Lidil bare root apple trees

feelio

Hi guys, seen this advertised & these variety of apple trees go on sale from next thursday for €6.99. Are these good quality fruit trees worth buying? They are 1.2m in height. Do you need to get a malus domestica (granny smith) & say a braeburn apple tree together for cross pollination & do you need to plant approx 6 ft apart?

Feelio

touts

I got a couple about 4 years ago. Two died but two are doing well. There is nothing wrong with them but they are very small scrawny and young. If you are happy to wait many years for a decent sized tree then they cant be beaten for value. But if you want something that will look more established then shop around you will find trees which are signifantly more mature and better looking foraround €25. I find garden centers are happier to offer deals when lidl have a younger version of the same thing coming up in a week.

planetX

problem is they get in varieties which aren't great for Ireland - Granny Smith for example. Apple trees are usually sorted into 3 groups for pollination, depending on how early they flower. Some like Bramleys need 2 pollination partners.
The catalogue at futureforests.net have lots of info on the different pollination groups.

magicbastarder

yep, if you're planning on investing in a tree, why not go to a garden centre (or future forests or irish seed savers) and spend a few more bob, and actually get a tree suited to your conditions and get some advice with it?

Raiser

Hi Folks - I went mad and bough 13 of these - 2 X each available apple variety and some pear trees......

I can't find any info online about how close together they can be/should be planted together? Its quiter a big back garden (maybe .2 acre?) with a line of established pine trees on rear fence.

- Thought it would be nice to have an orchard corner of the garden but if they need more space to grow well without crowdeing and looking ridiculous then I'd be lining them along the wall running down side of House to end of back garden.

Orientation is good @ South to SW facing, They'd have shelter from the existing pine trees and a high wall on N and East sides.

- Fianlly wheres good to buy stakes and those anchoring straps etc. - Need cheap and cheerful!

Would really appreciate any help!

redser7

Sorry don't have any experience but was thinking of getting a couple myself. Does it say on the packaging what root stock they are? It should be 'M' something or other, like 'M26'. Or does it say how high they grow in meters? Cheers

Raiser

redser7 wrote: »

Sorry don't have any experience but was thinking of getting a couple myself. Does it say on the packaging what root stock they are? It should be 'M' something or other, like 'M26'. Or does it say how high they grow in meters? Cheers

Sorry Redser - I had such a crap day - Normally I'd have been able to keep a closer eye on this and reply sooner.....

- Checked tags on each tree in detail, absolutely no root stock code on any of them.

Related to this check was the fact that it was the first time I noticed that these are 'compact fruit trees - suitable for balconies or terraces'



Seems like I spent a good load of cash on the greatest Bonzai Orchard in Western Europe.

- Will be looking forward to brief, low yield harvests of tiny apples from my pigmy trees in about 20 years time.




Anyone know anything about this? Can I feed them angel dust mulch or anything?

muckyhands

Raiser wrote: »

Sorry Redser - I had such a crap day - Normally I'd have been able to keep a closer eye on this and reply sooner.....

- Checked tags on each tree in detail, absolutely no root stock code on any of them.

Related to this check was the fact that it was the first time I noticed that these are 'compact fruit trees - suitable for balconies or terraces'



Seems like I spent a good load of cash on the greatest Bonzai Orchard in Western Europe.

- Will be looking forward to brief, low yield harvests of tiny apples from my pigmy trees in about 20 years time.




Anyone know anything about this? Can I feed them angel dust mulch or anything?

Suggests they're either M27( extremely dwarfing,slow growing, good for pots and about 6foot tall) or M9(very dwarfing, good for small gardens and about 10foot tall)

Either way both need permanent staking, a very good soil, routine feeding, watering and and get first fruit when 2-3 years old.

Good news is you can expect 15-25lb fruit from the former in 4-5 years or 35- 45lb fruit in 5-6 years the latter.

A lower yield but at least you wont end up with a 20foot+ tall tree that will be hard to prune, spray and pick from.:)

What varieties have you got?

johngalway

Raiser wrote: »

Sorry Redser - I had such a crap day - Normally I'd have been able to keep a closer eye on this and reply sooner.....

- Checked tags on each tree in detail, absolutely no root stock code on any of them.

Related to this check was the fact that it was the first time I noticed that these are 'compact fruit trees - suitable for balconies or terraces'



Seems like I spent a good load of cash on the greatest Bonzai Orchard in Western Europe.

