Growing Fruit Trees
This is the time of year when fruits are swelling on the trees. Autumn is on its way with the cooler evenings that seem to put extra flavour into the apples. Above is a picture of my apple arch which started life as two maypole trees. These are fruit trees that do not grow branches so the pruning is simplified. You hardly need to do any. Over time the trees grew and grew, ending up like two flagpoles standing by my back door. I decided to turn them into an arch, which with the aid of a number of wiring loom ties i have achieved, by pulling the trunks down onto the steel arch frame. The apples are not that bad, quite crunchy and sweet, especially later on when the cold weather gets at them. I pick one each morning before going to work to eat with my lunch.
What fruit trees do you have in your garden?
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Wow Jessica, I would love to visit and see all your fruit trees!
Hi Martha
I was lucky when i bought my house as it had half a dozen large apple trees in the garden. I have also planted several other fruit trees, mainly plums and pears since. I tried to get everyone i knew to plant a fruit tree for the millenium, but without much success. I thought it was a good idea to mark such a point in time, by growing something that would last.
I cannot remember the variety of apple that is on the arch. They are a special type of tree that has what is called apical priority, that is they do not grow real branches, just fruiting spurs, so are very good in a small space, and really easy to train.
The fruit when underipe is very perfumy, as if the apples have been sprayed with eau de cologne, but as they ripen that goes to give a fresh crunchy eating apple. They do not last when picked so are best eaten straight from the tree.
Hi Glen,
I love your apple arch, what other fruit trees do you have?
Cold and windy here today but it is spring and all the gardens look great.
Cheers
Maggie
Hi Maggie
I hope you get some nice spring weather. We have had a poor August [colder & wetter than expected] but September has started sunny and warm.
I have mainly apples, pears and plums in the garden.
What fruit trees grow best in your climate?
Hi Glenn,
We have a variety of trees in our garden, most of which are still quite young. We belong to the Rare Fruit Society of South Australia, which has members all around the world who join and access their website on growing fruit trees. Here on the Adelaide plains we can grow most temperate climate trees, a large number of sub-tropical trees and some arid, cool-mountain climate trees.
We have:
- two mulberrys
- two pomegranates
- one excel fig
- one native fig
- one cinnamon
- one riberry
- three apricots
- one loquate
- two curry leaf trees
- two Stella cherries
- one Kensington mango
- two lemon myrtles
- one African Hottentot bean
- one lemon
- one rose apple
- one elderberry
- one bay leaf
- one native finger lime
- two white sapotes
- one crab apple, onto which we are going to graft six different types of apple
So basically we can grow everything that Gillian can't, but she can grow the tropical trees. We can grow all citrus, pears, apples, kiwi fruit and nut trees.
We here in Adelaide could have fruit tree forests in our backyards and in the streets if we were smart.
What do most Aussies have? pavers! or concrete or shrubs and flowers and succulants some even have fake plastic grass.
Have a great weekend in your garden.
Olive trees grow really well here too.
Hi Maggie
That is some list!!! I read that you have a climate similar to the Mediteranean. The list seems to prove that you do. What is a Riberry? That is a new one on me.
I look forward to hearing how your grafting of six different apples onto one tree goes. It is the right time of year for you to be grafting. I get the best results from grafting when i keep the cuttings to be grafted in the fridge to hold them back.
Beautiful Glann, my wife says she's jealous.
Do you do much thinning, if so, how do you get so many apple every year?
Did you have a show stopper of Spring Blooms on the old site or did I dream about your apple tree.
I have 10 thornless blackbrries,4 thorned blackberries, 30 or so raspberries,1 gooseberry,1 red lake currant, 1 brown fig,3 arctic kiwi,14 small blueberries,1 moonglow pear, 2 apples,1 nectarine,1 apricot,2 cherries,1 plum& a butternut. Hickery & Black walnuts on old home place.
2 table grapes, & 2 muscadines,a few strawberries. But nothing like Glenn's trees.
The pear is the only large tree with fruit.
Love your photo too, Everett.
I love te apple archway.
Our fruit efforts are not as gorgeous, but include citrus (lemons, oranges, limes, tangerines, etc), pomogranites, persimmons, cherimoya, sapotes, avocados, guavas (pineapple, strawberry, lemon), figs, macadamia, loquats, bananas and jujubes...
Hi Mike
I am also growing a pomegranate and an avacado. The avacado i grew from a stone last year using three cocktail sticks to sit it over a glass of water.
I read quickly read your Camarillo Garden blog again. Thats a really great place you have there. Have you managed to get water to the site? I imagine with your climate that it is crucial.
Hi Joel
I did thin the fruit a bit this year to try to increase the size of the apples. There is a picture of the arch in spring on the old site. Thats the good thing about fruit trees, you get rewarded twice. I will have to find the picture and post it in the photographs section.
How is your pineapple pear tree doing this year?
Hi Everett
I think it was a fluke. One of those few things that turns out better than expected.
By the way that is a great picture of you and the grandchildren. Wonderful.
