I SEEM to have a growing demand among clients for edibles in the garden.

Fruit trees in particular are gaining popularity and its lovely to see more and more people jumping on the ‘grow your own’ bandwagon.

However, as with all plant related decisions, it's not quite as simple as buying a bit of what you fancy and shucking it in.

Questions that need answering ahead of getting out the Visa may include…Have you space for a free standing bush or would you prefer a restricted form?

And if so, will you choose a standard, half standard, espalier, fan, cordon or step over? Have you chosen a self fertile cultivar or do you need a pollination partner?

And what does MM106 mean anyway?

Well, read on for a quick 101 in fruit trees.

Most fruit trees are grafted or budded (methods of vegetative propagation) onto rootstocks that aim to control the ultimate size, vigour and health of the tree. ‘Borrowing roots’ in this way means that trees that would otherwise be too big can be grown in smaller spaces.

Apples are grafted onto rootstocks designated M or MM (Malling stocks and Malling-Merton stocks respectively) followed by a number to indicate the vigour.

There are many di?erent rootstocks out there but two of the most common are M26 and MM106.

M26 is a dwarf rootstock suitable for bushes, cordons, espaliers and container grown plants while MM106 is a little bigger, semi dwar?ng (semi vigorous) stock widely used for free standing forms in larger gardens and orchards.

Pears, plums and cherries all have their own designated rootstocks that follow the same sort of categorisation in terms of vigour, suitability as a certain form and ideal growing conditions.

Fruit trees can be trained into a number of di?erent forms, which in combination with the cultivar selection, growing conditions and rootstock will determine the vigour of the tree.

Bush forms have a clear ‘leg’ of 75cm, an open centre and are suitable for most rootstocks.

Standards and half standards have the same open crown as bush trees but are trained on taller, clear stems - 1.2-1.5m for half standards and 1.8-2m for full standards.

If you're tight on space you may want to consider a restricted form.

Perhaps the most well known are espaliers.

These consist of a central leader with horizontal lateral stems and are best suited to growing apples and pears.

Espaliers should not be confused with fans where there is only a very, very short central stem from which lateral branches radiate out in the shape of a fan.

This is a common way of growing stone fruit such as cherries, peaches, apricots and almonds.

A cordon is a single stem with short fruiting spurs (side shoots) well suited to growing apples and pears that can be grown against a wall as an oblique cordon (planted at a 45 degree angle), vertically in a container (often labelled as ‘columnar’ or ‘minarette') or horizontally as a low growing step over.

Some cherries and plums are self fertile but most apples and pears are not so you’ll need a pollination partner.

This is a fancy term for a cultivar from within the same or adjoining pollination group (meaning they either ?ower at the same time or overlap periods of ?owering to make cross pollination successful).

It may be that there is a suitable partner close by but if not, you’ll need to add this to your shopping list. To confuse matters further, some cultivars such as Apple ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ or ‘Blenheim Orange’ have 3 sets of chromosomes known as triploids making them useless pollinating partners. They are takers not givers. They can be pollinated by members of the same or adjoining group but they won’t return the favour so you'll need a third tree to pollinate their pollinator. With me?

It may sound a little complicated but don’t be put o?. Think of all the juicy rewards that will come your way in years to come. Once you’ve mastered pruning that is…