Aldi - fruit trees next week

[jeanaustin]

Just been told by my neighbour that Aldi will have bare root fruit trees - cooking and eating apples, pear, plum, cherry and apricot - min height 1.2 metres at £3.99 each from Thursday 23 February.
I missed out on the recent offer of fruit bushes as I didn't go down till mid morning and they'd all gone, so I'll be queueing for them!

[chrispea27]

ill be in the queue too!!

[pakaba]

me too,
thanks for the tip

[KMARKSnr]

Wow how cheap is that - i put my hand in my pocket in December,and ordered 1 each of  Apricot, Plum, Peach,Blueberry, and paid £58 approx`  hope i havn`t made a big mistake.
             Saying that - the trees are extremely healthy,and planted,with buds starting to grow 

             Bought them from T&M .

                           Regards,
                                Mark.

[plot51A]

Don't think my Aldi ever had the fruit bushes in the first place. Am hoping there might be a mini greenhouse left today - my store had most of this Thursdays offers on display and for sale last Tuesday - but no greenhouses 

[Jimmy]

Had contemplated some fruit trees but price had put me off a bit having laid out a bit on my primary aim of veg. and soft fruits.

Guess at this price, cannot really go too wrong and will see in a couple of years how they have gone.

Jimmy

[Mave]

Thanks for the info I will put a notice up on my allotment site to let all my fellow allotmenters know.  They've been waiting in anticipation fpr them to arrive at Aldi.  I bought my first two tree's an apple and a pear a couple of years ago and the've been fantastic I got loads of fruit off them last year.  I also have a cherry and apricot that I bought last year but as yet no fruit will have to wait to see how they do this year.  The allotment  bye-laws that cover our plots state that we can't have trees but at the moment people take no notice.  Does this apply to any other plots?

[glow777]

Have got an area earmarked for a cooking apple and a plum but will have to send the wife to buy them and she won't read the labels!

So from previous purchases can anyone answer the following questions.

1 - are they self fertile?
2 - what stock are they on ie what height will they eventually reach?

cheers Ian

[jennym]

Bramley is a common cooker and is very vigorous, even on a dwarfing rootstock. I struggle to keep mine below 10 ft. Don't know about other cookers.
Plums are usually on St.Julien A, or a more dwarfing one, Pixy. I think St Julien A is Ok, as you can keep plums more easily under control, have kept mine to 6 - 8 ft with the aid of festooning. If Pixy is used, sometimes they have to be staked for their lifetime if you are in very windy area.

[keef]

They've got what looks like half decent overalls in Lidls next week aswell, i use them for working on my cars, but handy for the allotment occasionally.

[jeanaustin]

Apples need another variety nearby as a pollinator - some varieties, and I think Bramley is one - need two pollinators and they need to all be in flower at the same time. 
Cherry, plum and apricot are self fertile.  Not sure about pears.
The information on the Aldi site doesn't say which rootstock they are on.
One of my lottie neighbours got a couple of apple trees last year from Aldi and they've grown well and look very healthy.
We don't have any restrictions on fruit trees on our site - I've got two mature apple trees on my lottie (a cooker and an eater but don't know the varieties), unfortunately they aren't on a dwarf root stock and had never been pruned so they are very tall.  The last couple of years there has been masses of fruit but I can't harvest it all because of the height of the trees. Still the blackbirds get to feast on those I can't reach - both on the tree and those that subsequently fall off.

[Celtic_Growers]

Mrs CG brought 4 trees, 2 dessert, 1 bramley, and 1 pear. 
going to plant at bottom of plot, out of the way...lol
what I dont like is no rootstock reference,  still at that price, I hope they produce a little fruit.  have to wait and see.
Was going to plant today, but alas the snow will make the ground to wet.

[sweet-pea]

I've just been down to the local Aldi and left empty handed. Without knowing the rootstock I didn't want to risk ending up with giant trees!  I want to grow as cordons and fan/bush to make the most of space on my plot.
They looked healthy enough though, I saw Bramley apple, cox's orange pippin, stella cherry, conference pear, and a couple of others I can't remember!

[Jimmy]

Thought I would go and try a Stella for the £3.99 tag- with the price of cherries, if they fruit reasonably well it will be worth it.

[Jimmy]

Agree that not knowing the rootstock could lead to problems but how much could these grow bearing in mind they can be pruned? Then again would the pruning reduce the fruit yield?

[Ceratonia]

My wife bought an apricot, cherry and victoria plum. No idea where we're going to put them - the Apricot will need a wall to go against I guess and I imagine the cherry is going to be much too tall to go in one of the empty beds in the fruit cage.

I searched on the net for Gardenline and from my limited German, it seems that the cherry and plum are both on St. Julien 'a' rootstock. I'll post again if I can work out anything about the apple & pear rootstocks.

[Robert_Brenchley]

St. Julien A is for plums not cherries, and as far as I know produces a tree about 15 feet high with an average variety on an average soil.

[Ceratonia]

Sorry - it's the apricot and plum which are on St. Julien - not the Cherry.

[northener]

Got my 2 apple trees today great bargain

[KevB]

I Bought a Hedelfinger Cherry Tree, (self pollinator) alas I didn't look at the possible hieght until later ooops - 12ft.- 35ft  I cant seem to find out much about this species and i've googled it?? Any advice for care etc.?
Cheers KevB