Description

The Fruit Tree Handbook is a clear, practical guide for both amateur and expert. It explains all you need to know in order to grow delicious fruit, from designing your orchard and planting your trees to harvesting your produce.

Apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, peaches and nectarines, as well as less common fruits such as mulberries, medlars and figs, are covered in detail, with recommended varieties of each. The book describes all the pest and disease problems you may encounter and advises on how to deal with them. It explains about choosing rootstocks and suitable varieties for your needs, and illuminates the mysteries of pruning with step-by-step instructions and detailed diagrams. It features beautiful pictures throughout.

The Fruit Tree Handbook conveys a deep respect for the natural world, showing how to cultivate healthy trees through good management, and also includes chapters on restoring an old orchard and setting up a community orchard. Whether you are planting a few trees in your garden or 50 trees in a field, this book provides the expert guidance you need to look after your trees – and be rewarded with basketfuls of luscious fruit at harvest time. 

About the Author

Ben Pike is an orchard consultant and writer, and is head gardener on the Sharpham Estate in Devon, where he looks after the walled fruit and vegetable garden as well as two orchards containing 150 fruit trees.  In his spare time he helps to run Orchard Link, an organisation that supports orchard owners and the preservation of old orchards.  There is nothing he loves more at weekends than to run old apple presses.

Praise For…

“A must for anyone considering anything from a couple of trees to an orchard.”  —Mark Diacono, author, A Taste of the Unexpected