Lidl Fruit trees 5th Feb

[Mel]

Lidl have their fruit trees in this week

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20090205.p.Fruit_Trees.ar3

Jonagold, Cox's Orange Pippin, Bramley apples, Stella cherry, Beurre
Hardy pear, Conference pear, Victoria plum or Opal plum
£3.99 each

[Her Lushness]

Nice one, altho it's not quite the weather to be digging holes is it?!

[Mel]

dormant time is the best time. Last year I planted mine up in pots because my fruit area wasn't quite ready

[benarnold]

Hi Mel,

How are you 1yr old trees doing? We bought some blackcurrant and blueberry twigs from Lidl last year and only about half of them grew. Can't really complain as they were only 99p (or maybe £1.99) each and we were expecting them to be a bit hit or miss.

The ones that did grow did pretty well, had a couple of currants on them and they're well over 4 times the size now. Hopefully they'll produce well this year.

[Mel]

Hard to say at the moment as they are dormant, but most of them seemed fine during the summer and autumn . One pear got eaten by the geese, but I think that was the only problem. the main think is get there as early as you can as the plants are in a warm shop and dry out badly so even a day after delivery they can be dehydrated. Put root ball in a bucket of water before planting out & DO plany outside, they should not need aclimatising & you can do more harm than good.

As I have 15 years to wait for my perry pears to fruit the 2-3 years wait for semi dwarfing trees like the Lidl ones does not seem too bad lol !

Talking of soft fruits Aldi have packs of 3 mixed in on the 5th for about £2.50 I think it was. Again fast buying is the key to health in these trees I think.

I bought some grapevines last year, Lidl I think, They did poorly. But If I try again I think I'll go for pot grown initially as I can enrich their environment better that way.


Without a doubt Lidl, Aldi or Wilko plants tend to be a bit hit & miss, because of the heat they are kept in I think. But they are cheap ! So the wastage does not seem so bad. But if you want prime condition fruit trees I recommend Keepers or Deacons Nursery. Not terribily pricy & a great selection. Deacon's are particularly good for family or jenny trees, whereas Keepers have more choice in heritage types I think.

[Duffbeer]

I planted many trees / shrubs from Lidl which are now in their third year, two blackcurrant bushes which yealded a small handfull of berries last year, two redcurrant bushes which yealded nothing, two gooseberry bushes which gave me a good little crop last year, but have just moved them due to them spreading quite rapidly so not sure if they'll crop this year.
I also planted two cherry and two plum trees, one cherry tree yealded about five cherries and the other nothing, the plums were simular, one plum on one and nothing from the other. More than happy for only their second year, expecting slightly more this year but not too much.
I would say to anyone considering buying them to go for it you can't go wrong at those prices.

[fatbloke]

Hi Mel,

How are you 1yr old trees doing? We bought some blackcurrant and blueberry twigs from Lidl last year and only about half of them grew. Can't really complain as they were only 99p (or maybe £1.99) each and we were expecting them to be a bit hit or miss.

The ones that did grow did pretty well, had a couple of currants on them and they're well over 4 times the size now. Hopefully they'll produce well this year.

Well we put apple/pear (and 2 gooseberry bushes) in, but they came from here, only then did we spot the rather sparse looking gooseberry and redcurrant plant in Lidl.

Yes they were still dormant at the time, but they all "took" and have at least doubled in size.

Plus 99p rings a bell, so I wasn't fussed even if they didn't come up.......

The 2 gooseberries we got from Deacons were about a fiver a pop!

I doubt whether "erindoors" will let me put any more in because she insists on keeping at least some flower plants (drat and double drat).

Still, not to be put off, it'll be more nuclear grade chilli again this year

regards

JtFB

[Mel]

A couple of things to mention that are usually missing on the cheaper fruit buys. Firstly most dwarfing or semi dwarfing stock will need staking, possibily forever depending on the type. Second one needs to leave a weed free area of about a meter around the tree/bush because it is not vigerous enough to compete with weeds or grass & depending on the rootstock may never be. (weed control mat is propably the easiest way to do this) Third, many fruits are self sterile and will only fruit with a suitable pollinator nearby. So if you are getting nothing from your fruit tree it might be worth checking the needs of it for pollination. Pop the name into keepers nursery search function for the pollinator group & to see if it is self sterile, triploid etc. The you may need to consider what you need to help pollination along.

[Mel]

I got 4 trees from lidl VERY dry so I soaked them for 1/2 hour before popping them in pos fingers crossed ! Also 3 packs of soft fruits from Aldi, again potted up. A warning they are not seperatly labled !