The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Fruit => Topic started by: Lesley Silvester on August 23, 2014, 09:43:17 pm
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I went into my garden centre for some compost so I could sow spring cabbages and winter salads and accidentally bought a Bramley apple tree. The trees were marked as 30% off.
Can I be the only one who accidentally buys trees?
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I think that's called a 'senior moment' :roflanim:
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Oops, an ( apple ) crumbly mind moment :roflanim:
But did you remember the compost??
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oh well, cant have too many apples can we?
i was chuffed to see our conference pear tree finally fruiting after 7yrs. i never thought it would with us being up north. we bought that from Focus cheap.
my girls went out and stripped my trees of apples today, they just cant comprehend that they are cookers and will grow huge if given the chance. nevermind, it happens every year aswell.
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Yes, I did remember the compost. :roflanim:
Not so much of the senior moment, pgkevet. :P
Actually, I was thinking of my OH and how much he likes apple pie. :innocent:
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Not so much of the senior moment, pgkevet. :P
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Did I mention that I once booked an altzheimers awareness course?... and forgot to go... :-[
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You aren't alone - I am a bit of a tree/fruit bush bargain shopper.
I've had a few berries at the end of season prices so tho I paid full for the redcurrants just to get some I won't pay full price for what I already have even one of at home now. But can't resist a good bargain when passing one.. esp if I have a trolley :o
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Glad I'm not the only one, Ellie. to be fair, I did have a space where a fruit tree I planted a few years ago didn't survive it's first winter, so the space needed filling. And it was on offer. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them.
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Not so much of the senior moment, pgkevet. :P
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Did I mention that I once booked an altzheimers awareness course?... and forgot to go... :-[
:roflanim: :roflanim:
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I think it's perfectly normal to accidentally buy a fruit tree :tree: I accidentally married Mr F :roflanim:
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I just have a 'lidl' look as I go by, and suddenly they are in the trolley :o . Seems rude to put them back :innocent:
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So glad I'm not the only one. :roflanim:
FW, how did you 'accidentally' marry Mr F? I deliberately married Mr MGM so I have no excuse. :roflanim:
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I hadn't thought I would get married until I was at least 30, too much to do, too much to see, but suddenly there I was at 20 all hooked up and planning a family :love:
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Hmmm...Time for one of my rambling true stories:
V was late. We bought the kit. Oh dear!
Ho-hum, we had been together long enough that we were all but married anyway so time to make it legal. I bunked off my housecall list the next morning and went to see the local registrar. Yes, you can blag an appointment by just turning up and being sweetly firm about just needing a quick word.
The good news was that such things as special licences had long been abandoned and one can get married immediately. "Goody" I said "Book us in for 10.30 am Saturday."
The lady Registrar gave me a look of absolute horror and stuttered all sorts of stuff about how busy she was and, look, all her forward bookings being filled up for weeks if not months.
I gently took her appointment book from her and had a look. It was filled in fullly with 30 minute slots for a long time ahead.
"I'll tell you what" I said "It really can't take 30 minutes to do a quick wedding. So how about you talk a bit faster and get the 10am mob out by 10.20. I'll make sure my lot are prompt and waiting to race to their seats. You can rattle through the biz at 10.23 and have us out by 10.35 so the next lot can get done by 11?? Pretty please?"
After 'some discussion' of the matter the lady Registrar finally cracked and agreed.
I drove home and told V we were getting married on saturday at 10.23.
"What!" She exclaimed. "I can't possibly be ready by Saturday! There;s rings and dresses and cakes and.."
After 'some discussion' V agreed that Saturday week would be possible. Oddly when I rang the Registrar and asked if she remembered me - well she did. I was very polite when i apologised that this Saturday wasn't suitable any more but definately we could do the same thing on Saturday week.
The Registrar finished choking on something or other and replied weakly "Yes Mr K. 10.23am Saturday week"
(does any wedding ever go off without a hitch? One day I'll tell you about the day itself.)
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hitchless wedding here, organised in just over 4 weeks. Term time, worked weekends! ;)
And yes MGWM - I "accidentally" buy trees and stuff for the garden all the time!
