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Sacha[_1_] · 09-08-2006, 02:03 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 9/8/06 13:34, in article , "Malcolm"
wrote:

In article , Sacha
writes
Okay, I extracted more info from Ray this morning. ;-) Apparently the
slabs were real paving slab size - around 3' x 2.5' and they were buried a
yard below the apple trees' roots. I asked him how he had learned about
this (because I'd forgotten) and he said that 'old Tom' who used to work for
Ray's family nursery in Essex had told him. Old Tom had actually done the
digging and laying of the slabs for dozens of apple trees in his time.

I remain very puzzled and still a little sceptical, not least because I
can find no mention of this in one or two old gardening books I have.

I can assure you it used to be done. Peter Thoday, who was one of the
advisers on the Victorian Kitchen Garden series (IIRC) also talked to Ray
about it.

It's certainly fascinating, but why just apples if it was just apples?
Are they more prone than other trees to send their roots, in your words,
"straight down", that they need this treatment? And why is it necessary
to stop this happening when the tree is first planted? I always thought
roots rarely went straight down but tended to spread out sideways
completely naturally unless confined by some barrier. And although,
again as you said, apples can grow quite large with a good sized canopy,
it has always been my understanding that in a large tree the extent of
the root system will, at a minimum, be equal to that of the canopy and
more usually up to twice as much, or even more.

I don't know if it was just apples but those are what I've been told about
and what Ray was told about. I don't know if other fruit trees were
mentioned.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/