Glenn I am so impressed with the bountiful success & beauty of your apple arch! Wow!
Next week I will take a photo of a friend's five espaliered pear trees that spread as fully -- but horizontally along ~40' of the E side of her alley board-fence. There are two horizontal rows in the stretch.
I want to view it up close again with my friend since there is a really evil dog across the alley & without her I would want a can of Mace. On the other hand, it doesn't look like her installation on the alley has ever suffered any vandalism ...
@maggie - I think it is Mart's fruit trees. I have grown some nice varieties but do not have any right now. Favorites have been Green Gage Plums, Gravenstein Apples & a Bartlett Pear so delicious & juicy that I'd get up in the middle of the night! to go pick a pear & eat it.
Hi Jessica
I would not say it was design intention, more good luck. I would recommend though, a fruit tree arch to anyone wanting a productive and good looking entrance to their garden, and any tree with apical priority [i call them maypole trees] are the easiest to use.
I have a few espalier trees as well which are great for covering a wall.
I grew two espaliers on my first allotment about twenty five years ago now. A pear and an apple. When i finished with the allotment someone came and stole one of the trees. It was a pear tree, about 15 to 20 feet wide, 8 feet high and about a foot deep, but they managed to dig it up and carry it off. Its amazing the lengths some people will go to.
-- which I had never noticed/heard-of before! Thank you so much!
i would like to introduce your apple-arch at the main entryway of one of our community gardens, The Hope Garden, which was installed this spring from scratch on 20,000 sq ft in the heart of downtown Hailey, Idaho, next to our historic, brick Counthouse. The County jail was torn down there & one of the Commissioners still likes to call it The Jailhouse Garden.
With a lot of volunteer work, The Hope Garden has been an instant success all around! It is now surrounded by a pole fence, with a 4' wide pole gate at the main entrance. I can provide photos after I study David's instructions.
Your apple-arch would be wonderful as the entry for a food garden! Can you tell me how high & wide your metal arch support is? I see options online & we have metalworkers here.
The first few seasons when the apical priority apple trees are young, we can also grow Scarlet Runner Beans & Morning Glories on the arch.
Any other tips you think of - welcome!
- which I had never noticed/heard-of before! Thank you so very much! and for such a spectacular role-model! I hope you do find the spring bloom view - it would be wonderful to see them posted together!
i would like to introduce your apple-arch at the main entryway of one of our community gardens, The Hope Garden, which was installed this spring from scratch on 20,000 sq ft in the heart of downtown Hailey, Idaho, next to our historic, brick Counthouse. The County jail was torn down there & one of the Commissioners still likes to call it The Jailhouse Garden.
With a lot of volunteer work, The Hope Garden has been an instant success all around! The three main sponsors are the Blaine County Commissioners, Native Landscapes & The Hunger Coalition. www.thehungercoalition.org The garden is now surrounded by a pole & wire-mesh fence, with a 4' wide pole gate at the main entrance. I can provide photos after I study David's photo-posting instructions.
Your apple-arch would be wonderful as the grand entryway for a food garden! How old are your apple trees in your photo? And can you tell me how high & wide your metal arch support is, for a size-reference? I see options online & we have metalworkers here.
The first few seasons when the apical priority apple trees are young, we can also grow Scarlet Runner Beans & Morning Glories on the arch.
Any other tips you think of - welcome!
Hi Jessica
This is the photo of the arch that Joel remembers. The arch is about four feet wide the same as your gate.
I am sure it will in time give you the perfect entrance to your community garden and i am pleased that i have been the inspiration.
My arch is at least 15 years old, so as with most fruit trees, it is something you do for the future. Your idea of growing beans and morning glories is ideal until the trees reach a size when they can be pulled around the arch.
All the best.
We could potentially plant the apple trees for the entryway arch this fall & I will network with our excellent local nurseries & landscaping companies about apical priority varieties.
Your photo is so interesting & informative, in part because the apple trees are producing so evenly along their entire length & close to the bottom. In the past I have noted that if you want rambling roses to bloom well while casually espaliered along, say, a pole fence, then you want to give the canes a somewhat arching shape, which stimulates bud formation along the entire cane.
Thanks for the 15-years date. Can you tell me the approximate age, caliper & heighth of the Maypole apples when you planted them? What heigth & caliper were they when you began to bend & tie them over? I am wondering if the earlier you bend them over the more they tend to produce all the way to the bottom?
I've grown some nice expanses of Scarlet Runner Beans & Morning Glories here. In one patio container garden we tied the support twine up on the sunny side of a big spruce tree - a nice natural support combo. Another annual I've used to fill in a young Golden Currant hedge was Cleome. Have photos. I grew strong transplants & planted them into the hedgerow & they made a thick 4'+ tall hedge with beautiful flowers & even spines! to deter cross-traffic. Cleome is from the south but it proved exceptionally frost-resistant here in the mountains & was good until snowfall.
