Underplanting Fruit Trees

[Jay-ell]

This year I'm experimenting with a mini orchard. To control the vigour of the trees I've planted them close together so their roots will compete and I'll be looking at heavily pruning them to maintain a compact size.

Another way I'm thinking to control their vigour is to under plant them, again to give them competition, which I'll do once their roots have had a chance to establish themselves a bit. I'm not too sure what to under-plant them with just yet so I thought I'd run through a few ideas and see what others think:

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Strawberries

this is an obvious contender, two fruits from one plot, great ground cover, flowers for bees and great on a plate.

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Clover

good bee plant and ground cover, but if I'm thinking about the trees vigour would a nitrogen fixer be a good choice.

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English Bluebells

should flower around the same time as the trees and give a great boost to pollinators. Native plant so good for native wildlife. These would also look nice in the 10x4 bed as a great drift of blue on a spring day. Unfortunately they’re not edible but you can't have everything.

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Snowdrops

Earlier than the trees but would they be a good plant to encourage pollinators to frequent the area and provide them food till everything else starts to bloom or would the gap between flower and fruit bloom be too much?

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Ramsons

who doesn't love that smell of garlic these native chappies fill the air with. Leaves, flowers and bulbs are edible and the flowers are good for pollinators. Flowering between April and June would overlap with the trees.

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Wild Daffodil –

Again a native wild flower so the pollinators would have grown up with it. Starts flowering earlier than the trees so would it be training them to frequent the plot?

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Saffron

OK, this flowers WAY after the trees so it wouldn't be attracting pollinators to them. Harvesting them does involve pulling out the stamen or cutting off the flowers so it might not give any food to the pollinators anyway – plus its not a native so they might not go for it. It is an expensive spice though – with hundreds of flowers needed to get one ounce and the fact that it isn't mechanised harvesting means that it's expensive to buy – but would I use all that saffron?

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Grass

nothing will rob the trees of nitrogen like grass which would really control their vigour – but do I want to control it that much. It'll also be a bit of a pain to mow.

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Of course there could always be the "mix-n-match" answer with a little bit of each but is there anything else which I haven't thought about or any comments on those listed above?

[chrisdb]

One of my apple trees is underplanted with pennyroyal, which is a low growing mint with a lovely strong minty smell and odd but attractive flowers. Minor warning: large doses might not do you much good, the essential oil was used to induce abortions but it can also kill adults in large doses.

One of my plum trees with more shade at ground level has violas, bugle, comfrey, strawberries, hostas, geraniums and lungwort successfully growing around it.

[sparrow100]

Re: saffron - I have 200+ corms, which last year gave 1g of saffron, dried weight.

I don't think they are a good option for under trees for 2 main reasons. 1) they are planted 6 inches deep and need to be dug up and split every 3-4 years, which your trees might not like 2) they need to be in warm, dry soil when they are dormant June-early Sept. If you keep them damp at this point they are likely to rot. As a bonus extra caveat, you have to pick the stamens first thing in the morning during the 2-4 week flowering period - they degrade quickly during the day that the flower has first opened.

Can you tell I'm a bit of a saffron geek? Obviously your choice tho, just wanted to flag up a couple of things.

Personally I would go for strawberries. Or even comfrey to give a harvest of fertiliser & attract bees.

[chrisdb]

Also, you could try sweet woodruff? Invasive is just another word for good ground cover.

[Jay-ell]

chrisdb - I have Pennyroyal in my paths along with chamomile and creeping thyme and the scent if gorgeous when I walk along it.

It's supposed to be good for repelling flea beetles and other nibbley things as well.

It was originally the leaves and stems rather than the essential oils which was used in abortions (along with a other herbs such as black currant leaves and tansy). The essential oil is highly concentrated and this has unfortunately led to the deaths of those seeking abortions. The essential oil was also used on flea collars as it repels fleas, midges and other biters but this was stopped when they realised the oil can be fatal to cats.

Incidentally it's old name is Pudding Grass. Grass used to be a term that identified herbs rather than the stuff on the lawn (not my lawn as that is "moss") and pennyroyal was used in the big steam puddings that used to be a part of the staple diet (think haggis type pudding rather than something with custard)


Sparrow100 - thanks for the good info. It won't be saffron then - just saved me the possibility of wasting my cash on bulbs I wouldn't get a harvest or benefit from.

My comfrey bed is about 4 foot away from the trees so that'll help attract pollinators (but you can never attract too many pollinators can you). It's a possibility as I'd be able to harvest more comfrey - have more fertiliser and feed more tomatoes. So that’s comfrey added into the list instead of saffron

I planted out a 2x36 foot border of strawberries last year under my gooseberries (runners and offsets from my previous years plants) and also have another 4x4 bed of strawbs that didn't fit - which I'm contemplating moving under the trees. Of course they might go under my black currants once I've figured out where I'm putting them.

