Planting apple and pear trees

rodge123

Was planning to plant a few apple and pear trees this winter and some raspberry / strawberry / veggies in spring.

Dont have a clue about gardening currently so have a little learning and research to do.

Came across this thread and Kidds Orange Red apple seems to be mentioned by a few people...came across few other threads where it's mentioned.
It can be bought here.

Unfortunately they dont have pink lady (Cripps Pink) which is listed here as a matching pollinator with Kidds Orange Red.

Anyone know where I could get a Red Lady of the apple tree kind?!
Any other tips or advice on similar to Red Ladies?

These Yellow Ingestrie apple trees and these Rosette Apple trees look interesting too and are matching pollinators with above.

Ideally looking to have maybe 3 eating apple trees and 1 cooking with the 3 eating ones producing apples at different times so I dont have a pile of them at once (Would be nice if they kept for a while too).
Bonus if tress look nice too.

Havent looked into pear trees yet.

Site is 1/2 acre and south facing.

Thanks

Lumen

I found fruitandnut.ie great. I've a load of mad stuff coming from them in March.

Consider pollination requirements and timing of crops.

tipping

Did something similar recently, planted Discovery, Katy, Brambley Apples trees and a pear and plum tree.

Got them from Future Forests who were great to deal with.

English's Fruit Nursery are also sound and give good advice. I'll be ordering soft fruit plants from them in the spring.

ShiverinEskimo

Just be aware that much of the fruit will be inedible well before its ripe due to birds and bugs unless you're going to be bothered to go down the pesticide/insecticide route for the sake of some apples/pears.

When the tree gets quite big and produces a fair amount you'll get a decent haul that escaped but a young tree's meagre output of fruit will be compromised almost entirely.

cruizer101

We've a small plum tree out the back garden and I'd say 80-90% of the fruit is grand no pesticides or that

ShiverinEskimo

You're lucky so. Small apple tree meself and I'd say if I got three apples off it this year I was doing well. Birds and bugs ruined the rest. It's fairly exposed mind you.

macraignil

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

You're lucky so. Small apple tree meself and I'd say if I got three apples off it this year I was doing well. Birds and bugs ruined the rest. It's fairly exposed mind you.

Cross pollination with another apple tree will often give a better yield. So part of your problem might be just having one tree. Have about eight trees and this year the four Gala variety gave a very good yield with no real problem from disease and only a small number pecked at by birds. The Bramley variety also gave a reasonable yield and these seem to be the only ones to last any time in storage.

I have found my Braeburn and golden delicious trees tend to have some problem from disease with spots and small size in the fruit but I'm hoping this will improve with time. Not using any pesticides and still getting a nice crop. The crop definitely can improve as the trees mature and become more established and if you could plant some sort of wind break you could get an improved crop. I've read of some people growing crab apple just to help pollinate the eating variety apples but finding the one I planted is taking some time to start flowering.

Sgt Pepper 64

rodge123 wrote: »

Was planning to plant a few apple and pear trees this winter and some raspberry / strawberry / veggies in spring.

Dont have a clue about gardening currently so have a little learning and research to do.

Came across this thread and Kidds Orange Red apple seems to be mentioned by a few people...came across few other threads where it's mentioned.
It can be bought here.

Unfortunately they dont have pink lady (Cripps Pink) which is listed here as a matching pollinator with Kidds Orange Red.

Anyone know where I could get a Red Lady of the apple tree kind?!
Any other tips or advice on similar to Red Ladies?

These Yellow Ingestrie apple trees and these Rosette Apple trees look interesting too and are matching pollinators with above.

Ideally looking to have maybe 3 eating apple trees and 1 cooking with the 3 eating ones producing apples at different times so I dont have a pile of them at once (Would be nice if they kept for a while too).
Bonus if tress look nice too.

Havent looked into pear trees yet.

Site is 1/2 acre and south facing.

