Planting Four Young Fruit Trees

This morning Simon, Kieron and Ali spent a few hours planting four young, bare rooted, fruit trees in the orchard. The two year old trees are:

• Apple 'James Grieve'. Eater/cooker. Red flush stripes over pale green, crisp and juicy, excellent flavour and reliable cropper.
• Apple 'Egremont Russet'. Eater. Golden in colour with pale brown russet, nutty, sweet and aromatic.
• Plum 'Victoria'. Eater/cooker. Pale red fruit with golden yellow flesh.
• Pear 'Gieser Wildeman'. Cooker. Small russet brown fruits turning red when cooked.

For each tree a circle was marked out in the desired location and the turf removed. A hole was then dug out in the centre of the circle, the bottom broken up with a fork and a small amount of leaf mould added to the hole.

The tree was then placed into the hole, the soil back filled around it, heeled in and leaf mould added to the top of the soil as a weed suppressing mulch. A tree stake was then placed next to the tree, hammered into place and, using a plastic tree tie, fixed to the stake to prevent wind rock whilst its roots spread into the hole over the next few years. Lastly, the tree was given a good watering in.