Fruitwise planting a small pear tree

Julia and I plant the last tree in a new section of orchard.. we planted 32 pear trees where we had removed some Bramley and Sunset apples-we had too many of them and our customers kept asking for pears.

It is possible to plant much larger trees than this small 1 year maiden. If they have good roots, have not been out of the ground long, and are planted with great care and tied to a stake they may give fruit sooner. However, a big tree suffers more transplanting stress, a small tree with good roots is likely to grow away better.

The important thing is to carefully spread the roots and crumble and work the soil with a spade or fork, as Julia shows in this video, so that they have good soil contact. You will have noted that we did not put any fertiliser or compost in the planting hole. This soil is rich and well textured, so no need, but a mulch of compost on the surface will help. DO NOT put fresh dung or rough compost in the planting hole, a handful of composted forest bark can help with moisture retention if the soil is too sandy but generally its better not to add anything, use mulch or top dressing if necessary.

Remember, the biggest mistake about planting a fruit tree is not to do it! Tiny though this tree is, it should have some fruit on in in 3 years. The variety was Seckle, a rare fruit of legendary flavour. I have never tasted this as it is not comercially available, I obtained it from Keeper's nursery near Maidstone, Kent. check out their web site-lots of information about many hard to find fruit varieties.

Most of the other pear trees in this replanted section of our orchard came from Blackmoor wholesale fruit nurseries near Petersfield, Hampshire. They too have a great web site. we prefer to buy local, but Blackmoor didn't have Seckle.

PS May 2009, this tree and th eother 31 pears in this new pear orchard grew away nicely, it's still very small but looks as if it will double in size this year. We may allow it to carry 1 or 2 fruits in 2010 if God wills that we and the orchard are still here then.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• plant
• planting
• pear
• tree
• orchard
• fruitwise
• Seckle

[melonkernel]

Have you ever tried to make a deep bed for fruit trees as described in the New Self Sufficient Gardener on page 110

[stephenhayesuk]

@melonkernel no. deep beds for vegetables, yes. not syure what this means trees

[jerrydff7]

that is a bad looking tree lol jk

[stephenhayesuk]

@jerrydff7 small, but perfectly formed and with good roots. She's doing all right 2 years later, althoughnot grown as much as I'd have liked.

[tinafisher]

He is coming soon. I hope you get some pears from the tree soon! I would love to grow a tree or two myself, but the deer around here......kill my fruit trees.

God Bless, nice video's, thank you.

[stephenhayesuk]

Thanks Tina. What with Israel, global finace meltdown, wars and rumours of wars and all the rest, can it be long now? watch the dome of the rock. But we DON'T KNOW so Julia and I are gonna GO ON PLANTING TREES.

deer are an issue. two deer had unfortunate accidents in my orchard over the last 12 months One walked into an ounce of lead, another had an accident with a sharp piece of steel. It was very quick both times, and the meat apart from what we already ate is in the freezer.

kind regards

[axiomatic272]

@LSUTigerMom I would advise to disturb the roots aas littel as possible, but more important than that is to plant at teh right time of year and do so carefully. Julia and I have tried as best as we can in this video to chow how we think it best to plant a tree.

another thing is to avoid the temptation to plant any kind of bush or tree too close together. They need enough space. But again, it depends on your souil and climate and what you want to achieve, close together is fine for a hedge

[LSUTigerMom]

i love your videos! I bought holly plants, ligustrum, azalea, etc. (over 300 plants) from a nursery that was closing. They are ALL SOOO root bound! It's just a mass of roots when I take them out of the pot. I work for the longest time, untangling the roots so they won't continue to grow in a circle. When I saw the bare roots on this pear tree, I wonder: SHOULD I REMOVE AS MUCH DIRT AS POSSIBLE BEFORE I PLANT THEM? So the roots can get 'a new start'??? I have MANY more to plant! Thank you

[melonkernel]

@stephenhayesuk That was what i thought, But there were instructions there for trees as well. I guess it might be suboptimal for an orchard if you cannot ever step on the bed. It would be interesting to see the differences between two identical trees where one is planted in a deep bed.

[MegaJim79]

I'm not too crazy about that graft job they did to this pear tree. Usually they are chip buded.

[jerrydff7]

wow good job =)

[herp94]

@stephenhayesuk lol unfortunate accidents