family tree fruit tree

Some people like them. Others don't.
I dont grow a family tree; I have a number of trees, each with just one variety.

It means that pollination shouldn't be a problem, and that you have a selection of varieties on one tree.

On the downside, each part of the tree will have its own growth habit - upright, spreading, fast-growing, slow-growing and so on.
Family trees therefore will need more attention to pruning, to prevent them becoming lopsided, or simply dominated by one variety.

A family tree will usually include 2-4 apple varieties.
Some family trees can also be found with 2-4 pear varieties.
To have apple and pear on the same tree is theoretically possible, but there would need to be an inter-stock of a certain old/rare variety, to bridge the gap between apple and pear, which are normally incompatible.

Family trees will normally be on a medium vigour rootstock, such as MM106, Quince A, St.Julien A, although some are on semi-dwarfing M26.

Hello FB
Thank you for your reply about the family trees .....i think i shall just stick to just one variety tree. would you recommend any that would grow well in tubs..or can you not grow them in big big pots

Thank you woodsy

Personally I think it makes sense to grow one variety in each pot, for all the reasons FB said.

Firstly, what do you want to grow? Apples? Plums? Pears?
If its apples then you will probably need two different varieties to get fruit, in the same pollination group and dwarfing rootstock, such as M27.

If its plums, I would recomend buying a self fertile one, and if its to go on a pot, pixy rootstock.
I think FB has done a comprehensive list somewhere on here, have a look through the search engine.

Hope that helps

By the way I have a gage, a damson and an apple in pots

My choice for a tub, would be:

Rootstock M26 (it's a bit more tolerant of neglect, drying-out, damage and disease than the usual apple "patio" rootstock M27).
The more dwarfing rootstocks (M27, M9 and M26) often form a strange lump at the graft union, which can look a little strange.
MM106 doesn't form a noticeable lump, nor do the heavy-duty "very vigorous" rootstocks MM111 and M25.
However, only MM106 would really be suitable for a pot, but the variety grafted onto it would need to be quite low-vigour.

Hopefully, Mell will be along shortly for another slant on this - she's into MM106, pots and family trees.

Varieties with a good reputation for growing well in pots, with good disease resistance, include:
(they are all fairly slow-growing, compact and will form side branches without the need for heavy pruning).

Adam's Pearmain
Cockle Pippin
Court Pendu Plat
Egremont Russet

Other varieties that might be good:

Bountiful
Crawley Beauty
Falstaff
Fiesta (Red Pippin)
Grenadier


For pot growing, don't chose a variety described with any of the following:

Tip bearing (tree fruits on the tips of branches, so tends to need to get larger each year).

Vigorous (will grow too fast and won't want to produce much fruit of good quality).

Triploid (often extremely vigorous growers, slow to fruit and more difficult for pollination).

.............

Pears that are good for pots include:
Concorde
Conference
Rootstock would ideally be Quince C (similar to M26), but Quince A (similar to MM106) is usable.
Pear pollination is more difficult than apples, but the two mentioned above will fruit without a pollinator.

I would not recommend plums for pots, since they prefer not to be pruned. However, Pixy rootstock is a dwarfing plum rootstock.

Great to find your post Woodsy, I too was thinking of getting a family tree, mainly as my garden is small, and I'm not sure of which apple variety I would like!
I like the idea that they should pollinate each other and hopefully extend the season I might be able to eat them, all from one tree!

Ken Muir (if I'm allowed to mention suppliers) have two different family dessert apples for sale just now -'Discovery/James Grieve/Sunset', and 'Greensleeves/Falstaff/Gala', both on M26 rootstock. I thought the first one might be more suitable for me in Scotland as they seem to be earlier and are listed as frost tolerant, James Grieve in particular is from Edinburgh and might suit the rubbish weather up here!

Haven't bought it y-e-t but very close...

pinns

Bit of a tangent, but I've been thinking of an espalier - say 3 wires - so I could get 6 varieties, one per horizontal wire / limb. The idea would be to grow several along the row, so I could have 6-pears-in-one too perhaps?

Are such things sold? or would I have to teach-myself-grafting?

We've been rubbish at storing fruit over the years, so I figure that just having a few, spread over a decent season length, would mean that we could just pick one or two to munch when the fancy takes us.

Kristen

A few nurseries offer trees with varieties grafter one-on-top-of-the-other. Try Deacons.

You could also get a cheap Bramley (Bramley is tough as old boots and will tolerate a lot of abuse!) from LIDL/ALDI or similar, plant it, prune it to shape, then grow-on and train side branches if for a season before re-grafting the ends of the branches with whichever varieties you please.
People like Mell in particular - or myself - may be able to help with supplying graftwood.

Cracking idea. I had been wondering I might get grafting material from, hadn't though of just asking here! Thanks for that. (No idea if I can graft, or not, but only one way to find out ...)

Um, when I searched a few other apple tree posts, where I have the word "germinator" under my name, Mell has the word "banned" under theirs.... does that mean what I think it means.....??

Yes, afraid so

Oh.....

Are you able to summarise what Mell did?

family fruit tree

Hello everyone thank you all very much for all your replies on my question about family fruit trees, it has been very help full
FB i have dicided on a Falstaff apple an a Conference pear
keeping my fingers crossed Hi pinns have you bought a family tree y-e-t?

Woodsy

Falstaff and Conference seem like a good choice.
Both are above average in most of their characteristics and probably won't need pollinators.

Falstaff is one of those varieties which I often intended to get, but always ended up filling the spaces with old, forgotten varieties. I have Falstaff's parents (James Grieve and Golden Delicious) and I also have one of Falstaff's offspring (Meridian).

School have just surprised me: they are so impressed with how the veg garden & flower beds are shaping up, they've given me another project - to turn a 2' x 5' courtyard bed into an orchard

I am not a fruit expert, I don't even like eating fruit very much. I've got a good budget so am thinking of 6' tall minarette trees of Morello cherry, Braeburn apple, Conference pear & Victoria plum

If the bed is too small, I can use big 30 litre pots

(the rootstock is "secret" but I'm guessing it's MM106 or similar)