Sorbus domestica
Service tree
Common names: True service tree
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −28 °C
- Pruning
- Feb–Mar
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Spacing
- 700 cm, rows 800 cm
- Water need
- Low
- Origin
- Native to Germany
Photo: Christoph Wagener · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Description
The service tree (Sorbus domestica) is a rare, long‑lived native tree whose small apple‑ or pear‑shaped fruits become edible only when they are overripe and doughy. Traditionally it is added to apple wine to make it more durable and tannin‑rich. It was named Tree of the Year in 1993 and is considered a valuable part of the cultural landscape.
Care instructions
Plant the service tree in full sun in a warm location with deep, calcareous soil, it loves heat and tolerates drought well. Water only young trees during the first few years. Prune sparingly, only for crown shaping in late winter. Harvest the fruits in September and October and allow them to ripen doughily before processing. Patience is rewarded, the tree bears fruit only after many years.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestSep–Oct
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, clayey, well-drained, lime-loving, nutrient-rich
Give the service tree a deep, well-drained soil, ideally chalky. It loves base-rich to slightly alkaline conditions and copes with loam, clay and even stony sites, as long as no waterlogging occurs. Avoid strongly acidic, permanently wet soils: wet is deadly for it, and on sandy-acidic substrate it ages quickly.
Feeding
Medium feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
In spring (March to April), spread mature compost over the tree base and work it in shallowly, supplemented with some horn shavings in the upper soil layer. Feed rather sparingly, because too much nitrogen encourages soft shoot growth and weakens robustness. Young trees benefit from this spring dose in their first years; established trees on good sites often manage entirely without additional feeding.
Pruning
You hardly prune the service tree, because it does not tolerate regular pruning particularly well. Only on a frost-free day in late winter (February to March, week 6 to 13), thin out aged, dead or rubbing branches.
Overwintering
The service tree is a native deciduous tree and survives Central European winters outdoors without difficulty. An established tree needs no winter protection. Only freshly planted young trees in their first winter: wrap the trunk with a jute bandage against frost cracks and cover the tree base with leaves or bark mulch; if the autumn is dry, water well before the first frost.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
- Grafting
- Division
The easiest way to propagate the service tree is by sowing or, if you want true-to-type fruits, by grafting. If your tree has already formed root suckers, separating these offsets is also a practical method that keeps the tree true to type.
Sowing: Harvest the fruits in autumn when they are soft and fully ripe, and remove the seeds from the flesh straight away, because the flesh contains germination inhibitors. Stratify the cleaned seeds moist at about 0 to 4 °C for roughly two to three months in the fridge (e.g. in slightly damp sand in a closed bag). Check regularly whether seeds are already germinating; as soon as that happens, sow them straight away outdoors or in pots of humus-rich soil. Alternatively, you can sow the cleaned seeds directly outdoors in autumn and use the winter as natural stratification. Trees raised from seed do not come true and only flower after about 12 to 20 years; for a nature-friendly planting without cultivar demands, however, that is quite sufficient.
Grafting: For true-to-type fruits, graft onto seedlings of the same species as rootstock; this is the most lastingly compatible union. Grafts onto rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), hawthorn, quince or pear are possible, but are considered uncertain in the long term because of low compatibility. Suitable methods are whip-and-tongue grafting and bark grafting (March to April, shortly after the rootstock breaks bud) as well as budding (August). Service tree scions store well; rather graft a little later, when the rootstock has already come into leaf.
Separating root suckers: Older service trees often form root suckers. In early spring or autumn you can cut these off the mother tree with a spade cut, dig them up with as much of their own root system as possible and replant them in a new spot. Keep the young plants evenly moist for the first season until they have put out roots of their own. Trees obtained this way are genetically identical to the mother tree, a simple, true-to-type alternative to grafting if the tree is already sending up suckers.
Companion planting
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
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