Fruit is wonderful, flavorful, and healthful! If you get fruit varieties suited to your climate, you will have a much easier return on the investment of time as compared with vegetables. Fruit trees do not have to be coaxed to life each year.
Just as in my article: Creating a Garden, you have to prepare the ground of your orchard before you plant. Take special care to add mineral nutrients to make your soil a perfect location for a tree to thrive. In addition to these suggestions, I want to provide some planting guidelines and spacing suggestions for your orchard.
Orchard considerations
Propagation
Spacing
I have enjoyed walking through surrounding orchards, and observing the pruning methods, and orchard layout. The spacing would depend on the type of root stock which determines the size of the adult tree: dwarf, semi-dwarf or regular.
Fruit trees need a fair amount of space. For the small orchard like ours, I would assume you will be looking for semi-dwarf root stock varieties (where possible.) I do not suggest you work with dwarf stock unless you really have no room for any trees. Dwarf root stock stunts the tree so badly, that you have tree health issues ongoing. We chose to lay our orchard out on a 15 foot grid. This will be just right for the semi-dwarf trees, and a bit small for the regular sized cherry trees. We decided to place the cherry's on the north side of the orchard plot so as they grow they will not shade the other trees too much. Some full sized apple trees could use a diameter of 25 feet, so know your root stock, and plan your spacing accordingly.
Orchard Planting 2012
When looking to plant our orchard, we decided to focus on trees that were hardy and disease resistant. We wanted trees that would offer a low chemical spray requirement. Our selections are as follows:
Orchard Update 2016
The Apple trees and peach trees had their first real year last season. This year the peaches have come on thick, and it has taken days to thin out the thousands of extra peaches. The peach tree borers have been hard on the peaches. Several trees are affected, and it seems also that some of the early limb angles were not enough to prevent bark being impacted in the growing tree bark, making for what looks like very weak crotches. I will have to support these, and watch this closer with any future trees planted.
In May 2016, I planted three more threes on the west end of the rows. This will make the three rows from North to South:
1) Royalton Sweet Cherry, Sugar/German Plum, Mount Royal Plum, White Gold Sweet Cherry, Chinese Apricot, (dying) Stellar Autumstar
2) SunHaven Peach, Contender, Cresthaven, Glowhaven, Stellar Glowingstar, Stellar Blazingstar
3) Liberty Apple, Crimson Crisp, Galarina, Goldrush x2, Gala-like Resista
Orchard Update 2018
The tree layout for 2018 is by row:
Tree planting principles
Initial Pruning and Training
Mail order trees may be initially pruned for you. If you buy local, the initial pruning will not be done, and you must prune the trees right after planting, so the branches and leaves are cut back to the level the disturbed roots can support. Bare root trees must be pruned to survive. How you prune depends on the type of tree. You want to prune to select the apical bud that will grow outward from the tree, rather than inward to the center.
On almost all fruit, it is important to train for wide crotch angles of at least 45 degrees. This measurement is from the trunk to the branch angle. A narrow crotch angle is weaker and more prone to break under the fruit crop load. Good healthy trees have crotch angles of 45 to 90 degrees.
Resources
Just as in my article: Creating a Garden, you have to prepare the ground of your orchard before you plant. Take special care to add mineral nutrients to make your soil a perfect location for a tree to thrive. In addition to these suggestions, I want to provide some planting guidelines and spacing suggestions for your orchard.
Orchard considerations
- Some trees need partners to pollinate well. Some trees are male and others female, and these surely need pairs to be successful.
- There are different tree root stocks which will help control the size of the tree. You need to plan your orchard spacing with this information in mind.
- How you plan to cultivate weeds, irrigate and harvest your fruit may influence your inter-tree spacing within the row, and the space between the rows. Orchards take a lot of ground, so plan out the grid and prepare the holes before you purchase trees.
- If you are wanting to go organic, or at least avoid toxic chemicals as much as possible, consider purchasing disease resistant trees. (See this reference also.)
- Orchards need attention at specific times of the year. An orchard is not something you plant and forget till harvest. There is something to do each month and some months, there are a lot of things to do. You need to be able to devote time to the trees for watering, training, insect control and pruning.
Propagation
- You may want to propagate free stock. Any tree cultivar less than 17 years in production may be under trademark, and should not be propagated without permission and payment of royalty.
- Starting fruit trees is not hard. Root stocks are selected for their vigorous growth. The grafted stock, or scion is also easy to grow. With one root and one scion tree source, you could have hundreds of grafted trees in a period of a few years.
- Some trees and bush varieties grow directly on their own root stocks, and are easy to self propagate and share with others.
- Vines, berries, and all of the trees are readily propagated. Find examples to take terminal clippings from. The normal pruning process will yield a large quantity of new starts if wanted.
.JPG) |
| Apple tree just after planting. |
I have enjoyed walking through surrounding orchards, and observing the pruning methods, and orchard layout. The spacing would depend on the type of root stock which determines the size of the adult tree: dwarf, semi-dwarf or regular.
Fruit trees need a fair amount of space. For the small orchard like ours, I would assume you will be looking for semi-dwarf root stock varieties (where possible.) I do not suggest you work with dwarf stock unless you really have no room for any trees. Dwarf root stock stunts the tree so badly, that you have tree health issues ongoing. We chose to lay our orchard out on a 15 foot grid. This will be just right for the semi-dwarf trees, and a bit small for the regular sized cherry trees. We decided to place the cherry's on the north side of the orchard plot so as they grow they will not shade the other trees too much. Some full sized apple trees could use a diameter of 25 feet, so know your root stock, and plan your spacing accordingly.
