[Orinlooper]

I have a couple of acres in the country, at the moment its all overgrown with blackberry thorns and weeds.

What I really want to do is plant an orchard, mainly pear and plum trees, but I wont be able to get there very often. I want to plant the trees now so in years to come I can reap what I sow.

If I clear the area, then plant a hundred or so trees and just let nature take over, I wonder how many will survive and thrive?

I notice a patch of waste ground near to an old disused road had a few apple, pear and plum trees absolutely thriving amongst all sorts of weeds and other wild plants and trees. The fruit trees almost certainly came from drivers throwing half eaten fruit out the window.

So I want to make as natural and unhindered orchard as possible, I know the survival rate may not be as good as if Im there tending to the tree often, but its the strongest that survive that I want to eat from in the future.

So what kind of survival rate do you think out of 200 fruit trees? 50% or something?

[NethertonSH]

I am hoping to plant an orchard myself soon although on ground near by. The plan would be to use pigs to clear it before planting.
Depending on where your ground is and whats neighboring it deer may be a big threat. To give you an idea, the forestry commission allow for around 20% damage on commercial woodland from deer and thats when the deer are being managed. In terms of other factors such as disease, other pests or lack of pruning I'm not so sure what the effect would be.

[Fleecewife]

I don't think it's possible to give a survival rate, because as with all these things 'it depends'.

  Young saplings would struggle if the weeds are taller than they are, on the other hand they are cheaper than older trees and tend to establish  better in the right conditions.

  You would need to prepare each planting hole carefully, and include some manure.

  You would absolutely have to protect the trunks from rodents and rabbits, and if there are deer then your project is doomed to failure - they'll have the lot, especially when there's a whole orchard for them to plunder.

  I see the brambles as being a problem - but think of all those apple and bramble pies  .  A tree trying to grow through brambles would simply be swamped and strangled, and anyway you wouldn't be able to harvest them. I know you have said you would clear them, but they always come back.....

  People are a possible problem too - if your patch looks really natural then people will think the fruit is theirs for the taking, or scrumping.  Even if they knew it was planted, but you were not there often, the fruit would still vanish.

Sorry that sounds a bit negative.  You will have a greater chance of success if you can visit fairly frequently to keep the weeds down until your trees are established.

[Orinlooper]

I am hoping to plant an orchard myself soon although on ground near by. The plan would be to use pigs to clear it before planting.
Depending on where your ground is and whats neighboring it deer may be a big threat. To give you an idea, the forestry commission allow for around 20% damage on commercial woodland from deer and thats when the deer are being managed. In terms of other factors such as disease, other pests or lack of pruning I'm not so sure what the effect would be.

Yes everybody says they need pruning and looking after, but when I see wild fruit trees growing all bunched up and haphazard, I think to myself, those are threes that I want. They not only survived but thrived on their own. without any helping hand.

We have no deer to worry about, I love the idea of pigs clearing thegorund first. Do pigs clear blackberry bushes?

[farmershort]

I am hoping to plant an orchard myself soon although on ground near by. The plan would be to use pigs to clear it before planting.
Depending on where your ground is and whats neighboring it deer may be a big threat. To give you an idea, the forestry commission allow for around 20% damage on commercial woodland from deer and thats when the deer are being managed. In terms of other factors such as disease, other pests or lack of pruning I'm not so sure what the effect would be.

Yes everybody says they need pruning and looking after, but when I see wild fruit trees growing all bunched up and haphazard, I think to myself, those are threes that I want. They not only survived but thrived on their own. without any helping hand.

We have no deer to worry about, I love the idea of pigs clearing thegorund first. Do pigs clear blackberry bushes?

beware of a side-effect of the pig clearing.... Plums (prunus trees) only fruit when they're having a slightly tough life... if you plant them into lovely fertile (pig fertilised) soil, you may find they just grow and grow and grow. When we've planted plums and damsons on east-midland clay, this is exactly what happened... a couple of years of hard pruning eventually gave the plants enough fear of death that they began fruiting.

[clydesdaleclopper]

If you want to do this I would think planting on own roots rather than grafted onto a rootstock would give a better result. They will take longer to fruit but will be more robust. If you look up www.cooltemperate.co.uk and their own root project that will give you more information .

[NethertonSH]

I am hoping to plant an orchard myself soon although on ground near by. The plan would be to use pigs to clear it before planting.
Depending on where your ground is and whats neighboring it deer may be a big threat. To give you an idea, the forestry commission allow for around 20% damage on commercial woodland from deer and thats when the deer are being managed. In terms of other factors such as disease, other pests or lack of pruning I'm not so sure what the effect would be.

Yes everybody says they need pruning and looking after, but when I see wild fruit trees growing all bunched up and haphazard, I think to myself, those are threes that I want. They not only survived but thrived on their own. without any helping hand.

We have no deer to worry about, I love the idea of pigs clearing thegorund first. Do pigs clear blackberry bushes?

beware of a side-effect of the pig clearing.... Plums (prunus trees) only fruit when they're having a slightly tough life... if you plant them into lovely fertile (pig fertilised) soil, you may find they just grow and grow and grow. When we've planted plums and damsons on east-midland clay, this is exactly what happened... a couple of years of hard pruning eventually gave the plants enough fear of death that they began fruiting.

That didn't occur to me at all, quite interesting. Thanks

[devonlady]

The Woodland Trust may have some advice.