HomeMade Food

Growing blackcurrants

CLICK HERE TO BUY QUALITY VICTORIA PLUM TREES  Victoria plum trees are avaailable for sale year round. Smaller dwarfing trees can crop 1-2 years after planting, more growing blackcurrants stocks take longer – 3-4 years sometimes. The divinely flavoured Victoria Plum is quite likely the most famous fruit tree ever raised, certainly for garden growing.

Ask anyone to name a Plum tree and it will almost inevitably be a Victoria, brought to mind by that divinely sweet and succulent flavour and the distinctive rosy red over yellow flush. For over a century it has inspired devotion and love amongst gardeners, orchardists and foodies alike. This article will take you through all the steps required to make the choice perfect for your garden. Soil Conditions First, make sure you have good soil. Plum trees can be fairly tolerant but the better the conditions to start with then the better the results will be. Ideally the soil should not have grown plum trees before.

Siting  Choose the sunniest spot you have and preferably sheltered too. Varying methods and tree shapes suit different applications. Plum trees for small gardens Choose the Pixy stock as mentioned before and grow as a small bush tree, or try the ‘column’ method, this fits very easilt into a garden border or container and casts little shade. Let’s start with a dwarf tree. To grow a dwarf Victoria plum tree you need to ensure the tree you buy in on Pixy stock.

A Victoria plum tree on the Pixy stock is ideal for smaller garden lawn or a border. A more vigorously growing tree is known as St Julien stock. It’s more of a traditional tree that is used more often in orchards or the larger lawn. Crops are amongst the heaviest of all and it makes a grand tree to sit under too! So it’s not a tree for small areas but where there’s room it’s the best choice for productivity and ease of growth. Brompton’ stock which is still to be found in very old orchards today.

It makes a really big traditional tree, much too large for the average garden but still useful for big areas. Fan training is a lovely way of growing Victoria plums if you have a nice South or west facing wall. You will need a space of not less than 7-8’ wide to fan train your Victoria plum, and about the same height. When buying your tree make sure you select one that is specifically described as being suitable to train, or tell the nursery what you are doing with it so that a tree suited to the purpose is provided. You can’t start with a normal bush tree because the lower branches you want will already have been removed. From just below where you cut it off, later in the Spring, the two top-most buds will produce 2 strong new lateral branches. Tie them down horizontally to your supporting wires and remove anything else that forms during the summer.