Well you might ask yourself -What On Earth is an entry like this doing in the building of a Garden Railway??? The answer is quite a lot actually... I have over the course of the past few years dug and busily planted a number of fruit trees to feed me, my family and any guests that might to explore “foreign rails”. The repeat myself slightly I did in my first railway have a small fruit garden that was located in the centre of it -this was more by luck then planning. The advantages of it were that it provided scenery for the trains and food for the observers, and in pretty much the same vein this is what is going to happen now.

When I did my “A” levels I did Biology&Botany, along with Physics, Maths&Stats, and Chemistry. While most of my peers investigated Peas& Beans or Fruit flies for their submissions -I did Fruit Trees. To me there were several advantages. ONE I got to visit orchards and study the trees away from the boring Bio labs and TWO I got to study and (most importantly to a growing teenager), EAT the examples that I was investigating(!) I did get into some trouble with my mother over this as my “term paper” was entitled “The pollination problems of American Mother and Granny Smith”.

Did I approach the problem of designing my orchard with the viewpoint of it being an efficient place for pollination -did I monkeys!!! No, I will confess that the guiding light of my selection was the small paper published by the ISIS Group. This was from the late 1970’s and it was (of course) published just AFTER I had handed in my paper to the JMB. Which was very fortunate for me as I could not be accused of “cribbing” some of the results and ideas found in it.

The basis is simple. All the trees you plant are self fertile trees, and they are also pollination partners for other trees that you have planted. The zenith of this is that every tree you plant pollinates every other tree in your orchard.The theory is simple -the practice is extremely frustrating... The technique I used was to approach the problem as a system of  MESH networks(!)

Dredging through my memory I unearthed “Producer Trees”, “Pollinator Trees” and “Triploids”. Triploids require TWO pollinator trees of different varieties. The problem here is that two of my favourite apples are Triploids...

These are the Apple Trees in my orchard:

Bountiful.                                Golden Delicious, Katy, Sunset.

Braeburn.                               Elstar, Katy, Pixie, Sunset.

Bramley.                                Bountiful, Elstar, Gala, Golden Delicious, Katy, Pixie, Sunset.

Elstar.                                    Braeburn, Gala, Pixie.

Gala.                                      Elstar, Katy, Pixie, Sunset.

Golden Delicious.                  Bountiful, Katy, Sunset.

Jonagored.                            Elstar, Gala, Pixie, Sunset.

Katy.                                      Bountiful, Braeburn, Gala, Golden Delicious, Katy, Sunset.

Sunset.                                  Braeburn, Gala, Golden Delicious, Katy, Pixie.

   

You may well ask -just HOW big a garden does this guy have??? Well the answer is simple -all the trees are on M9 & M26 dwarfing and M27 super dwarfing rootstocks -they will eventually grow up to be 2m high monsters... Another advantage is that they come into fruit earlier than “commercial” root stocks. The yield is lower -but the packing fraction evens it out. Using these rootstocks it is possible to pack a tree every 2m -or grow them in pots that you move around as required for pollination! The apple that is missing from the list, (and actually no-one knows what apple is a suitable pollinator for it) - is called “Red Valentine”. This a ❤“St Valentines Day”❤ gift from my ❤wife❤. It is bright red, all the way through -and it tastes slightly of strawberry(?) Fortunately the “blurb’ for it says that it is self fertile....

These are the Cherry Trees in my orchard:

Compact Stella.                    Napolean, Stella, Sunburst, Van.

Morello.

Napolean.                            Compact Stella, Sunburst, Van.

Stella.                                   Compact Stella, Sunburst,Van.

Sunburst.                             Compact Stella, Napolean, Stella, Van.

Van.                                     Compact Stella, Napolean, Stella, Sunburst.

Looking at the list above you will notice a glaring gaping HOLE. The Morello has no pollination partners. This is because the cherries that are required to fill that hole is produced only to order -and mine will not be ready until October of this year 2011 -it is now February.... So hopefully by this time 2012 there will be Kordia, Nabella and Sylvia on a family tree. Since they are pollinated by the other cherries this should complete the “dance”. Again these are on dwarfing rootstock in this case “Colt”.

These are the Pear Trees in my orchard:

Conference.                        Doyenne du Comice, Louise Bonne, Williams bon Chretien.

Doyenne du Comice.          Conference, Williams bon Chretien.

Louise Bonne.                     Conference.

Williams bon Chretien.        Conference, Doyenne du Comice.

These are all on Quince “A” rootstock -pears are a waiting game....  Back when I was a boy my mother bought a “lost label” apple tree and planted it in the garden. For 5 years it flowered and produced -not a single apple. The leaves did not look like the neighbouring apples -so my mother told it quite forcefully that there was no room in her garden for a tree that simply flowered, and if it still only flowered that year -in the autumn it was firewood. That year the tree flowered magnificently -almost desperately!!! And in the autumn produced three very scrawny red pears. My mother then went “Ah...” and we bought a “Conference” -then we had pears by the bushel load for the “lost label” apple tree.

These are the Plum Trees in my orchard:

Cambridge Gage.            Czar, Marjorie’s Seedling, Victoria.