Thanks

I recommend Katy, great reliable cropper and doesnt get too big. Most apples ready around late sept\oct. Self fertile and nice looking tree

http://www.englishsfruitnursery.ie/old-traditional-apple-trees-for-sale/?/100/Katy

Cox’s Red Pippin also lovely taste and good cropper

pears, again really recommend them, we get so many, we have to store them in jars. They dont ripen on the tree, you have to pick them.
Doyenne du Comice, again heavy cropper, lovely taste, needs a fertile partner so I put a conference pear in a pot as have a small garden
http://www.englishsfruitnursery.ie/pear-trees-for-sale-ireland/?/122/DoyenneduComice

you can also grow climbers up these trees (we have clematis)


if you can wait 3/4 years, then Aldi always do cheap fruit trees for around €6-8 euro

I also recommend growing a cooker, bramleys, gets fairly big but very attractive and stores well, heavy cropper

if you plant 3 or 4 fruit trees, you are sorted for polination
They are very easy to maintain, just water at first and some pruning and give you years of pleasure and lovely fruit

try a plum tree and raspberrys also, again very easy

enjoy!

dxhound2005

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

Just be aware that much of the fruit will be inedible well before its ripe due to birds and bugs unless you're going to be bothered to go down the pesticide/insecticide route for the sake of some apples/pears.

When the tree gets quite big and produces a fair amount you'll get a decent haul that escaped but a young tree's meagre output of fruit will be compromised almost entirely.

I got two apple trees a few years back, Katy and Beauty of Bath. I really wanted the Beauty of Bath for nostalgic reasons. The birds go mad for the Beauty of Bath but they leave the Katy alone. Which is good because Katy is a superb apple.

My garden is totally organic, and I just use netting to protect the vegetables whenever possible. Just as an aside the netting from garden centres traps the birds and it was a full time job extracting them and letting them go free. I now use the netting used by farmers to wrap big bales before the black plastic goes on. It is very soft and stretchable and does not trap the birds. After the bales are used farmers just throw it away.

Samuel T. Cogley

Sorry to hijack this thread but I am also looking to plant some fruit trees. Ideally three but could stretch it to five if they were small enough. Even at three they're going to need to be pretty small. I was hoping for apple and plum + pear if I had room. Would any one have any suggestions on what to buy and where to buy it from.

Thanks in advance!

smacl

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

You're lucky so. Small apple tree meself and I'd say if I got three apples off it this year I was doing well. Birds and bugs ruined the rest. It's fairly exposed mind you.

I've a couple of apple trees, three pear trees, two plum and one fig tree. I got more fruit than you could eat and about 25 litres of apple cider this year. Never use pesticides but do regularly get larvae in the apples from the larger tree. The same tree also gets woolly aphids most years that I clean off with a sponge and mild detergent.

To the OP, if you have a small enough garden as I do, regardless of type and species of fruit, make sure you're on a dwarf stock. I'd love to have a few more trees, particularly a bramley and a crab, but also no more room.

Samuel T. Cogley

Yer man at Fruitandnut.ie was delighted he was getting recommendations on boards. Based on Lumen's recommendation I've ordered 3 x apple and 2 stella cherry trees off them. Here's hoping I don't kill them all the first year.

Lumen

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Yer man at Fruitandnut.ie was delighted he was getting recommendations on boards. Based on Lumen's recommendation I've ordered 3 x apple and 2 stella cherry trees off them. Here's hoping I don't kill them all the first year.

Ha! I guess that's payback for the ages he spent responding to my e-mails and changing orders in response to my ignorant dithering. :pac:

The months of waiting is killing me. I woke up one night worrying about where I'm going to put them all. I thought I had the spacing all sorted then I remembered the six stone pines. WHAT ABOUT THE PESTO SAUCE!?!?

But the dumbest idea was definitely the Medlar. The Romans proved it was useless in Brittania, let alone Hibernia.

RebelButtMunch

Lumen wrote: »

Ha! I guess that's payback for the ages he spent responding to my e-mails and changing orders in response to my ignorant dithering. :pac:

The months of waiting is killing me. I woke up one night worrying about where I'm going to put them all. I thought I had the spacing all sorted then I remembered the six stone pines. WHAT ABOUT THE PESTO SAUCE!?!?

But the dumbest idea was definitely the Medlar. The Romans proved it was useless in Brittania, let alone Hibernia.

Loads of the Medlar in the Marlay park walled garden. I was wondering what they were.

recedite

I have a few trees, but if I could only keep one, it would definitely be "Discovery". Large delicious and heavy crop.

Also bear in mind that if there are other gardens around the area, bees may find pollinator trees there, so its not always a critical issue to worry about.