Why Position Decides Everything

Planting a fruit tree is an act of optimism. An apple on a semi-vigorous rootstock such as MM106 will crop for thirty years or more, and a well-sited plum can outlive the person who planted it. Unlike a row of lettuces, you cannot shuffle it somewhere better next spring. Get the position right and the tree rewards you with heavy crops, cleaner fruit and far less work. Get it wrong and you will spend years fighting poor growth, canker, bitter pit and disappointing yields. So choose the spot first, then choose the tree.

Before you dig anything, walk your garden or allotment at different times of day and in different weather. Note where the sun lands at nine in the morning and at four in the afternoon, where water pools after a storm, where the wind bites hardest, and where frost lingers on a spring morning. A week of quiet observation will tell you more than any book.

Sunlight: Six Hours Minimum

Most top fruit — apples, pears, plums and cherries — needs full sun for at least six hours a day through the growing season, and more is better. Sunshine ripens the wood, sweetens the fruit and dries the leaves, which is your best defence against scab and canker.

South and south-west facing spots are the cream of the plot. East-facing ground is workable, though morning sun after a bitterly cold night can split the bark of young trees. North-facing sites are best avoided for all but the toughest culinary apples and plums. On an allotment, watch out for the shaded band along a shed, hedge or boundary fence — it can easily be three metres wide and it will never crop well.

Soft fruit is far more forgiving. Blackcurrants, gooseberries and rhubarb will crop in light shade, so save your sunniest ground for the trees and tuck the bushes into the awkward corners.

• Six hours of direct summer sun is the sensible minimum for tree fruit.
• Morning sun is especially valuable — it dries leaves and reduces fungal disease.
• Check for shadows cast by buildings, hedges and neighbouring trees, now and in ten years' time.

Shelter Without Shade

Wind is the quiet thief of an orchard. It snaps branches, batters blossom so that pollinators stay in their hives, bruises fruit and increases water loss. A sheltered site will always outperform an exposed one, often by a wide margin.

The ideal is a permeable barrier — a hedge, a slatted fence, a line of open-growing shrubs — that filters the wind rather than blocking it. A solid wall or dense conifer hedge simply forces the wind over the top and dumps it in a turbulent eddy a few metres downwind. Plant your trees at least three or four metres back from anything solid.

Equally, avoid planting right against a wall or beneath a mature tree. Roots compete for water and nutrients, and the shade cuts both yield and fruit quality. As a rough rule, keep a tree a distance equal to its expected mature spread away from any large hedge or tree.

Frost Pockets and Air Drainage

Late spring frosts are the single biggest cause of crop failure in British gardens. Cold air behaves rather like water: it flows downhill and collects in hollows, against solid boundaries and at the foot of slopes. These frost pockets can be several degrees colder than ground just a few metres higher up.

Wherever possible, plant on a gentle slope or on raised ground so that cold air drains away freely. If a hollow is your only option, choose the latest-flowering varieties you can find and be ready to throw fleece over the blossom on cold nights. Plums and cherries flower early and are the most vulnerable; apples and pears are safer, and later sorts such as Bramley or Egremont Russet are a sound bet in frosty spots.

On an allotment, a boundary fence along the lowest edge of the site often marks a frost pocket. It looks like a tidy place to plant because it is out of the way. Resist it.

Soil, Drainage and Water

Fruit trees hate waterlogged roots. A tree standing in cold, saturated soil will sulk, yellow and eventually die, often of root rot. Before planting, dig a hole about a spade's depth and fill it with water. If it drains away within an hour or two, you are fine. If it is still full the next morning, you have a problem to solve.

Good drainage matters more than perfect fertility. Most fruit prefers a slightly acid to neutral loam but tolerates a wide range, provided the ground drains freely. On heavy clay, plant on a slight mound or ridge and work in plenty of well-rotted organic matter. On thin, sandy or chalky soils, add compost and plan to water regularly for the first two or three years.

Think about water before you plant. A young tree needs roughly twenty litres a week through its first summer. Site the orchard within hose or watering-can reach of a tap, water butt or standpipe — lugging buckets across a windy allotment in July is nobody's idea of a good time.

Access, Spacing and Room to Grow

Finally, be practical. You will need to prune, pick, mow and occasionally spray, so leave comfortable room to work. A path or mown strip at least a metre wide between rows makes a surprising difference to how much you enjoy the plot.

Allow for the tree's mature spread, not its size at planting. Dwarfing rootstocks suit small gardens and large containers, while vigorous types need generous spacing. Cordons and espaliers trained along a fence or wire framework will crop heavily in a narrow strip, which makes them ideal for allotments where every metre counts.

Leave a way in for a wheelbarrow, and keep trees clear of the boundary so you are not forever pruning your neighbour's side of the hedge. Most importantly, group trees so that varieties flowering at the same time sit near one another — pollination is a short flight for a bee, and a compatible partner within twenty metres or so will pay dividends for years.

Take your time over this stage. A fortnight spent watching the sun, the wind and the frost will repay you with decades of picked fruit.