Dwarf fruit trees

dpatel2130

Advice and guidance please. I always wanted to buy dwarf fruit trees in my garden . I recently saw advert of 2 apples, pear, plum and cherry . Five plants for £50. I think it was J. Parker advert. Is it good buy ? Have any one bought and what's your experience? Thank you in advance for your valuable opinion and advice.

KeenOnGreen

We have bought fruit trees online before.  Overall we were disappointed, as the trees were much smaller than we would have hoped for, and it will take years for them to fruit.  

If at all possible, I would always buy trees (fruit or otherwise) in person.  If you are happy to wait years for fruit, then that price is fine, but if you want more substantial trees that will fruit sooner, spending closer to £20 per tree may be wiser.

Find a local nursery that specialises in fruit trees.  This is often the time of year when they discount stock that they have not yet sold.

BobTheGardener

If it helps, pears can be difficult (rust, cold winds) and take several years to fruit.  If you have any pigeons about, the cherries will need netting (which can be tricky as they have a naturally untidy growth habit) or you won't harvest any for yourself, as pigeons eat them before they are ripe.  Apple trees usually fruit fine and relatively quickly.

I honestly think you should think about which fruit you really like (ie what is your favourite variety of apple and plum) and grow those, rather than getting a mixed set.

pansyface

I would agree with all of the above.

I have a cherry tree (well two trees actually) and have never eaten a single cherry. The pigeons have loved them.

I have three pear trees and they flower beautifully but I buy my pears in the shop. They never grow to maturity here.

I have three plum trees and some years we are lucky, some years not. This year a frost in May (just the one) killed every flower bud just as it was opening.

I have twelve apple trees. Some are huge and were here when we arrived. Their fruit is out of reach and mostly only good for cooking. Some are dwarf trees. They produce beautiful apples every year. And so easy to manage and to pick. Guess which ones the squirrel visits most often. The little b****** pinched the one Ellison’s Orange out of all of them that I had my eye on.

Grow what you really would like to eat, as Bob says. But don’t be surprised if other occupants of your little patch of heaven get there first. 😊

dpatel2130

@philippasmith2,@keenOnGreen,@BobTheGardener,@pancyface. Thank you all for advice, opinions and guidance. It sounds like more trouble than fruits. I better stick to flowers and bit of vegetables and take pleasure from that. Novice and learner so trial and error is the name of the game for me. Dahlias, Cosmos, clematis, passion flower, jasmins, roses, hydrangeas , petunia,lupins, foxgloves,begonias,salvias,fuschias etc worked this year and will be some more added in the list next year. 
I think gardening kept me going in this difficult episodes of lock downs and social distanceing due to covid19 outbreak . hope and pray all stay safe and well.