The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Fruit => Topic started by: HesterF on December 29, 2013, 08:36:04 pm
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I'm working my way through pruning my baby apples & pears - most planted last year. Then just checking what else needs pruning and have done the mulberry but now wondering about the nuts - almond, sweet chestnut and walnut. Should I prune nuts? I think the almond is related to peach so I should probably leave that a few months - and it does need containing so I'm hoping I can prune like an orchard tree? I've planted the walnut and sweet chestnut with enough space for them to just grow - is there any need to prune them at all?
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I don't know anything about nut trees but for some reason, the title of your thread brought a lump to my throat. :eyelashes:
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It's the heartlessness of those without!
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I put in my fruit and nut trees abut 2 years ago. The apples and pears are being trained as espaliers along the fence line and cherries and plums/gages as a sort of hybrid espalier/fan. It does mean that they get checked in the early stages so i stuck a few extra cherries and gages in last year to just let them do their thing elsewhere for an earlier fruting start (there are some more mature apples and pears here already which I'm having to reshape and re establish from long neglect)
My mulberries are too small to need any pruning yet and the apricot/peach and almonds ar all nicely shaped and really dont need any attention at all yet - apart from my plans to spray with home mixed bordeaux end fo this month as a curl preventative. the peach gets leaf curl whereas the others have been clear so far.
My nut trees are also only couple of years planted and perhaps a bit exposed and slow to really establish as walnuts, chestnuts and cobs. the wild hazel is another matter.
I really wouldnt plan on prunign sweet chestnut or walnut unless it develops a ragged habit or when it's about 30 feet tall and threatening to fall over in the snow :excited: Unless you want to coppice the SC for wood rather than nuts.
NOTE: I discovered that one can source pecan and hickory nuts from forst hardy canadian stock capable of tolerating below -15C so i have some seedlings in pots waiting for them to get big enough to compete in open ground. I did lose about half of them last winter when it was pretty darned cold here and they had only germinated that year. I think the remainder will be fine now. Also look at monkey puzzles as a nut source - very tolerant of british climate but like the pecans it's a venture for future generations more than for me - perhaps 25years to a meaningful crop
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Thanks! I'll leave the walnut and sweet chestnut be then. Almonds must be pruned when they're grown in orchards but I'll leave that until May time. You've reminded me about pecans - I'd also read that you could grow them in the UK and it might be good to have a go at them if I can find some stock.
My peaches and apricots are going to be fan trained so they will need quite a lot of training but not until it's warmer and they're growing. Interesting you're planning to spray so early - will they be coming into leaf so early? Do apricots get leaf curl? I thought it was only peaches/nectarines? I was wondering about erecting some sort of plastic cover for them.
I'm hoping to plant a walkway of trained apples and pears at some point - sort of cordons which then grow over to form an arch but I'm working on my pruning techniques first. The rest are mostly half-standard and as babies, they're still quick.
Oh, and husband is about to plant two acres of vines which apparently I'll be pruning to some complex system so that's apparently going to take me a hundred and fifty hours every winter. Good job I like pruning (so far) and the more I don't need to prune, the better!
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my reading suggested spraying peaches end jan and mid feb. I figure if I;m mixing up a batch of bordeaux for one tree I might as well spray related varieties.
Suprisingly my apricot and peach still have a few green leaves on them - the apricot on every tip - and wales isn't known for it's mediterranean climate.
I didn't have a useful wall to train these against so one is stuck ner the greenhouses to hopefuly bounce a bit of heat off and the other in a sheltered not too far from the reed-bed system to try and pick up some warmth there.
I only have 4 varieties of seedless dessert grape selected for tolerance to my weather which i plan to double guyot but they really aren't growing as well as I expected. I had vines ina glasshouse before we moved here and once established they went like trains with armfuls of prunings every year
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I meant to add that with my nut trees I've planned most of them to go around the field sides to give room for the tractor between them and ditches and the intention is to prune lower branches and put squirrel collars on as they establish - or I'll never see a nut. there was a 40-50 foot wallnut where i lived before - just inside the neighbours garden and the only time I got nuts was after a storm when the squirrels coudn't get them all first. Otherwise the nuts never reached the ground.
there's hundreds of hazel in woodland and hedge here and i got hardly any nuts for me last season.