Segment: Fruit Trees
Episode: 11
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
TX Date: 2 May 2020

There’s a lot of us wanting to grow more of our own produce at home and this includes fruit trees. Trev gives you tips on easy to grow fruit trees for your garden.

• Some varieties of fruit trees you can grow easily from cutting or seed but others you don't want to because you don't know what you might end up with, so it’s important to make sure you pick the right varieties!
• One of the most popular fruits around is the Avocado. This will grow quite readily from seed and whilst it may take a few years to fruit, as many as 7, it will fruit!
• The fruit may vary from the parent fruit slightly but should be quite reasonable.
• Another fruit that leaves us with a large seed is the Mango, and most will grow true from seed too.
• The trick with Mango seeds is to let them dry for two days after removing them from the fruit and then plant them into a single pot with good potting mix.
• Babaco is a cool climate form of Paw Paw that doesn’t produce seed, and only grows from cuttings!
• Take some cuttings around 20cm in length and pop them into a 200ml pot of soil and cover with a plastic bag over the top. In a few weeks you can then plant them into the ground.
• When it comes to apples, pears, peach etc you will get seeds, but it’s much better to grow them as grafted trees sourced from your local garden centre.
•  these will be true to type which can be a problem with these kinds of trees varying and not being enjoyable to eat. Plus, a grafted tree will be producing a nice crop within a couple of years!