Apple trees

[derbex]

I want to plant a few trees in my plot, but I suspect that the soil may not be deep enough. It's about 1ft over clay, and pretty fertile. The trees would be a restricted form dwarf bush or pyramid -and would probably be on M26 rootstock (this from reading a few books).

So, what are my chances, is the form and rootsock a good combination.

Secondly, I'm thinking about raising the level of the soil, say 6" and was thinking of using some sort of stiff but bendy (or stiff in 1 direction but flexible at 90 degrees to it) plastic sheet to do it, anyone seen anything like that -not necessarily related to gardening?

Thanks,

Jeremy

[derbex]

[Palustris]

There should be no problem using one of the dwarfing rootstocks and the tree shape you would like. As long as the soil is not prone to waterlogging there does not seem to be any problem with conditions either. When you plant you may need to break up the sub soil and add organic material to it otherwise go for it.
Cannot help with  building materials, sorry

[derbex]

Thanks Palustris, I'd pretty much decided to give it a go (I'd already dug the first hole and forked some muck into the subsoil) I just wanted some moral encouragement really  ;)

The soil isn't so waterlogged that water lies on it, but if you dig down water will sit in the hole quite a time in winter.

Any favorate varieties? I'm hoping to go to an apple day or two to try some out. I planted Katy, Blenheim Orange & Ashmeads Kernal as stepovers last year, but they're in the garden and so won't help with pollination. A lot of peope seem to be keen on Orleans Reinette.

Jeremy