Solitary chicken - need advice

[Purplemaniacs]

I have gained some bare rooted fruit trees, apparently they are 2 years old and should fruit next year.

 

The questions is what do I do with them now?

 

They vary between 3 and 5 foot, can I plant one in a large pot, is it worth giving it a try, it is a cherry.

 

The peach and the apricot I wondered if they would do well by the house, the neighbor used to have a peach that did well by the front of her house.

 

Will they need stalking when they are in the ground.

 

Thanks

 

Chrissie

[Valkyrie]

It might be an idea to use a stake to train the trees against the house. If it worked for someone else in the same situation as you then no reason why not to put them there. Does your neighbour protect the peach tree as they need some protection usually. I think they get some disease too but can't really remember off-hand. The cherry in a tub may work for a while but not sure if they will live happily for a long time - but then you can with apples so why not! My rule of thumb was if they don't look happy by year 2 then move them if possible to another area which they may prefer. We dug up all our apples when we left the allotment and now have them dotted in groups around the garden - some died and others have gone berserk. I always remember Geoff Hamilton planting things and admitting he got it wrong sometimes - so if the experts can't get it right then I think we are allowed a bit of leeway! Hope you have great success with the yummies later this year!

[sjp]

the peach needs to be on a south facing wall ideally as they need the extra warmth and you'll need to hand pollinate as the flower very early they will need protection from rain as they suffer from peach leaf curl which is a fungus that is triggered by rain the only control for it was a copper based fungicide now band for domestic use it may or may not do well in a pot but that is dependant on the rootstock but if the tree if 3-5ft tall then I don't think it's on the dwarfing root stock. the Apricot will need to go in the ground as they don't like to be confined they don't suffer from leaf curl, and may need a pollinator the depends on the variety

the cherry again might not do any good in a pot unless it's on a dwarfing rootstock and will almost certainly need a pollinator

they will need stacking for at least 2 years but if you grow them against a wall then you're best training them

the cherry might fruit next year but it might not in all honesty ripen the fruit I've found over the years that they take 4 years to fruit and ripen them

Apricots normally take at least 5 years before they flower and at least another before they set fruit mines at least tens years old and I still haven't had one ripen yet it never even set fruit last year as it flowers early in the spring

[Purplemaniacs]

Thank you both for your replies, this sounds as tricky as keeping chickens.

 

Lots to consider.

 

Chrissie

[sjp]

the cherry is the easiest of the 3 to grow, the peach if you get it to fruit is the most rewarding the Apricot is just slow to fruit but in my case I might be pruning it wrong

[BlueSilver]

I will be a voice of dissent: all of my trees are in pots as I've moved a lot over the past five years and didn't want to leave any more of my plants behind, so now I take them where I wish to go. Whether you have dwarfing rootstock or not isn't a concern if you put them in pots - trees will only get as big as their roots allow, and won't grow further than that, so it's a good way to control growth and spread, and keep your trees down to a manageable level. However growing in pots means trees need more care and watering, they can dry out a lot faster and will need a top up of fertiliser and mulching; fish, blood and bone meal is what I use every spring, along with a layer of compost as a topdress. I plant garlic in the pots along with the trees to both get garlic crops later in the year and also to keep bugs off the plants.

 

Now, as far as individual trees grows: well, depending on what kind of cherry you have it may be self-fertile; I've had my tree in a pot for about five years now and it's given me some lovely fruits the past two years, provided I net them to keep the birds off. Being a self-fertile variety I only have the one tree and it's fine. What you need to watch out for with cherries is boring insects - if a cherry tree gets an infection, it will kill the tree. Hence why you want to prune it after summer fruiting and NOT in the winter, and not pick off any of the weeping sap you may see on the tree; it's scabbing over from a pest invasion. There are some treatments you can use for this kind of thing to seal up what you prune and also to treat the pests, but I find these aren't a problem till after fruiting, so I just prune the wood which has the beasties in, thankfully I've never had an infestation big enough to warrant anything worse.

 

Peaches are actually rather hardy things, and depending on variety and the amount of sun they get, should be fine. Apricots do indeed grow in pots (I had one for ages, but I'm honestly just not a fan of apricots). So you don't have to worry too much about them opening too quickly and getting killed by frost, I'd actually suggest you put them in an east-facing position, so the sun is a bit higher in the sky before it hits the trees. If the buds open too soon, there won't be any pollinators out to give the flowers a seeing to, so it's best to wait a bit on that.

 

If you just got the wee trees I wouldn't even worry about pruning this year as they're very young. Best for them just to get them into the ground and enjoy them, get them sorted in a garden space and see how they do, working as you go.

 

Good luck!