Orchard Planting 2012
When looking to plant our orchard, we decided to focus on trees that were hardy and disease resistant. We wanted trees that would offer a low chemical spray requirement. Our selections are as follows:
- Pear: Moonglow, Starking Delicious
- Apple: Freedom, Crimson Crisp, Galarina, Goldrush x2, Gala-like Resista
- Peach: SunHaven, Contender, Cresthaven, Glowhaven, Stellar Glowingstar, Stellar Blazingstar, Stellar Autumstar
- Plum: Sugar/German, Mount Royal
- Cherry: White Gold Sweet, Black Gold, Stella
The Apple trees and peach trees had their first real year last season. This year the peaches have come on thick, and it has taken days to thin out the thousands of extra peaches. The peach tree borers have been hard on the peaches. Several trees are affected, and it seems also that some of the early limb angles were not enough to prevent bark being impacted in the growing tree bark, making for what looks like very weak crotches. I will have to support these, and watch this closer with any future trees planted.
In May 2016, I planted three more threes on the west end of the rows. This will make the three rows from North to South:
1) Royalton Sweet Cherry, Sugar/German Plum, Mount Royal Plum, White Gold Sweet Cherry, Chinese Apricot, (dying) Stellar Autumstar
2) SunHaven Peach, Contender, Cresthaven, Glowhaven, Stellar Glowingstar, Stellar Blazingstar
3) Liberty Apple, Crimson Crisp, Galarina, Goldrush x2, Gala-like Resista
Orchard Update 2018
The tree layout for 2018 is by row:
- 1: Pear: Moonglow, Moonglow
- 2: Pear: Starking Delicious, Starking Delicious
- 3: Apple: Freedom, Crimson Crisp, Galarina, Goldrush x2, Gala-like Resista (not doing well)
- 4: Peach: SunHaven, Contender, Cresthaven, Glowhaven, Cresthaven, Cresthaven
- 5: Royalton Sweet Cherry, Sugar/German Plum, Mount Royal Plum, White Gold Sweet Cherry, Black Gold Cherry (new), Stella Cherry
In the perspective of time, I would not plant any apple trees again (in my area). The diseases and pests make organic apples not worth eating (in my opinion), and conventional apples are readily available in our area.
Tree planting principles
- For maximum production, trees need deep soil ~ 3 feet deep.
- Many areas have a clay or hardpan under the surface, and this needs to be broken up and penetrated so the roots can develop and allow for proper drainage. Prevent a hard layer or clay glaze around the hole you dig. You want the roots to penetrate out of the hole into the ground beyond.
- When preparing the planting hole, care should be taken to not include so much mulch that the tree settles and the crown sinks below the surface of the soil line. The tree needs to be planted at the same depth as it was grown at.
- Do not let the roots dry out in the planting process. If bare root trees can not be immediately planted, the roots should be protected from drying out, perhaps even temporarily being planted.
- Add to the hole: mulch (leaf mould), top soil and the soil from the hole. Add some kelp powder or a small amount of sea salt for micro-nutrients. Do not fertilize a new tree.
- Deep in the hole, place a plastic pot upside down, a section of drainage tubing, or some object which can form an air / water cavity. This is not as needed in well drained soils such as sand.
- Add some rocks deep into the hole, but not a solid rock layer.
- Mound up the soil contents in the center of the hole, preparing a base for the tree roots to rest on.
- In windy and exposed areas, consider placing a large rock on top of the mound, around which with tree roots could rest and grow. The rock would serve as an anchor for the tree.
- Plant the tree to original soil depth, filling in around it with the soil mixture already prepared.
- Plant the graft union notch to the north east to help prevent sunburn on the graft.
- The soil line around the tree should be 1-2 inches above the surrounding soil. This is a slight mound around the tree.
- Water the tree with 5 gallons of water after planting to help remove excess air from the roots, and provide moisture.
- If the soil is heavy loam or clay, care should be taken to not drown the roots with too much water. Mixing soils as mentioned should remove this danger because of the mixture of the top soil and compost into the planting mix.
- Water the tree regularly (2 times a week may be a minimum in hot / dry weather.) The tree must be nursed to life and its roots will not be able to stand much stress. Make a circular watering basin around the tree at the perimeter of the roots and beyond to water the planting area. Do not have the water pool around the trunk.
- Mulch the tree 3 feet around the trunk to prevent competing weeds and hold moisture. The mulch can be wood chips or other mulch material, around 6 inches in depth. Do not mulch right up to the trunk as this could encourage crown rot and harbor pests that could damage the tree.
Initial Pruning and Training
Mail order trees may be initially pruned for you. If you buy local, the initial pruning will not be done, and you must prune the trees right after planting, so the branches and leaves are cut back to the level the disturbed roots can support. Bare root trees must be pruned to survive. How you prune depends on the type of tree. You want to prune to select the apical bud that will grow outward from the tree, rather than inward to the center.
On almost all fruit, it is important to train for wide crotch angles of at least 45 degrees. This measurement is from the trunk to the branch angle. A narrow crotch angle is weaker and more prone to break under the fruit crop load. Good healthy trees have crotch angles of 45 to 90 degrees.
Resources
- Choose trees that will produce in your area (web)
- Getting started with fruit production (web)
- How to grow organic peaches (web)
- Planting and pruning guide (pdf)
- Planting and care of young fruit trees (pdf)
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