Fruit Trees at Lidl

[merry]

Hi All

As of from 23rd of Oct Lidl have a range of fruit trees on sale for £3.99.

Had a lot of fruit off mine that I bought 2 years ago.

Good Luck

Merry

[lynda66]

thinks i'd better find somewhere to plant some don't you need 2 trees for some of them to fruit??

[merry]

I think if there is an apple tree near by this should be ok. Also same with pear. I only have 2 apple trees and all other fruit only 1 had no problems this year other fruit trees in near by allotments.

[lynda66]

my neighbour has a manky apple tree that gets about 3 fruit a year on it, but i've had a good nosey round all the gardens up our street, and none of them seem to have any fruit trees, so i guess i'd better get 2 of each just to be sure?

[Alison]

Had a look at the site and it's not the best selection of varieties. If you just bought what was there you woulnd't get a crop as the pollination periods etc don't match up and some are self sterile but they are cheap and you could always fill the gap with some other more expensive trees.

[lynda66]

so 2 of each wouldn't work then??

[skegblade]

They usually have two varieties of apple and pear, both of which pollinate each other; at least the ones in our lidl last year did. The plum and cherry trees are both self fertile.

Phil

[lynda66]

oh cool, thanks, i'll have a root round the site

[Snadger]

I bought a Sunset apple there two years ago which is self fertile. I had a dozen apples on it the first year and about 2 dozen this year. The tree is in a large pot, without any support and is only about 5 foot high now!
The apples are very similar to Cox's and taste delicious. Highly reccomended!

A lot of apples are triploid btw, these require THREE pollinators!

Best way is to check out what there is (sometimes it tells you the pollinators on the packaging!) or do a search on google and only buy appropriate varieties!

[Alison]

The apples they are selling are as follows:

Bramley - pollination group B, triploid
Jonagold - pollination group D, self sterile triploid (although sometimes listed as group C)
Coxs Orange Pippin - pollination group C, self sterile and apparently very difficult to grow in the UK

so basically you'll definitely need to get more trees if you want any fruit off this lot.

[pigletwillie]

I suspect that some are also incorrectly labelled. I have around 25 of the trees on my 4 plots, some espalliered, some cordoned and some as orchard trees. They have all fruited but some are not quite what they were supposed to be.

All in all, I will be buying another half dozen apples and pears as well as a plum and 2 cheries. They are very good value for money and have paid me back in spades over the last few years.

[Snadger]

I suspect that some are also incorrectly labelled. I have around 25 of the trees on my 4 plots, some espalliered, some cordoned and some as orchard trees. They have all fruited but some are not quite what they were supposed to be.
.

I suspect your right piglet!

I have what was labeled as a Bramley apple which is really sweet and RED in colour!

Don't mind though because I quite like the taste of the apple...........just no idea what the heck it is!

[Alison]

I suspect that some are also incorrectly labelled. I have around 25 of the trees on my 4 plots, some espalliered, some cordoned and some as orchard trees. They have all fruited but some are not quite what they were supposed to be.

All in all, I will be buying another half dozen apples and pears as well as a plum and 2 cheries. They are very good value for money and have paid me back in spades over the last few years.

It's OK for you Piglet as whatever variety they are, there is a good chance you will have a polinator amongst the 25 you already have. However, there's very few trees on my site and I think one of the reasons the next door plot holder is disallusioned with her crop is as she has the wrong mix so I think it's important the people realise that they might not be getting as much of a bargain as they thought.

[pigletwillie]

I agree Alison but whether the tree is a £3.99 aldi jobbie or a £30 special, unless you get pollinators nearby you get no fruit.

The trees are excellent value, just check the pollination group before you buy.

[Alison]

I'm not sure if I will buy any this time as that bit of the plot isn't ready yet but my main concern would be that I'd buy them and sort out relevant pollinator(s) and then find that they weren't the varieties I wanted and therefore had wasted my money buying the wrong pollinator (which probably wouldn't be a cheepo special). Haven't got the room for many trees and am not very good at getting rid of anything that's alive - not it's fault it was labelled up wrongly!!!!!! Am even worse with seedlings - always feel that if they've made the effort to germinate then I should give them a chance!