- Will be looking forward to brief, low yield harvests of tiny apples from my pigmy trees in about 20 years time.




Anyone know anything about this? Can I feed them angel dust mulch or anything?

You can always bring them back?

redser7

Raiser wrote: »

Sorry Redser - I had such a crap day - Normally I'd have been able to keep a closer eye on this and reply sooner.....

- Checked tags on each tree in detail, absolutely no root stock code on any of them.

Related to this check was the fact that it was the first time I noticed that these are 'compact fruit trees - suitable for balconies or terraces'



Seems like I spent a good load of cash on the greatest Bonzai Orchard in Western Europe.

- Will be looking forward to brief, low yield harvests of tiny apples from my pigmy trees in about 20 years time.




Anyone know anything about this? Can I feed them angel dust mulch or anything?

No worries. Sorry you're disappointed, if you were out my way (Dublin) I'd take some off you. They sound perfect for what I want. Was it just one type of pear?

lottpaul

I bought some Lidl trees (mixed varieties, apple, pear, plum) for my late father-in-law about 7 years ago and they have grown to about 3m for the apples, 5-7m for the pears and plums. Their "spread" is about 4 to 5m. The apples have fruited heavily each year after year 2 - the pears and plums were slower. They have been neglected for a couple of years now but are still fruiting away. They have become straggly and could do with better stakes but look happy enough. They're planted about 1km in from the Wexford coast.
(The granny smith has never produced anything green or crisp but they make good cooking apples.)

Raiser

Bought 13 of these that time - 12 seem to be growing leaves and look fine but one is showing no life at all despite being the strongest looking of all?

- Wondering when is long enough to wait before giving up on it and digging up to replace I bought a bare root cherry tree in Tesco for 6 euro yest - I put it in a plant pot for the moment so no immediate rush!

redser7

Get a sharp knife (or just use you finger nail) and nick the bark just a tiny bit. If it is green underneath it is alive so don't give up on it. If brown, then it's a gonner (but if it's brown try a few other spots before you pass sentence).

Northumbria

Hi guys, seen this advertised & these variety of apple trees go on sale from next thursday for €6.99. Are these good quality fruit trees worth buying? They are 1.2m in height. Do you need to get a malus domestica (granny smith) & say a braeburn apple tree together for cross pollination & do you need to plant approx 6 ft apart?

Feelio

It depends on how many other apple trees are nearby. They say that in the suburbs it isn't always necessary to plant too since there'll be some in other gardens quite often.
For me there's one next door and a crab apple in another garden. If there's a crab apple in the hedge or something, I think they can pollinate domestic apples and allow them to bear fruit, but the seeds are sterile or sometimes absent.

Braeburn is just another Malus domestica (Domestic Apple), there's 2,500 varieties in Britain alone (most largely forgotten, but still).

problem is they get in varieties which aren't great for Ireland - Granny Smith for example.

Agreed, it is a poor choice for most of England let alone Ireland. It'll probably do okay though, but not as good as some other varieties.

The problem is that these bargain bare rooted trees are only common varieties that the shops think people will buy (because they like that type of apple).
Most apple, pear, plum or cherry trees will do fine in a garden though because they're usually more sheltered and have much more attention paid to them than trees in an orchard. If you have a few fences or hedges it should be protected from the wind and try to put it in a sunny spot.
Frost is a problem for the blossom, but Ireland isn't too bad in that regard. Some disease like wet conditions though, so don't put it in a place where water collects.


I bought a cherry tree from Poundstretcher (in UK) last year for about £6 and it's done fairly well. It came into leaf and gradually grew a bit and now that it's winter it has lots of buds all over it. I'm expecting that it'll put on a lot of growth this year.
I've also bought an apple and pear tree a few weeks ago from Aldi in the UK, £4 each. There's plenty of apple trees around so I have bought two and the pear is partly self-fertile.

The apple is "Elstar", its similar to Cox's but bigger and looks a bit different (it also has Cox's in its ancestry). I would have actually got Cox's, but they don't do as well outside of Southern England (where they come from) and are prone to disease. Sadly I latter found out that Elstar isn't much better for diseases, but the crops are big and I'll try to keep diseases away.

The pear is "Conference", a English variety with decent fruit and a good choice for Scotland and Northern England apparently (so probably Ireland and Wales as well).

yep, if you're planning on investing in a tree, why not go to a garden centre (or future forests or irish seed savers) and spend a few more bob, and actually get a tree suited to your conditions and get some advice with it?

