The amateur fruit grower in Britain has been well served since the 1940s by the authors of pamphlets, manuals, encyclopaedias and even ‘bibles’, covering the basic questions of how to grow fruit. However there is a real dearth of knowledge in published form for the benefit of the first time enthusiast, explaining the impact of rootstocks and methods of training on the flavour, ripening and all-round qualities of the fruit so produced.
It is very much hoped that amateur growers and collectors represented by Adrian Baggaley’s generation will within the not too distant future pool their experiences and present them in a pamphlet or book form to assist the first-time grower in the all important task of just what to grow and what combination of rootstock and method of training to choose.
For years I grew the Delwinor pear, known as Invincible, as a vertical cordon. A prolific cropper of handsome fruits, all of half pound size, they not only stand up to coastal winds, they have excellent keeping properties. But they are only culinary quality, and at that remarkably flavourless. Then I met Adrian and he revealed the pear’s worthy dessert qualities . It seems that like so many fruits these qualities cannot be produced when grown as cordons! They need to be grown as dwarf pyramids or bush or standard trees.
This is an area of investigation that is perhaps only possible for amateurs to undertake. There is no profit in it for commerce. There are now some excellent technical manuals in the RHS Lindley Library which explore the pathways by which fruit trees produce their fruits and the flavours and ripening processes unique to each fruit. But the amateur needs a reliable means of matching variety to rootstock and to method of training to have a reasonable chance of producing quality dessert fruit.
I have no doubt that some will find Adrian’s critical stance, as expressed in his recent articles towards much of the accepted wisdom of journalists, TV gardeners and the glossy adverts of commercial nurseries hard to digest. But with the burgeoning of magazines carrying front page headlines – ‘Easy to Grow Apricots’ – it is high time to call a halt to cheap practise. Leaving aside the vagaries or shortcomings of some commercial catalogues, there is a treasure trove of flavours and qualities in the National Fruit Collections at Brogdale. Those nurseries that access the Collections for graft or budwood should be well sign-posted for the first-time grower and the would be amateur collector. The future for quality fruit production and the safeguarding of the National Collections belongs in our back gardens, on allotments and in community orchards no less than in school projects.
On the matter of heavy rainfall, which Adrian mentions in his article on plums, I noticed last year that McLoughlin’s Gage was not diluted in its usual richness. Denniston’s Superb lived up to its name gown as vertical and oblique cordons. I am finding that Reine Claude Violette (syn Purple Gage) is a consistent performer, but like many grown as an oblique cordon the fruit bearing wood tends to be high up. The much heralded Jubileum is prolific, but a martyr to moths and only of true dessert quality one in three years. The surprise among plums has to be Reeve’s Seedling. Grown as a vertical cordon it has real flavour, is easily managed at a height of seven feet, so ideal for a fruit cage. It is not over vigorous and there is no problem with air movement through it or access for light to ripen all its fruits. As dwarf pyramid or bush, I would guess it is capable of even better results.
Ian Harrison
Reeves, reproduced by permission of Keepers Nursery
To read Adrian Baggaley’s article on plums go to: http://www.fruitforum.net/essential-stone-fruits.htm
I have not grown any plums as cordons myself, believing them, like all stone fruits, to be too vigorous to be grown thus, but there is a small group of them grown as near vertical cordons in the Model Fruit Gardens at RHS Garden Wisley. These are very poor specimens compared to the same varieties grown in fan or bush form found on the Fruit Field, cropping very poorly.
It is interesting to note that the splendid fruit gardens at Gaasbeek, in Belgium, although growing magnificent apples and pears in cordon form, grow their stone fruit as fan shaped or bush trees.
Several years ago I built a ‘Gage Wall’ – around eight feet high by about thirty feet long, facing due south. Against the ‘wall’ I planted an Early Transparent Gage and a Cambridge Gage; these were trained as fans. In the early years the limited amount of fruit was exquisite, but as the fans developed the fruit had less and less flavour. What puzzled me was why? What was I doing wrong? It took several years and a visit to Brogdale to solve the problem.
The Plum Collection at Brogdale is magnificent and a plum gourmet’s Paradise – hundreds of varieties, each with its own individual taste, which varies from year to year, depending on the season.
One particular Summer Friends Day the tasting’s were definitely not up to scratch. The plums were mealy and bland. There had not been any rain in Kent for weeks. During a conversation with Derek Rye at the following Autumn Friends Day he told me that two weeks later the plums were excellent. The reason being that it had rained.
Rain is a prerequisite for a flavour-some plum and excessive rain does not necessarily dampen its flavour; whereas with apple and particularly pears it does. The downside is that excessive rain at ripening time cracks plums. This is why in a wet season a bumper crop is required to spread the moisture uptake. Last year was such a year. Although lots of fruit cracked and went rotten, provided I picked the infected fruit before it infected its neighbour, I still had a superb plum crop. In my orchard cordon plums rarely had a bumper crop as they cracked and went rotten in rainy Nottinghamshire.
Ian does not favour Jubelium, but with me it is an excellent plum – large, free stone, sweet and juicy, about ten days earlier than Victoria but otherwise similar. I planted mine as a maiden whip, trained it as a fan and it succeeded around three years later. The fruits will hang for ages; in fact it hangs on for so long I tire of it. Try it in another form and invest in moth pheromone traps, I suggest.
On Reeve’s Seedling we agree. This is my favourite plum – large, round, freestone, and sweet. A connoisseur’s fruit that is a descendant of the excellent Count Althann’s gage. Unfortunately it is a martyr to bacterial canker on my stiff clay and the days of my superb tree may be numbered. My problem is not plum moth but plum saw fly and as of yet there are no pheromone traps for the amateur grower.