Allotments 4 All

Just spend a satisfying half an hour up a ladder in my medlar tree picking the rather curious fruits.  Picked over 70 from a 6 year old tree - not bad I think, and I haven't been able to reach the ones at the very top - my darling up a long ladder me thinks.  They will now spend a month in trays in the shed to blet before becoming medlar jelly to give away as Chrissy pressies.

very envious EJ, would love to have medlars bletting in the shed ::) ;D

Mum brought me an asian pear tree which I am really looking forward to growing.  One of my fave hard fruits!  Now all I need is a quince tree and a peach and I am about done.  Wish my cobnuts would nut and my fig tree would fig....relocation relocation relocation me thinks.

way off thread :P
which asian pear are you getting EJ and which pollinator?
I have ordered a Quince this year ;D

I really should move my quince,the poor thing is strangled out by hedgerow. Cob nuts nut OK-(or so the squirrels tell me). I`ve started some severe pruning of the fig-it`s taking over the greenhouse.

I`ve never grown a medlar but on the slightly less usual side I can recommend a mulberry.

I don't know which asian pear Sarah, and I hoped ( she hopes) that my three apples, and the neighbouring apples and pears will provide pollination enough.  Anyhow, I'm sure I will have a couple of years to discover what is needed and plant accordingly.

My fig is in a pot, and I have decided to plant it against a trellis in the garden and train it as a fan.  The cob is amongst the shrubs in the border and it has never gotten taller than 6 foot.  The poor thing hasn't had an easy life and I hoped now it was in a permanent home it might thrive.  Out into the sun me thinks.

I fancy a mulberry, but aren't they huge plants?  Not really the room in the garden, mind you, who needs lawn?

Despite the song Mulberries are trees not bushes. There's one I used to walk past in central London that has to be 40ft tall with a spread not far off the same. That would cover my neighbour's garden as well as mine! That said I wish I did have the room because they are lovely trees.

Perhaps you can prune them heavily to keep them manageable?

All this talk of trees, fruit and nut, makes me REALLY wish I had a bigger garden. I have a fig (planted in the ground in a plastic dustbin) it did really well this year as did the patio pear (also now in the ground).Not much room for more as  BW wont sacrifice any more lawn.
A friend gave me a walnut tree, now about 4ft high, but I fear I wont see any fruit as it is slow growing and we will have moved by the time there are nuts!

At Barnsdale Gardens they have an overgrown mulberry tree. Last year they chopped the top off, next year they're going to chop the sides off. So if they can do it, you can! 8)

They (Mulberries) take a long time to get that big.... I've had mine about a decade and it is still not any real size, think unpruned forsythia after two years, the fruit are ace though... they can live up to 500 years so plant it and let it be someone elses problem...
;D
Deb P has a medlar at home... she gave me some but they didn't blet well so still undecided... think they need leaving longer on the tree.
::)

SS has tasted my fruit-Mulberry that is :P

Well, if anyone wants the hundreds on our Medlar they are welcome, even bletted the taste is disgusting!

Blet, bletting - it's a whole different language ??? ??? ???

Quote from: saddad on October 30, 2006, 19:49:22

Deb P has a medlar at home... she gave me some but they didn't blet well so still undecided... think they need leaving longer on the tree.
::)

Oh dear!
Plenty left on the tree, I'll give you another bagfull.

I love my medlar tree, very graceful weeping habit, lovely large blossom. The fruits are a bit of an aquired taste, sort of toffeapplish/caramel, OH has a sweet tooth and loves them when very soft.

I only use mine to make jelly as my grandad and mum think it is amazing instead of apple sauce with pork.  My tree doesn't produce as much as perhaps it could because I have it trained roughly like a fan to provide an extension of our fence so we are not overlooked - but I don't want it shading the already shadey beds.  It works well, does okay being pruned, has lovely big leaves, fab autumn colour, wonderful big white flowers and the fruits might not be to everyones taste, but they look so odd I just love them!

I don't like walnuts so have never thought of growing one.  What do mulberries taste like?

My medlars!  ;D

They even look good EJ
Thanks for the offer Deb P I'd like that...
;D

Wow e.j.that is a nice crop,medlars they are called,we call them mispel,i have also a tree in the garden.In holland we got a proverb with goes like zo rot als een mispel,it means something like rotten as a medlar.Here in holland the pick medlars just after the first frost,they say the medlar must be ripper than ripe almost rotten.

what a lovely fruit - do you know their ancient common name EJ? rather too descriptive of the calyx :-[

HELP !!!  EJ  have just been given whole cardboard box full of medlars by my sisters neighbour in Hampshire :o :o :o

Please would you post the instructions for ... bletting ... and jelly making  not at all sure how to treat these guys !! :-\