00:00Now, isn't this orchard just beautiful and idyllic?
00:03But you do not need acres and acres to be able to grow a lovely, beautiful and very productive collection of apples.
00:15At the moment, this country imports probably about 85% of the fruit.
00:21And admittedly, a fair amount of that will be citrus and bananas.
00:24But we could grow so much more and I'm really interested to see how much we can get into a small space and that anybody can do that.
00:33My name's Tim Foster and this is my allotment and I teach gardening here in sunny Bristol.
00:41Over 40 kinds of tree fruit probably are in one half of an allotment plot.
00:48It's a very abundant plot and we get lots and lots of fruit off here and it's just wonderful.
00:57So to enable us to get as many trees in as possible, we've used a number of different techniques.
01:04So simply one of the most obvious ways of trying to get fruit into a small space is to have a small plant.
01:11And with a tree, you would normally think that's not possible, but here we have a little apple tree and this particular variety is one called Darcy Spice.
01:21And just behind me in the brassica cage, we've got kale and purple sprouting broccoli, which is probably larger than this little tree.
01:28What determines the size of a tree is the rootstock and every tree that we buy, virtually anyway, has been grafted.
01:39That means that a piece has been taken from a variety, which will have the fruit that you want to eat.
01:45That's called the scion and it's grafted to attach it to the top of the very dwarfing rootstock.
01:53And then the rootstock is in the ground and will influence the size.
02:01Something people say is why you're growing so many apples.
02:05Well, each individual tree doesn't necessarily produce a huge amount.
02:09So it's the range which is quite important.
02:12The total quantity of apples, yes, we've got quite a lot, but they're all used and they are spread out over the months.
02:19And so, yeah, we need them all.
02:23So another way of getting a lot of fruit into a small space is to actually grow them on single stems.
02:33And we've got seven trees in a line along here.
02:38That means I've got seven varieties of apple and when one doesn't produce in one year, it doesn't matter because I've got the others there.
02:45The very first one is one called Tom Putt.
02:50It's an early cooker and that means it's ready when the blackberries are ready.
02:56And that can't be any better than blackberry and apple.
02:59At the other end of the row of cordons, we've got a complete contrast.
03:04This is a dessert apple and it's one called pitmast and pineapple.
03:08And it's just a delightful little fruit, which genuinely do have a hint of pineapple about them.
03:21Magic.
03:23You won't get anything like that in a supermarket.
03:26You've got to grow it yourself.
03:27Cordon's are grown in their particular way for a reason.
03:38And the cordons themselves are at 45 degrees, not upright.
03:43That's because those branches are being stressed slightly and it encourages flowering and fruiting.
03:49We can do a very similar thing with a freestanding tree where the branches are upright and none are not fruiting terribly well.
03:56So we can bring the branches down from the vertical towards the horizontal by tying a weight on it.
04:02It's called festooning.
04:03Lovely name.
04:04All it is is simply stressing those branches and getting them to fruit a little bit more easily.
04:09After time, if this works, the weight of the apples themselves will keep the branch down and we won't need these,
04:16which is quite handy because when you're moving around, you quite often get a face full of log.
04:26So another great way of getting fruit into a small space, having that variety,
04:33is to have something slightly strange and that's to have one tree with more than one variety on it.
04:39It's called multi-grafting.
04:41And this particular tree has got four different varieties on it and starting with discovery,
04:50which is a slightly strawberry-tasting fruit, fairly mild, but it's ready in August.
04:58That's followed by Ellison's orange.
05:02Taste of aniseed.
05:03Really a unique apple.
05:05The third one on here is called Winston and that's terrific for storage.
05:12So we'll be eating those well into the new year.
05:15A little bit small, perhaps should have been thinned.
05:18Who's in charge here?
05:20Finally, at the back is a fourth variety, which I was donated because it's a very special one.
05:26It's called Cat's Head.
05:28Some places call it pig snout because of the shape of it.
05:31And the reason why it's special is because it's possibly from Roman times, certainly pre-medieval times.
05:40And I'm growing it possibly for that reason alone, because it's a pretty foul taste.
05:46I'd find it really difficult to pick out a particular variety, which I'd say is the best.
05:57But if I was really pushed, it might be this one here.
06:00And this is a variety called Ashmead's Kernel.
06:03It's a really lovely, crisp, creamy, white flesh.
06:09And the flavour is so complex and rich, it blows everything else out of the water.
06:14And this will store really well as well.
06:16I'm very pleased the way this has all turned out.
06:24It's a little sanctuary as much as anything.
06:27And I hope anybody visiting here will be able to see what is possible.
06:33And as a teacher, I quite like the idea that people could learn from how to grow trees
06:38and particularly how we can all fit fruit trees into a small area and make sure that we all have homegrown fruit.
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