[Jay-ell]

Chris,

One use of sweet woodruff comes to mind - but that would mean I'd have to find somewhere to grow the hops

I had thought about Nepalese Raspberries at one point but then decided that I'd keep away from plants that are too successful just in case they become too successful in the rest of my plot.

[veggiechicken]

How about marjoram/oregano?
My old "friend" Gertrud Franck used spinach as ground cover, then cut it down as a mulch.
This year, I'm going to underplant my fruit trees with squashes. Not a permanent solution, I know, but might work as a temporary thing.

[Jay-ell]

Well Funny you should say that VC but as this is to work out what to plant under them next year I has thinking about running squash under them this year to suppress weeds. That and the fact that I need the squash bed for the sites giant pumpkin competition.

Not too sure about using spinach as a mulch - it goes too well with mackerel and tomato.

[chrisdb]

How about marjoram/oregano?
My old "friend" Gertrud Franck used spinach as ground cover, then cut it down as a mulch.
This year, I'm going to underplant my fruit trees with squashes. Not a permanent solution, I know, but might work as a temporary thing.

I can vouch for oregano being surprisingly shade tolerant. It will grow as a groundcover under shrubs up against a north-west wall, although it probably couldn't cope with really deep shade.

[FB.]

My parents-in-law have some middle-aged fruit trees in their garden.

At times they have grown vegetables under them, but the soil disturbance eventually caused root suckers to sprout up.

When the substantial root suckers were removed from one of the trees, the tree then developed crown/root rot (probable Phytopthora) on that same side, with the rot probably starting where the sucker was severed, then spreading up the main root to the base of the trunk, then rapidly progressing up that side of the trunk.

The tree now looks only a year or two away from death.

[chrisdb]

When the substantial root suckers were removed from one of the trees, the tree then developed crown/root rot (probable Phytopthora) on that same side, with the rot probably starting where the sucker was severed, then spreading up the main root to the base of the trunk, then rapidly progressing up that side of the trunk.

The tree now looks only a year or two away from death.

But most of the suggestions here are for perennial plants, so there'd be little year on year disturbance. I agree personally that digging over soil for annual veg under a tree doesn't seem like a great idea,

When I plant under trees it's usually very small seed grown plants and I often do it after mulching around the tree with compost and manure to minimise root and existing soil disturbance.

[Jay-ell]

My parents-in-law have some middle-aged fruit trees in their garden.

At times they have grown vegetables under them, but the soil disturbance eventually caused root suckers to sprout up.

When the substantial root suckers were removed from one of the trees, the tree then developed crown/root rot (probable Phytopthora) on that same side, with the rot probably starting where the sucker was severed, then spreading up the main root to the base of the trunk, then rapidly progressing up that side of the trunk.

The tree now looks only a year or two away from death.

The idea is for more a permanent planting rather than annual veg so that I won't ne digging around disturbing the roots all the time. I reckon some kind of permanent ground cover would be better than constant hoeing and weeding. the squashes this year would help keep all the weeds down but not need too much disturbance to clear.

As Chris said, using plants and mulch and letting them throw their own roots down deeper rather than digging up loads of holes would be the best.

[ESBkevin]

I use lots of rotted woodchip on top of cardboard in the immediate vicinity of the trees (espalier row) to a width of about 2ft total. That should allow decent surface roots for the frees. On one side there is/will be a small decking area on hort. fabric so the trees can root undisturbed, to the other side a dug bed will be continuosly disturbed and planted.
There will be little canopy because of the wired row so I think I whould be OK. To the OP I wonder if grow bags or similar might provide cropping under a small canopy without impeeding the trees growth?

[Snoop Puss]

Rather than going for just one type of plant, perhaps you could combine some of your ideas to have an ongoing flush of flowers of different varieties over a longer period. And add in some edible meadow-type flowers for yourself too. Cowslips, borage, violas and others all make a pretty display.

[Jay-ell]

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Rather than going for just one type of plant, perhaps you could combine some of your ideas to have an ongoing flush of flowers of different varieties over a longer period. And add in some edible meadow-type flowers for yourself too. Cowslips, borage, violas and others all make a pretty display.

I was leaning towards a mix of spring bulbs but I like the idea of mixing it with the violas and cowslips. Mix it in with some oregano / marjoram, chives, penny royal etc.

The section also has other fruit bushes in and is going to be a perennial section.

Looks like I am going to have flowers on the lottie after all.