a try.

[danyboy]

I've ordered 3 different trees from these people to give them a try.The fence posts are pretty sturdy,they should hold guttering easily enough,I'll see how it goes,shame I have not got any shed on this bit of land,at least the roof of that,would have collected some water.
Regards Dan.....

[Nicos]

No idea about the trees but are you able to fix some wriggly tin at 45 - 90 degrees to the fence with the guttering at the bottom to collect rainwater?
Even plastic sheeting would work.
With more surface area you'll collect more water!
Just a thought
Oh...and welcome to the Vine!

[Bigmallly]

Hello Dan & welcome to the Jungle. This thread may help you if & when you need to control your trees:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ning_4748.html