Czar.                                Cambridge Gage, Majorie’s Seedling, Victoria.

Marjorie’s Seedling.         Cambridge Gage, Czar, Oulins Gage, Victoria.

Oulins Gage.                   Cambridge Gage, Czar, Marjorie’s Seedling, Victoria.

Valor.                               Cambridge Gage, Czar, Oulins Gage, Victoria.

Victoria.                           Cambridge Gage, Czar, Marjorie’s Seedling, Oulins Gage, Valor.

The plum that is missing from my “collection” is a “Yellow Pershore”. I will add this after I have laid the track work through the orchard. “Yellow Pershore” will pollinate any of the plums listed -however it is a “Commercial” plum and it is quite difficult to get hold of. I had suppliers that would supply 20 to 100 the next week -but when I explained that I only wanted the one -well the conversation sort of dried up at that point.... The problem is that the ideal point for the “Yellow Pershore” is EXACTLY roughly in the curve of the track -once I have laid it I will KNOW where to plant it. I do not personally know if there is any taste difference between a “Yellow Pershore” and “Purple Pershore”, (although I am told that the Purple version has a slightly better flavour?). The reason I want the Yellow one is to do with the pie fillings will look nicer. I did also want a variety called “Giant Prune” but I was very firmly outvoted -”VOTE NO to Prunes in this garden” was the sticker on the door... (School dinners have a lot to answer for). Again these are all dwarf rootstocks -”Pixy” in this case.

Here is the diagram of the orchard. You can instantly tell the trees that were planted at the perimeter of the garden and the new ones that form the orchard. The strange blank area at the top right hand side is the brick build garage.

See Picture 1.

You may think it slightly odd to produce a drawing with North at the bottom of the drawing but since my window faces due West -this is how it looks to me as I am sat here!

Further additions to the Orchard might include a few Hens or Ducks. My son favours a Guard Duck -which he intends to call “Spot” after the cat owned by “Lt. Data” in “Star Trek The Next Generation”...

After the Ducks and Hens the next thing on the lost for the orchard is a bee hive. There is a company called OMLET that supplies both Hen/Duck runs and Bee hives under the EGLU and BEEHAUS brand names. These are my favourite methods of supplying the two at the moment. Both are made of heavy duty plastic (in 6 colours!) and steel. They should both last a good few years. Having studied some of the “figures” for Hens I am wondering -just how many eggs are we going to eat during the laying period??? One of the chief advantages that Hens have over Ducks is errmmm the amount of “Organic Fertilizer” that they produce... Two Hens will produce 50Kg of “Organic Fertilizer” per year. This will “enrich” the orchard and the fruit garden to a greater degree. I normally go through 20Kg of “Rooster Booster” per year spread around the garden along with 15Kg of “Growmore”.  The “soil” around the garden is pretty poor and has practically no humus -but quite a lot of clay....  So at the moment the Hens have it. (Sorry “Spot”!)

A couple of weeks have passed since I put anything into this section -so I had better update you as to what has happened...

I have found a PLUOT called “Flavour King”, (hooray!), at a good price of £14 rather than £29 that it was only 8 weeks ago(!) I was concerned that I could not pollinate it but enquiries to the customer service dept reveal that it can be pollinated by Victoria. Thank you “Helen” -who ever you may be. I bought an american plum called “Stanley” from the local Wilkos -but as yet I do not know which (if any) of my plums is a suitable partner for it? But I do have an american friend who is looking into it for me. (Thank you Thomas!) It is quite a common american plum -and all the documentation says that it is recommended for pollinating all types of european plum. But of course it does not say what pollinate it...

The two peaches seem simply to be sat by the fence absorbing water and nutrients and looking like dead twigs... Their companion nectarine has flowered, thrown out thousands of leaves and is growing madly. I am I admit extremely puzzled.

The medlar is covered with flower buds and this year I think we could be looking forward to watching medlars rotting on the windowsill in extreme anticipation of eating them. Although the “books” say that medlars flower throughout the season, only the first flush of flowers have time enough to produce a sizeable fruit by the time autumn comes.

On the bad side I think my Quince has died.... It started to get into leaf and I believe it had flower buds on it, then, all of a sudden -nothing... The scratch test reveals that it is still green under the bark -so I do have some hopes for it, (please!)

The trees are flowering, I have had HALF of my duo plum tree in flower -so I still cannot tell which half has flowered. Hopefully I get at least ONE plum from the half that has flowered -this will at last tell me which half is which!!! The apple trees are about to get into main sequence.

Now it is September and I know what has thrived and died...

The right hand side of our duo plum tree is “Marjorie’s Seedling” several weeks of waiting were ushered in with plums with everything. The Nectarine produced about 5 colinders worth of fruit that has since become pie filling and various jams. Stanley the prune tree died with dignity -after refusing to leaf at all... The apple trees are producing nice round fat apples and the pears are slightly small as yet but long and promising. The veg plot and the fruit garden have done their job and the freezer is now slightly full. The medlar tree has yet to produce any fruit and is looking slightly sad at the moment. But I do have to say that it has been a good first year for the trees out of their pots after all this time. I will replace what has died in the spring.