We will find the right way to honor your timely gateway inspiration, Glenn! :-)
Hi Jessica
Did you know that you can graft Gooseberries onto Golden Currants to make standard gooseberry bushes. A few years ago i tried to do it but was not succesful.
About 10 years ago now i bought a standard gooseberry bush [ approx 4 feet tall] because it was throwing up suckers from the base. I thought i would be able to produce my own standards, but it never worked.
I have not heard of Cleome. I don,t think we have it over here.
The Maypole trees were about 2'-6" high when i planted them with a trunk diameter of about 3/4". They were about 7' to 8' tall with a trunk diameter of about 1.5" to 2" when i decided to pull them onto the arch. I did it slowly over a couple of years, gradually tightening the wiring cable ties to draw the trunk to the steel arch.
When the trunk is pulled over and runs nearly horizontal it loses most of its apical dominance. The side shoots at the top take over. These shoots i now prune off to use as grafting material in the spring and prevent the whole thing becoming too tall.
Hi Martha
I thought with a name like that you must have some vines!!
I loved climbing trees & looking out over the landscrape when I was a kid. But the skill also came in handy for getting to the wild muscadines. Muscadines bloom on new growth so the vine would fruit on the end of the vine, in the top of the trees.
There were some on low hanging limbs,fences & shrubs too. But never enough for eating & jellies.
I never heard of a southrener who did not like ripe muscadines, sweet potatoes & watermelon.
What kind/color do you grow?
I have Fry's bronze & wild black Buliss(S.C. name for wild muscadines).
Thinks for the trip into childhood.
Your description here reminds me of wild grapes my friend picked up in a tree when we were trekking in the wilderness area of the Grand Canyon - in the Havasu Canyon. They were like small, firm, tasty Concord-type grapes. As he crunched on seeds I said, "You eat the seeds?!" and he replied, "Vy not?! It's vat makes a plant!" A Swiss mountain guide who also found fresh watercress along the way ...
Vineyard(tame) muscadines are sweeter.
We have a wild grape, we call a fox grape, it is a table/Concord-type grape.
Fox grapes are small & in small cluster of 3-6 grapes.
The muscadines have a leather, thick skin, you bite down then suck the grape out & throw the hull away.
Hardly anyone outside of my family(that I know) eat the skins, I eat seeds & all.
If it is good enough for the deer then why not.
Besides, being a organic gardener makes me werid, so no one is suprised when I do other werid things.
With muscadines, you do not want to crush the seeds, they are Bitter.
I like table grapes too, but can get more muscadine from a mature vine & nothing eats the vine. Well maybe deer.
I love the taste of the muscadine, I sometimes eat so many that i skip lunch.
Martha, I am sorry, you have a right to your likes & dislikes, as much as anyone.
Forgive my out burst.
I think your possum grapes are the same as fox grapes. I have not had any in sometime. We do not cut firewood for the homestead anymore, so are not in the deep swamp anymore.
I need about 3 more kinds, then I will have all the muscadines I can put up & eat.
Hi everyone,
I havent been on this site for a while and saw the lovely apple arch and thought - oh I should comment! I so enjoyed reading everyones comments! this is just like being back on the old site although I fear I miss a lot not knowing how to find the latest postings.
Had to give a little advice on arches - dont buy those cheap arches - mine rusted through in one year, and once something is growing over it you cant replace it!
Just to join in the fruit tree conversation I recently bought a patio lime and am for now keeping it in a pot. It is a dwarf variety. I also have a small kaffir lime that grew from my neighbours clipping. Then I have a native guava, and a barbados cherry, that is doing well, but is now in a bit too much shade I think, so dont know if I should move it. . The malaysian apple tree that I had died - I was going to try to espalier that, maybe it didnt like the idea! I saw the most magficient espaliers at the Cloisters in New York in June.
Oh then of course I also have pawpaw trees! and all my neighbours have bananas! and althoguh technically not a tree my pineapple is fruiting!
Hi Gillian
To see the latest comments you should see the member menu on the right hand side of the page. Pick on the green 'Recent Posts'. This shows a list with number of the latest comments that you have not read in green.
I hope this helps.
Hi Gillian
To see the latest comments you should see the member menu on the right hand side of the page. Pick on the green 'Recent Posts'. This shows a list with number of the latest comments that you have not read in green.
I hope this helps.
Hi Gillian
To see the latest comments you should see the member menu on the right hand side of the page. Pick on the green 'Recent Posts'. This shows a list with number of the latest comments that you have not read in green.
I hope this helps.
After looking online I was thinking that at minimum the entryway arch for The Hope Garden will be powder-coated metal, since we have a long winter season when the framework will be visible. In addition, we have metalworkers here & powder-coating capability in nearby cities.
You are one of the many persons from the old site, who makes the new site homey & warm. As You can see Glenn, is the Espailer expert in these parts.
My son has rooted 3(!!!) pineapple plants. The fresh picked ripe pineapples are the best.
But what to do with 3-18"(46cm) diameter plant with sharp needles on them!
And this is for two winters, then they bloom & fruit.
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