I was wondering what type of fruit I'd be able to grow in this country (Cheshire)? I kinda like the idea of lemons and manderins (if I can), but I'd be quite happy with any other fruit (not apples... I don't really care for apples much )

I've never grown fruit before, but I like the idea of growing some of my own food. I've only got a front garden (the back garden is shared, and it's full of screaming, annoying, little monsters).

So, does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Ta!
scoobs

a nice dwarf citrus probably needs a greenhouse or conservatory to produce fruit, so I'd go with a plum tree...

How about gooseberries or black currents, red currents, white currents, thornless blackberries, strawberries, container grown raspberries etc..
(Do you spell ?????berries like that)
Do you want soft or hard fruit?


Bert...

Thanks for your suggestions guys!

I love most fruits, the only reason that I though of citrus was because I don't have a huge amount of space...so trees would be a bit better than low growing bushes.

Don't berries need to be trained and covered with netting though? I have absolutely no clue about fruit.

Plum trees sound good to me. Are cherry trees hard to look after?

[b]No but get huge/b]


__ /\__

this is a fairly good site for most fruits that can be grown in the UK.

fruit trees and bushes

Oh dear... I adore cherries too... never mind. I might start looking at container/patio trees then.
Thanks for your help



Cool! Thanks for the info.... I'll get reading

Scoobs, try berries, I am a proper berry convert now. You can very easily grow strawberry in pots and if you check fleaBay you can find plenty of things like Raspberry Canes. I did a load of raspberry canes and they are really blooming now (Loads of leaves and flowers starting to come through). Like Bert says there are plenty of other berries. I am no Alan Titsmarsh but I got about 10 different types of berries going at the moment. Check the £1 shops for shrubs though the ones sold there are unlikely to fruit this year. Get some Strawberry plugs and also look at wild strawberry from seeds - they are cheap and easy to grow - Plum trees are also good.

Some of the berry bushes will fruit several times per year so they produce lots of fruit. It's also worth investing in a Goji Berry bush, it might not fruit for a few years but when it does it will fruit big style. Very hardy plant and a piece of piss to grow.

EDIT - And berries are soooooooooooooooooo good for you, if you do loads of different ones then you will get a good harvest

I have a veg plot in my garden with fruit around thr borders in full sun, I would recommend this book it tells you all about the fruit what to do when and why. It will cover all fruit that can be grown in the UK.
Its available at all garden cntrs and also BnQ.

"The Fruit Expert"

I have 3 red current bushes, yet to produce their first crop, the glut of fruit will be used to make wine.


PlantPott.

lemons and oranges are possible
believe it or not , they actually dont need to be in 30oc tempa all the time , and actually need lower temps to flurish
just keep them above 5oc in winter , obviously its will also be strain dependant , bet entirly possible .

im hoping for a real nice summer this year , desperatly trying to get my banana plant to flower !! aparently some guy got bananas last year from his tree , but was in conservatory .... would be nice though

was gona edit for spelling , but to stoned for that milarky !

If you have a south facing, sheltered wall or fence try a peach tree. There are several different types but I think "Rochester" is probably the best. Peach trees are actually pretty hardy and if you fan them up against a south facing wall, spray in feb/march against peach leaf curl and hand pollinate* them there is no reason why you shouldn't get a massive crop. I've seen mature peach trees yield up to 80 to 100 peaches and believe me they taste 10 times better than a shop bought ones

Also it is possible to grow apricots again on a sheltered south facing wall.

Click to view attachment

This was from a new tree I bought last year and had 8 fruit on it, this year it looks even better.

I live in the south so the climate is a little milder but I don't see why you shouldn't be able to grow one

*Hand pollinating is easy, when the tree flowers in March take a small watercolour paintbrush and stroke the centre of each flower therefore passing the pollen from flower to flower, doing the bees work, do this about 3 times. On some peach trees it may not be nescessary but I always do it

We've got edible honeysuckle (honeyberry), blueberry in our garden.. dunno about training but all fruits will need netting to protect them from those bloody thieving birds.

we also have braeburn apple, victoria plum, conference pear, and sunburst cherry. They're grafts - the apple is an apple tree grafted onto a quince rootstock - will stay short, no taller than 6 feet.

trees tend to come bare rooted, straight from cold storage, the ones we got did anyway. The others have been ok, but our first plum tree never did anything, just died.. it either didn't have enough root on it, or died because it sat a week or two before planting. Plant them as soon as you get them.

would love to do citrus.. most garden centres i've been in sell potted dwarf trees that make full size (feckin HUGE) lemons and limes.. and usually mini oranges although i'm sure you can get full size orange producers. They tend to be a bit more expensive than other trees, and need special citrus feed.. but ya, good things.

You grow the lemons, i'll get the vodka, together, that makes a party