The garden centres around here wanted £35 for a 5 year old tree. I'd rather wait five years than pay that.
If seed savers are actually offering you seed then don't bother, because apples evolve very fast into new varieties almost every time they're grown from seed, this is why they're grafted (cloned) and grafting is why some common varieties are subject to diseases more than others.
Most apple trees grown from seed give rubbish or mediocre fruit or sometimes something not much better than crab apples - it's hit and miss, with occasionally a good new variety formed. There's a lot of varieties that grew from a apple core someone's threw away.

Northumbria

Raiser wrote: »

Hi Folks - I went mad and bough 13 of these - 2 X each available apple variety and some pear trees......

Wow, I'd be pretty annoyed about you if I was the next person to approach the fruit tree display only to find you'd bought all the good ones.

I did think that myself actually, I thought how easy it would be to buy 50 and establish an orchard. I'll admit, I was tempted and have the space, but I don't think the rest of the family would be impressed with me taking up all the garden.

I can't find any info online about how close together they can be/should be planted together? Its quiter a big back garden (maybe .2 acre?) with a line of established pine trees on rear fence.

Yes, that's big enough. Go to the library (or Amazon) and get the book "Fruit expert" by Dr. D.G. Hessayon. It's got a huge section about apples and planting and caring for them. Some of what he writes is a bit pessimistic though, so don't let it put you off.

- Thought it would be nice to have an orchard corner of the garden but if they need more space to grow well without crowdeing and looking ridiculous then I'd be lining them along the wall running down side of House to end of back garden.

Sounds like a nice idea. Most of those bare root bargains from shops will grow to about 10 foot maximum though, so the space in the bottom of the garden should be enough.

- Fianlly wheres good to buy stakes and those anchoring straps etc. - Need cheap and cheerful!

Any garden centre or farm suppliers.

Sorry don't have any experience but was thinking of getting a couple myself. Does it say on the packaging what root stock they are? It should be 'M' something or other, like 'M26'. Or does it say how high they grow in meters? Cheers

Not any I have bought, but they give information on what size they should achieve. From that you can mostly guess what root stock they'll be.
I don't think shops will be selling trees and very vigorous rootstocks for use in suburban gardens anyway.

Suggests they're either M27( extremely dwarfing,slow growing, good for pots and about 6foot tall) or M9(very dwarfing, good for small gardens and about 10foot tall)

There's an M27 tree next door. They're a very small tree, more like a bush and grow about chest height. The one next door had 40 apples on last year though, not bad for such a tiny plant!
The one I have bought is M9 probably. M9 is good enough for most people, M27 if you have a postage stamp of a garden.

Any tree can be dwarfed if it is managed and cut back every year though, but it won't give out as much fruit as just getting a tree on a dwarfing rootstock.

- Wondering when is long enough to wait before giving up on it and digging up to replace I bought a bare root cherry tree in Tesco for 6 euro yest - I put it in a plant pot for the moment so no immediate rush!

The cherry tree should be fine in the pot so long as it is looked after. It'll most likely do better in the ground though.
If that apple tree doesn't seem to be growing I'd give it a while. If you planted it recently then it just may be slow to come out. My fruit trees have buds on at the moment, and the apple looks set to come into leaf soon.

You could put a bit of fertiliser around it to see if it encourages it. Really, bare root fruit trees should be in the ground by mid march, so give it another week or two before changing it for the cherry.

I'd put the apple tree in the pot instead, you never know, it might surprise you. Apples, pears, plums and cherries can be grown in pots.




Fruit trees in general are very "hungry", so they need feeding - a good mulch or compost is good or fertiliser from a shop.

Nitrogen - makes the plant grow, good for leaves and branches. Probably a good idea to provide a lot in the first few years before fruiting takes place.

Potassium - important for forming fruit. Tomato feed is good stuff.

They also need other nutrients, but most liquid fertilisers contain a mixture of these anyway. Mulch, compost and manure do as well.

amber2

Thinking of planting a few Fruit Trees and found this offer i know they are a little more expensive than the Lidl of Aldi ones but are delivered at 5 feet tall. Roughly how tall are the Lidl ones anyone know? Also any info. appreciated on the fact that they are self Pollinating v's Cross Pollination should the self Pollinating still produce quite a bit of fruit, or would it be best to buy two of each tree to cross pollinate anyway.

Anyone bought from GardeningExpress before and if so how did they find them. Thanks.

http://www.groupon.ie/deals/national-deals/gardeningexpress/4213298