Plant list

[Inky]

Okay, so after trawling the internet, I have compiled a list if what I want to grow on my allotment and the verieties I have selected. It looks like a lot but a lot of them are just shrubs or trees, so I dont think it will be too much. The next job will be to get the plot measured up and work out a plan. But first I wanted to pop my list up on here for you all to have a look at and let me know what you think. Do you think it looks okay, or would you recomend better verieties, or it there anything here that isnt very good, hard to grow, or you would recomend avioding for any other reason.
Pretty much everything is from Blackmoor, so again, do you have any experience of them, is there stuff good quailty etc? (The veg is all Thompson Morgan)

Poly tunnel:
Kumquat   £29.95 (Jan/April fruit)
Cantelope Melons
Lemon Eureka
tomatoes - tumbling tom
cucumber Cucino F1 Hybrid

Rest of plot
Maynard Mini Stem Sweet Cherry
Blueberry Patriot £10.35 (early)
Blueberry Sunshine Blue (mid)
Rhubarb Victoria and Champagne
Strawberries (30)        Honeoye (early)
          Elsanta (Mid)
          Symphony (Late)
Raspberries (20)        Glen Prosen (Summer) 
         Polk (Autumn)
*Redcurrent Cordon Rovada

Leg tree Orchard of 4 Apple 2 Pear
2 x Braeburn
2 x Queen Cox
2 x Conference
or family tree

Plus some Veg (Thompson Morgan)
potatoes - assorted tester
carrots - Healthy Coloured Collection
red onions Hyred F1
lettice- Chinese Leaves (Also some in poly)
french beans - Dwarf Purple Teepee

[Inky]

[glow777]

do yourself a financial favour
get your trees from aldi and your seed from alanromans.com

also youre going to have a lot of apples from 4 trees but not for quite a few years

[ceres]

I'm with glow777.  Blackmoor are good but pricey.  Unless you're desperate to have particular varieties, I'd get all the basics - raspberry, redcurrant, blueberry, apple, pear. cherry, rhubarb, strawbs etc. from Wilkinsons/Lidl/Netto/Aldi/Poundland etc.  You will only occasionally get named varieties but the quality is generally good and they seem to do well.  And at 99p/£1.99/£2.99 you can afford the odd falure.

I'd only go a a pukka nursery for exotica like lemons etc.

No gooseberries or blackcurrants?

I think you'll miss out on the taste sensation that is home-grown tomatoes if you only go for tumbling toms.  There have been threads here pretty recently on best tom/chilli/potato etc.  Time for a bit of browsing!

Check your site rules before you buy any trees.  Some sites don't allow them and some will only allow dwarfing rootstock.

Your list would be a bit thin on veg for me, but then you should only grow what you want to eat!

[Barnowl]

I think you'll miss out on the taste sensation that is home-grown tomatoes if you only go for tumbling toms.  There have been threads here pretty recently on best tom/chilli/potato etc.  Time for a bit of browsing!

I agree  :) 

e.g. http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,46731.0.html  and

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,45078.0.html

[Inky]

Thank you.
The Fruit trees btw will either be in family trees with 3 verieties on one tree or the ballerina ones which are only a little over a meter high and single stems and frit in the year after planting.

I did think about getting the cheap plants but I found before the verieties werent always very good, i.e blueberries are always Top Hat which aparently is very hard to get to fruit, plus I want quite small ones and a lot grow to 6ft.
And the strawberries and raspberries I wanted a selection where they fruited at different times of year so prolong the season.

I dont really like tomatoes, and neither do the kids, although I do eat the little cherry ones, and I wanted to be able to put them in a hanging basket in the poly tunnel. If there are other little cherry/plum types that you would recomend Im all ears.

[saddad]

I'd recommend Sungold or black cherry for the poly... both too vigerous for baskets. Try a couple of plants, they are so different from bought Tomatoes...  ;D

[Inky]

Thank you yes. thoes 2 look nice, I particularly like the look for the black cherry ones. are the sungold ones cherry size? I think I might be better off growing them in the ground in the poly rather than in baskets, as I dont think I would get to water them often enough. Plus if they are very sweet then the kids are more likely to eat them.

[Barnowl]

One the children should enjoy is Millefleur - it has loads of very small quite sweet fruit.

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/centitomatoes.html

[grawrc]

If you want fruit trees on dwarfing stock for restricted growth they will always be that bit pricier because of the extra work involved in producing them. I have always found Blackmoor good and their prices fair for what they are offering.

Things like raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb I'd be reluctant to spend real money on. They spread like wildfire and with any luck there'll be someone on your site who is thinning raspberries, splitting rhubarb or cutting back strawberry runners.

Alan Romans' seeds are pretty cheap although the range is not huge. I believe you can get good deals on seeds at Wilko's as well. I get a lot of my seeds from Real Seeds - more for the quality than the price.

Anyway it's all about growing what you enjoy and enjoying what you grow so good luck and have fun! There's no single right way  ;)and to be honest half of my enjoyment is the experimenting!

[Melbourne12]

We now buy most of our fruit trees and bushes from Blackmoor.  AFAIAC, they're the best quality supplier of all.

I guess I'd take a chance with fruit bushes, but trees are a big investment of time and space as well as money.  You want to be sure of the rootstock and the variety - neither of which are assured with a cheap supermarket tree. 

[Peasticks]

I have just had a delivery of apple tree, pear trees, plum tree, cherry tree, raspberry canes, blackberry, strawberry runners and a mulberry bush from Blackmoor and am thrilled with them.

Am no expert so little to compare them with but the range was good and I thought the prices were ok, everything is well labelled and looks in good condition delivered in an upright (miracle!) box

I do agree that getting some cheaper bargains from the basic shops is a good idea though

[saddad]

In the ground in the poly is great Inky... PM me and I'll send you some black cherry seed. Sungold is a small tom... couldn't get any for the first few weeks as my children grazed them off as soon as they ripened.
;D
Happy New Year.