[Orinlooper]

I once saw a pear tree so huge it towered above a three storey house.

I'm fed up with tiny dwarf trees, which are the mammoth fruit trees?

I know you can't exactly plant them huge to begin with, but which are the largest fruit trees you can buy that will grow into enormous specimens?

Someone said grafted trees are like trees on steroids, then you have to prune them back to get the most growth every year.

Are there any other tricks and secrets to get large trees in as short a time as possible?

[Dan]

The rootstock for grafted fruit trees influences the tree's vigour, ultimate size and can provide some measure of disease and other resistance. There are lots of other factors including soil and climate.

For grafted apples trees the standard rootstock is M25 - this will give you a vigorous tree with a final size of around 6m high and spread. For pears of a similar size you want Pyrus communis.

The vigour and ultimate size of ungrafted trees will depend on the variety - just like other plant species, there's a wide variety of growth patterns between varieties. An ungrafted Bramley will reach 6m, while Court Pendu Plat is a very weak grower and will never reach that size.

The challenge with a 6m tree is cropping it - which is why most modern orchards use specific rootstocks, and why training systems are becoming more popular in commercial orchards.

Good info here if you want to know more:

http://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/articles/fruit-tree-sizes

[Orinlooper]

The rootstock for grafted fruit trees influences the tree's vigour, ultimate size and can provide some measure of disease and other resistance. There are lots of other factors including soil and climate.

For grafted apples trees the standard rootstock is M25 - this will give you a vigorous tree with a final size of around 6m high and spread. For pears of a similar size you want Pyrus communis.

The vigour and ultimate size of ungrafted trees will depend on the variety - just like other plant species, there's a wide variety of growth patterns between varieties. An ungrafted Bramley will reach 6m, while Court Pendu Plat is a very weak grower and will never reach that size.

The challenge with a 6m tree is cropping it - which is why most modern orchards use specific rootstocks, and why training systems are becoming more popular in commercial orchards.

Good info here if you want to know more:

http://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/articles/fruit-tree-sizes

Very good post, and link, thanks for that.

So it sounds like u grafted trees are better, then use training systems?

We planted 50 grafted walnut trees 15 years ago. Only a few are growing and producing well, there is some kind of disease

[pgkevet]

Quite apart from the roostock factor most fruit trees (in the simple sense of apples,pears etc) are grafted so one can be sure of the end result fruit type... few will come true from seed.... unless you get into tropical stuff like mango with polyembryonic seeds so you get a  mix of parent and hybrid germinations despite cross pollination (I think)

I had a problem in my last place with 2 walnut trees that suddenly showed signs of disease - black mottling on the leaves. At that time i spoke to an expert at an agricultural college who was bemoaning the clean air and lck of cola and sulphur pollution which kept most fungal diseases at bay (good for the trees but bad for the kids) - he claimed that was why a lot of the victorian roses did so well and don't now.
As it happens those trees self-cured after about 2 years but during my research i was intersted to find that there are injectable systemic therapies for some tree diseases.

Now if you want to grow soemthig big and can affort a 60foot high greenhouse then try beadfruit - huge beautiful trees full of tasty bounty. I'm mad enough to have actually tried to grow some root cuttings I smuggled in years ago.. probably as well they failed...

The problem with giant trees is both picking fruit and treating disease - frankly not worth it.

You probbaly know from my previous posts that I promote the idea of espaliers for ease of looking after.. you can try grwoing soem vigorous varieties that way and go for wide spreads rather than heights if prepared for the first several years shaping it all. Or stay sane with sensible size trees and just more variety and numbers just like the commercial guys.

[Orinlooper]

Yes espailers make a lot of sense to me. I was just reading about options.

http://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/articles/fruit-tree-fans-and-espaliers

I always find it hard to get the rest of the bounty after the low hanging fruit has been eaten. I love the sound of being able to reach all of it.

[pgkevet]

I'll be starting the 4th and final tier on mine this year...top tier will be about 7ft off the ground. I made 2 mistakes... firstly I planted it all along the fence line to home field.. about 120yds or s of espaliers and fans.. which is fine but I left a gap behind wide enough for two push lawnmower widths instead of wide enough for the small ride-on. It isnt getting easier as i get onlder to push mow that lot and i may have to buy a self-propelled soon.
Second issue is that i cheaped out on the framework using timbers harvested on the farm instead of doing it right and buying in tanalised stuff on metposts. Staying cheap it's just getting to the point in the 4th year that stuff is rotting and needing swapping out or fixing. And being cheap I'm still replacing with my harvesed stuff instead of buying the proper posts.....