Guidelines for fruit trees on plots - help please

[Snadger]

So Snadger, when the Council/owner needs the land to build houses on you will have several trees to stand on but no legs!

Or if the council/owner wants an allotment for a family member they will know where to go.

It is one thing to press for permission it is another to ignore the social niceties of the community.

Bill

Sorry Bill, I'm not with you?

[sparrow100]

C'mon.........are the committe going to employ fruit tree Mafia now to check whether trees are on dwarfing rootstock. I think not.
It goes against the ethos of allotments (originally set up for the poor man to feed his family) not allowing him to plant cheap Aldi bare root specials. Mine are all Aldi specials, cheaply bought, non dwarfing rootstock,four foot high and fairly prolific after 5 years.

We have an allotment rule book as thick as a telephone directory which probably doesn't allow it, but what the heck, rules are made to be broken.

Spoken like a true allotment Secretary who wants an easy life and allows plotholders to use a bit of common sense!

Thanks Snadger that's really constructive.

We're not police, we're not mafia, we're a committee of volunteers looking into an issue that is increasingly becoming a problem with our members on a site with small plots. We have relatively few rules. Hence asking how it is managed in other places before we all discuss options with those members.

Please folks, don't blow it all out of proportion. I'm a peaceable Sparrow, not a warmonger.

[johnjohn]

C'mon.........are the committe going to employ fruit tree Mafia now to check whether trees are on dwarfing rootstock. I think not.

It's not the committee in our case it's the Parish Council and until recently they were very.......relaxed.
Reasonably recently there has been a change which in many respects has been good and of which I am in full support but it has introduced some more vigorous enforcement of the tenancy agreement. I believe that they would remove them if they were thought to be too large.

The "dwarfing rootstock"rule would be impossible to enforce and easily broken either deliberately or accidentally. I would have a height restriction and a "pots only" rule: you can get enormous pots from a well-known auction site, more than adequate if the rootstock is genuinely dwarfing. If I had an allotment I would want my own trees in pots anyway in case I thought I might want to move on, or the site might be sold for development.

A rule like this could be broken either deliberately or accidentally as suggested but as I stated, I think it could be easy to enforce. Allotments are managed in many different ways throughout the country and whilst some are more flexible others are clearly less so. We may not like it but it is the case.

Growing fruit trees in pots whether on dwarfing stock or not for me would be difficult at the plot. Left in the ground they can on the whole muddle along with little intervention. Introduce a pot into the equation and their productivity due to my lifestyle would diminish.

[Guest]

Just an aside you can bury pots and it will help on the watering side

[Snadger]

I've deleted my earlier post as it seemed to cause offence.

[Cadalot]

I have grown half of my trees in pots to restrict the root growth and the other half against the wall have slabs under to hinder the tap root just as they did in the Victorian Kitchen Garden when they planted trees against the Kitchen Garden Walls

[bario1]

Our site rules have a fairly oblique approach:

Trees: No trees other than fruit trees shall be cultivated or allowed to grow on the plot. If requested by the Council, the plotholder must agree to the removal of any trees over 7.5cm diameter at breast height.

[devonuk]

The reason trees planted in the open ground muddle along successfully is because they spread their roots far and wide to find water and nutrients, and that is part of your problem (and your neighbour's problem if the tree is on a boundary). I still think a pots and dwarfing rootstocks policy is the way to go. I don't see how you police for rootstocks - who can actually tell an apple whip on m27 from one on mm106, except by planting it and seeing how it looks after 10 years?