Page 27 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2024

Winter and have grown on well this year. Last winter I did the same to two more previously grafted rootstocks, this time I put Spartan on them. The mother tree had a superbly coloured crop last year. What
I am after is consistently the best colour by restricting vigour and if necessary restricting water uptake.
Culture
The trees are trained up 60 mm diameter x 2m high posts with a stout cane strapped to the posts upside down
by plastic ties. The only
Mini Orchard, Crispin Mutsu.
let them grow on and leave the pruning to late Winter and prune back to three or
four buds. The object is to keep the fruit as tight to the main stem as possible. The newly planted trees will require rabbit guards and need to be kept clean around the bottom of the stem to deter mice and voles. Apply a general fertilizer in April and a
mulch in May to retain moisture.
Most suppliers are not that interested in
supplying trees on M27 because it relies
on the customer looking after them more, also they will not grow well on heavy soils (neither will trees on M9 for that matter),
so you may have to graft the trees yourself. Funnily enough mine were stuck into heavy clay with a bit of sharp sand mixed in – no fuss.
Grafted trees
To speed things up you can plant the newly grafted rootstocks into 35L tree buckets and grow them on under cover for a year, or even two years if you like. The growth can be rapid compared to outdoors but watch out for woolly aphid.
pruning is to the side
shoots in early July, around
ten days to two weeks after
the longest day, prune back
to three- or four-leaf axils.
When the leader reaches
the top of the cane (around
seven or eight feet) treat
it the same, do not prune the main stem. There is normally no further growth that season; if the side shoots are really feeble
newly planted trees will require rabbit guards
Rootstocks in tub
Vigorous varieties on M27 root-stocks
Simply Vegetables 27