It’s that time of the year again, the time to plant Bare Root Fruit trees from October to January in the UK. I thought I’d update you on almost a years worth of growth of our fruit trees bought and planted last January.

We wanted some small fruit trees for our garden, that could be planted in the ground by a sunny fence in between our raised vegetable beds. We also didn’t want them to grow too high or too wide so they didn’t shadow the vegetable plots.

The solution was columnar fruit trees.

What are Column or Columnar Fruit Trees?

• Perfect option for a Small Garden. These small trees reaching a height of 2 Meters and a width of 18 inches.
• Low Maintenance – only pruned once a year in late summer and that’s just to maintain the column shape and encourage more new growth next year.
• Great for a Sunny fence or wall. For sweeter, larger fruit, the dwarf fruit trees need a sunny position.
• Different types of fruits available. Column Fruit Trees come in all types like apples desert and apples cooking, pears, plums, cherry, apricot, peach, gages and damsons. There’s one for everyone.
• No support needed unless in a windy area. These column trees need no support unless they are in a windy area and then only a skinny post is required or even a thick bamboo cane.

1 Years growth of our Column Bare Root Fruit Trees.

In these series of photos, I am showing the growth of the Apple – Golden Delicious fruit tree in a column form.

Last years post: We have Bare Fruit Trees!

As you can see from the second photo, the column tree is grafted onto the M27 rootstock and this is what keeps the tree small.

The dwarf tree has grown to approx 4 foot high in the first year. There will be no fruit until year 2 and it will be a mature tree after 5 years.