And sometimes animals...
;) :D
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Oh sheep are so often bought accidentally. In fact we're off to the Lanark rare Breeds sale on Friday......... Will have to sit on my hands ;D :hugsheep:
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Auctions are dangerous. I would have to have both hands tied behind my back if I went to one. Hands have a habit of slipping out when you sit on them. ;D
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I've just "accidentally" bought 270 bedding plants .... oops!
they'll go nicely with the bulbs I'm waiting on delivery for... and an accidental Eucalyptus tree! (I just like them!!)
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That's a big 'accident', Ruth. ;D
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You know what you've done now MGW. We will all be buying things "by accident" I bought 3 silver pencilled wyandotte bantie pullets from our smallholders market last Saturday, by accident of course. ::)
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Oops, sorry everyone. :sofa: :surrender:
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:D
at least these are all "nice accidents" ;)
the 270 bedding plants are a Suttons deal through Groupon, if anyone's interested!
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I can't buy Bramley apple trees were I am, I have a cooking apple tree which was here when I moved in and it fruits every 2 years, thinking of chopping it down. I had to get rid of my goats due to the fact they were so mischevious they kept getting into the garden and stripping the bark off the trees. That's probably why its gotten diseased.
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The problem with bidding accidentally is looking at the auctioneer right in the eye. The trick is don't stare at the auctioneer otherwise he thinks that you're bidding and he keeps eye contact. When I was a lot younger i went to a poultry auction and by accident looked him in the eye, before I knew it I was bidding against another person. Embarrassing :dunce: :roflanim:
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I accidentally bought a bare root plum tree at Asda yesterday. As soon as I'm home in daylight, it's going to accidentally fall into a hole somewhere in the garden. I hope it's going to be ok! ;D
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Actually its the right time to buy fruit trees, because the weather is nice and cold so they'll be dormant. :)
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I can't buy Bramley apple trees were I am, I have a cooking apple tree which was here when I moved in and it fruits every 2 years, thinking of chopping it down.
You can sometimes stop a tree that's got into the habit of biennial bearing by summer pruning - just go out with the secateurs in July and cut back all this year's new shoots to four or five buds - around 15cm. The tree will often respond by throwing fruit buds rather than the new shoots growing ever longer.
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I can't buy Bramley apple trees were I am, I have a cooking apple tree which was here when I moved in and it fruits every 2 years, thinking of chopping it down.
You can sometimes stop a tree that's got into the habit of biennial bearing by summer pruning - just go out with the secateurs in July and cut back all this year's new shoots to four or five buds - around 15cm. The tree will often respond by throwing fruit buds rather than the new shoots growing ever longer.
I think i might do that. here's a question if the whole tree is diseased and only fruits every two years what do i do?
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When you say it's diseased do you know what the disease is ? If you had an animal like that you wouldn't keep it in case whatever it was got passed on to the rest of your flock/herd. So if the disease can be successfully treated - fine, otherwise it's firewood. Spits a lot though even when dry. Then it's time for a new tree, best planted in a different place so it can't catch what the old one had. A bit of research may lead you to a locally successful variety, we have several Scottish ones able to stand our weather (yes even in coastal Caithness !). And if your current one only fruits every two years, you won't mind waiting and not letting the new one fruit in its first year so it can really get established.
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When you say it's diseased do you know what the disease is ? If you had an animal like that you wouldn't keep it in case whatever it was got passed on to the rest of your flock/herd. So if the disease can be successfully treated - fine, otherwise it's firewood. Spits a lot though even when dry. Then it's time for a new tree, best planted in a different place so it can't catch what the old one had. A bit of research may lead you to a locally successful variety, we have several Scottish ones able to stand our weather (yes even in coastal Caithness !). And if your current one only fruits every two years, you won't mind waiting and not letting the new one fruit in its first year so it can really get established.
It has woodlice living in its trunk
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Hmm I thought wood lice only lived on decaying material so if there's some dead wood that is rotting that could be the attraction for them. Tree surgery might remove it but if it's due to a fungus it will likely return so I would say it's even more reason to cull this tree and start again elsewhere.