Fruit Trees

[Michael Quin-Conroy]

I am looking for information on growing fruit trees in a small garden by
placing them close together to limit their size and yield and thereby be
able to cover them with netting to keep out the pesky parrots.

Michael

[Chookie]

In article >,
"Michael Quin-Conroy" > wrote:

> I am looking for information on growing fruit trees in a small garden by
> placing them close together to limit their size and yield and thereby be
> able to cover them with netting to keep out the pesky parrots.

Try the fruit salad tree people -- they use dwarf rootstocks and seem very
knowledgeable (had a chat to Mrs Fruit Salad at the Gardening Australia Live
show this year).

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Jeez; if only those Ancient Greek storytellers had known about the astonishing
creature that is the *Usenet hydra*: you cut off one head, and *a stupider one*
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[Terry Collins]

Chookie wrote:
>
> In article >,
> "Michael Quin-Conroy" > wrote:
>
> > I am looking for information on growing fruit trees in a small garden by
> > placing them close together to limit their size and yield and thereby be
> > able to cover them with netting to keep out the pesky parrots.

You just need to know how to prune them to keep them smaller and knock
off a bit of the flower.

[John Savage]

"Michael Quin-Conroy" > writes:
>I am looking for information on growing fruit trees in a small garden by
>placing them close together to limit their size and yield and thereby be
>able to cover them with netting to keep out the pesky parrots.

Crowding ordinary fruit trees close together (e.g., 1 metre apart)
probably won't stunt their growth much. It's the pruning and early
shaping that set their size. It is possible to train a young apple tree
(and probably any deciduous fruit tree) to grow its leaders along a
horizontal trellis of 2 or 3 strands like you can a kiwi fruit. This
keeps the structure as 2-dimensional and makes for easy picking. It would
probably make the tree easier to net, too.
--
John Savage (news address invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)