| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Lorrainelovesplants |
has anyone grown apple trees from cuttings or pips?Would like to attempt both, but dont know if it can be done easiliy. thearetically the duttings would be hardwood cuttings, but the pips should be easy, just you wont know what will grow (or how big..) |
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| lottie |
My M.I.L. has a lovely tree in her back garden that is covered in eating apples every september, it came from a pip my husband planted in a pot when he was 8[60 now] the problem is with a pip it's unlikely to breed true to the variety it came from----but it's fun and you could get a tree that's worth keeping. | ||||
| OtleyLad |
Re: has anyone grown apple trees from cuttings or pips?
There are two reasons not to grow from directly from cuttings or pips: Apples grown from pips will more often than not be randomly cross-pollinated so you will grow something that only vaguely resembles the parent tree (if at all). Most apple trees are cuttings grafted onto rootstock to control the size/vigour of the resultant tree (and offer some disease resistance). If you just grow from cuttings directly placed into the ground you might not end up with the tree you want and it can take many more years to get to fruiting. If you can get hold of a suitable rootstock then grafting onto this is your best bet. here's a good refernce site (american but lots of useful stuff): http://www.allaboutapples.com/backyard/rootstock.htm Not sure where you can buy small quantaties of rootstock though. |
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| tahir |
Re: has anyone grown apple trees from cuttings or pips?
Orangepippin does |
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| TAVASCAROW |
Scotts of Meriot
http://www.scottsnurseries.co.uk/ do bundles of 5 to 20 rootstocks bare root in the autumn for £1.95 each plus P&P. Good traditional nursery specialising in fruit & roses. Nearly all my apples came from them & no complaints. Rooting apple cuttings is a slow process. Growing from pips can be a slow way of growing a crab apple or you might strike lucky & get the next bramley seedling. 
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| lottie |
Exactly---that's why it's a fun thing to do if you have the space 
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| orangepippin |
My thoughts exactly - it is slow, but well worth trying. You don't need much space as you can plant them just 2-3ft apart if necessary and then propagate from them later on if they actually come good. I have about 5 Jazz seedlings, plus several other dead certainties on the go and am very hopeful that I will get a fabulous new variety out of at least 1 of them. It is great fun watching the new seedlings growing. I am working on the basis that my chances of raising the next big commercial apple variety are higher than winning the lottery. One of the interesting things to look for is the leaf shape - if it looks like a wild rose then the seedling might be reverting to a more primitive type and may be unproductive or tasteless, if it looks rounder and wider then it is likely that the cultivated variety is coming through - however I've also noticed that the leaf shape in a seedling may change somewhat as the tree grows, so this could be useless advice. Growing from cuttings, grafted on to another apple tree or on to an apple rootstock is easy if you have the right tools. As it happens, right now is exactly the best time of year to do this with apples (i.e. bud grafting). Aim for a 50% success rate if you are starting out. |
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| yummersetter |
Scotts are my favourite nursery too, in fact my family have bought fruit trees and roses from them for generations, but they have had a financially difficult time recently. I'd hate such a tremendous fruit collection to disappear so please support them as much as possible. | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
I know apples from seed will take a long time to fruit, don't breed true and will probably grow into a huge tree but I've always wanted to have some decent sized apple trees in a patch of my own woodland. Should produce some decent fruit, timber and plenty of habitat.
I also wouldn't mind having a go at grafting and wondered if you could get hold of rootstock cheaply by buying or acquiring a badly grafted tree, removing the graft so the rootstock grows on and then mounding the soil over the various stems produced and growing on several new plants. |
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| orangepippin |
If you are interested in growing apple trees for timber, Blenheim Orange has a particularly hard wood.
Regarding your grafting plans, rootstocks are generally planted or prepared in winter / early spring. I think your plan will work, but some rootstocks are better for "layering" than others - I can't remember which though. If you have a tree nursery near you, they are bound to have a number of failed grafts by this time of year which they may give you for nothing. However it is probably easier and less hassle to buy a few proper rootstocks, and then work from their - they will transplant more easily and be virus-free etc. As a starting point, get yourself a copy of the Grafters Handbook for Christmas, it has a whole section on rootstock propagation. |
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| OtleyLad |
Th Northern Fruit Group holds Apple days (at Harlow Carr, Harrogate) and workshops where you can learn the art of grafting and take home your own grafted apple trees from a selection of their rare varieties - its not expensive either.
Its a great idea to propogate your own and/or some older/rare varieties too. I joined the group and meant to do it this year but on the working days I could not get there. This year you can see them 25/6 th October (sure there are others around the country too). |
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| TAVASCAROW |
Rootstocks used to be produced by this method but as you only get a crop every other year they are produced from cuttings now. |
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| Lorrainelovesplants |
have now planted pips from royal Galas, and looking for MacIntosh reds to buy also.
have a friend who has just ordered 200 trees to start an orchard locally, so have tagged on my tiny order of 5 for Thornhayes.
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| Treacodactyl |
That's useful to know are there any more fruit trees that have a different other than fruit? I know some of the wild cherries will produce a good timber and there's a special way to grow walnuts to produce the sought after patterned wood. |
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| Treacodactyl |
Good luck. I'd be interested to hear more about the local orchard. Has any of the varieties been selected as they are suitable to conditions down there or is it just a collection of what they like? |
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| yummersetter |
Blenheim's not the quickest growing tree in the world though - I planted mine about twelve years ago and this year it's got it's first proper crop of apples and the trunk has just grown to about 6 inches diameter - though my orchard's had apple trees on site for at least 150 years so may not be typical | ||||
| orangepippin |
Interesting, there are lots of techniques for speeding-up fruit production (precocity) in apple trees ... but I am not sure how you would speed-up wood production. However Blenheim Orange is a triploid variety so it should be a reasonably vigorous tree - as you imply, it might do better on fresh land. | ||||
| lottie |
I've planted several varieties of apple trees over the last two years and the couple of Blenheim orange are so far the most robust
but out of 60+ apple trees the 2 blenheim orange are the ones the **** cat chooses as a scratching post---is it the smell? |
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| Lorrainelovesplants |
treac - its just between Pelynt and Looe. Friends bought just over a year ago and run a 5 star holiday complex there now. They have Devon reds and are planning to do juice from their apples (apparently they have contacts!   ).
The varieties are chosen to do well locally. |