Buy Fruit Trees Online - Fruit Trees and Fruit Hedging

Fruit Trees and Fruit Hedges

Buy fruit trees online and you will discover that it is most definitely a lot easier than visiting the nursery and purchasing your fruit trees there. For one, if you buy fruit trees online rather than at the nursery or garden centre, you don't have to worry about whether or not you have a vehicle large enough to transport the fruit trees back home, and secondly those fruit trees would most probably mess up your vehicle too, thirdly you are likely to damage the fruit trees somewhat and lastly - having your fruit trees delivered is just so much easier generally.

A nice combination for a fruit hedge is gooseberry, redcurrants and white currants. As these all fruit on both old and new wood, the cutting and trimming with shears is the same as spurring back with secateurs. The fact that the clipping is done when the bushes are in leaf does not seem to have any detrimental effect. Currant hedges by themselves are without solidity and tend to be springy and they also have a tendency to die back in the centre.

Gooseberry

The best varieties of gooseberries for hedges are the vigorous erect growers, the quality of the fruit being a secondary consideration because, no matter how large the berries should be, they will always be on the small side when grown in this way. I find that the old variety Lion with the small juicy golden berries makes an excellent hedge as it is full of thorns, and stands any amount of hard cutting. These hedges also stand up to mildew which sometimes attacks them but the hedge can be drenched with spray and it is no worse than the powdery mildew which appears on thorn hedges.

To make up a gooseberry hedge from your own material strike cuttings without disbudding (this would normally be done to produce a bush on a leg) and plant these in a double row, 12 in apart at an angle of 45 degrees. When established, cut them back by about a third and, as the hedge takes shape, clip it two or three times a year as you would any other. The hedge will benefit particularly in its early stages by a dressing of sulphate of potash, 2 oz to the running yard, on each side.

If you want something neat and narrow to take up the minimum amount of room then train gooseberries espalier fashion either in a single or a double row. Put in the rooted cuttings which have had the lower buds removed to produce a leg in the same way as you would for forming a bush. In case this technique is new, let me explain. Select a young growth about 9 to l2in long for your cutting. Take about 3 in off the top, shortening back to a bud. If a heeled cutting has been taken, trim this or trim back to a bud. Remove all the lower buds leaving about four or five at the top. Insert the cuttings in open ground until they have rooted, then plant out 4 ft apart, securing each one to a cane about 4 ft high. Train horizontal branches along wires or canes; these will become the foundation of your espalier frame.

This cannot, of course, be done all in one season and it may take several years to get a four or a five-tiered espalier. The horizontal branches can be from 4 to 8 in apart and you will be lucky indeed if they are all regular, but by training and perseverance a neat framework can be built up. These branches can then be treated much in the same way as a cordon. That is spurring back during dormancy and regulating new growth in the summer with finger and thumb. It sounds like a lengthy job but, in fact, is far less trouble than taking the side shoots out of tomatoes. The advantage of such a hedge when established is that it is virtually child and dog proof and only occupies about 6 in in width even when it is fully grown. I can assure you that such trained trees produce the heaviest crops and, if thinned out, the best—of—all exhibition berries.

Myrobalan plum

This is one of the best of the fruit hedges. If left to produce a tree this will grow to 15 to 20 ft high and about 12 ft across, carrying crops of the most luscious round pinky-white fruits about 1-1/2 in. in diameter. Unfortunately these are seldom seen nowadays; I don’t know why, because they are a wonderful dessert fruit, make beautiful preserves and cook equally well. However, when trimmed and cut hard back as a hedge, although they flower I have never seen them set any fruit. I have made several long hedges from this material round a fruit field. Every 10 yds or so I allowed one to grow up as a fruiting tree which in spring looked really beautiful and later produced good crops of fruit. If this is new to you, the name is Primus cerasifera and it is often listed in the catalogue as myrobella.

Cane Fruit

Loganberry, gooseberry and blackberry hedges are common place and require little comment. In cold windy districts, however, I have found that the best way is not to trim out all the old wood each year, but use this as a foundation on which to tie the new growths. In time the older growths will die, but I have no objection to this as the outer part of the hedge is always covered with new growths. These must be tied in horizontally and thinned somewhat.