BACK TO BASICS: TREE FRUIT

In the second of his two-part series David Patch advises on choosing a new tree, its shape and size and the significance of rootstocks

- David Patch

Welcome back to my two-part beginner's guide to growing fruit trees. Last month we looked at how to choose the right fruit for you, and also had a look at pollination groups. This month we delve a little deeper into the knowledge you need to choose your new trees by looking at rootstocks and then a quick overview of the shapes and sizes of trees you can buy.

Almost no top fruit will come true from seed. Plant five pips from your supermarket ‘Braeburn’ apple and you will produce five new, genetically unique trees. Depending on the pollen that pollinated that particular tree, you may end with one or two quite similar, but you may also produce a crab apple, or a tree prone to pest and disease.

It’s a biological lottery, but what is certain is that they will not be ‘Braeburn’.

This goes a long way to explaining why there are around 6000 named varieties of apple known in the UK. Luckily, the Romans – in between building straight roads and aqueducts – worked out that you could physically attach either a bud or a piece of new growth from the tree you wanted to reproduce to a rootstock, and you would end up with an identical clone.

Originally, they would have used seedling trees for the rootstocks, but there has been a lot of breeding done in the past 100 years which has produced a range of stocks that can control growth and improve disease resistance.

Selecting the right one for the size and shape of tree you want is crucial to long-term success.

POINTS TO CONSIDER

Before I list the various rootstocks commonly used, there are three general points that it is worth bearing in mind: