Last winter I planted a new pear and a new apple in the north east and north west corners of my garden. The north east corner is at the intersection of a hawthorn and leylandii hedge, and the northwest corner is where the same hawthorn hedge meets with a small forest of sumachs that the neighbours have let cover at least half their garden.
Given the competition from surrounding plants I decided to err on the side of vigour, maybe too much, and got a Cockle Pippin on M25 and a Beurre Sterckmans on Pyrodwarf. But so far I've had very different results - the Cockle Pippin has shrugged off transplantation and competition from the leylandii and grown from 1.3 to 2.4m in its first year, almost entirely straight up, whereas the Beurre Sterckmans hasn't really grown at all (there's literally 2 or 3 cm of new growth).
I picked the two of them since they're supposed to have an upright habit and be late fruiting, and I wanted them to clear the top of the hedges before branching out too much. Cockle Pippin is also supposed to be relatively low vigour. See below for descriptions from Joan Morgan's excellent books:
The New Trees Are In! | Have Some Pi
But neither is a common variety anymore, so it's hard to confirm that. I think the only other person I know has grown Cockle Pippin is FB, as mentioned in this excellent thread:
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ays_24437.html
Since that thread is now closed and I can't ask the question there, can FB or anyone else with experience of these rootstocks and varieties tell me:
1. I've read that pears on Pyrodwarf often don't do much in their first year. Has anyone else found this?
2. Does Cockle Pippin keep an upright habit as it matures? In its second year (planted as a 1 year maiden) mine has shown little interest in branching, which I encouraged by not pruning the leader, and the only branch it has grown is also very strongly vertical. This could partly be due to shading from the east, although there is no shade to the south and west.
If m25 can shrug off growing between two mature hedges I don't mind it hitting 5 or 6m tall, but I'm more concerned with the spread and particularly the spread in the first 2 - 3m. To be honest I was expecting being in the rootzone of a lot of other trees to reduce its vigour at least slightly compared to the usual m25 size.
Given the competition from surrounding plants I decided to err on the side of vigour, maybe too much, and got a Cockle Pippin on M25 and a Beurre Sterckmans on Pyrodwarf. But so far I've had very different results - the Cockle Pippin has shrugged off transplantation and competition from the leylandii and grown from 1.3 to 2.4m in its first year, almost entirely straight up, whereas the Beurre Sterckmans hasn't really grown at all (there's literally 2 or 3 cm of new growth).
I picked the two of them since they're supposed to have an upright habit and be late fruiting, and I wanted them to clear the top of the hedges before branching out too much. Cockle Pippin is also supposed to be relatively low vigour. See below for descriptions from Joan Morgan's excellent books:
The New Trees Are In! | Have Some Pi
But neither is a common variety anymore, so it's hard to confirm that. I think the only other person I know has grown Cockle Pippin is FB, as mentioned in this excellent thread:
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ays_24437.html
Since that thread is now closed and I can't ask the question there, can FB or anyone else with experience of these rootstocks and varieties tell me:
1. I've read that pears on Pyrodwarf often don't do much in their first year. Has anyone else found this?
2. Does Cockle Pippin keep an upright habit as it matures? In its second year (planted as a 1 year maiden) mine has shown little interest in branching, which I encouraged by not pruning the leader, and the only branch it has grown is also very strongly vertical. This could partly be due to shading from the east, although there is no shade to the south and west.
If m25 can shrug off growing between two mature hedges I don't mind it hitting 5 or 6m tall, but I'm more concerned with the spread and particularly the spread in the first 2 - 3m. To be honest I was expecting being in the rootzone of a lot of other trees to reduce its vigour at least slightly compared to the usual m25 size.
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