Picking fruit at the top of the tree

APPLES, pears, plums and cherries are traditional and widespread ‘top fruits’ or tree fruits grown in the UK. Once established, they are incredibly easy to look after – the biggest job is picking the often huge crops produced from midsummer to autumn.

Modern cultivated varieties are usually grafted onto dwarfing rootstock to keep the crop within reach, so picking is much less of a problem than it used to be. However, there are still significant numbers of older full-sized trees around, as well as ‘dwarfing’ plants grown in fertile ground that get taller than they should, putting at least some of the crop out of easy reach.