You don’t need a full orchard space to plant and enjoy fruit trees in your home landscape. Where you place your fruit trees, whether it’s an entire home orchard or just a few trees, can make a big difference in the growth and performance of your fruit trees. Here are some things to consider:
soil and moisture
The main factor is the soil. Placing the home orchard where the water drains off immediately after a rainfall helps the roots get the soil oxygen they need to keep the canopy supplied with both the moisture and nutrients it needs. This is important to support continued leaf growth and fruit filling. causes potential decline and death. It makes a difference.
air and frost
A consideration that you may not hear much about is air evacuation. In home orchards, late spring frosts can be largely avoided by placing trees on slopes and high in the landscape. This keeps cold air away from the trees. The challenge is to prevent frost-sensitive flower buds from being damaged in late winter and early spring. Drupes such as peaches are most susceptible to late spring frosts.
garden size and tree selection
When choosing trees, homeowners should think about a certain amount of dwarfism, especially if garden space is limited. There are several types of fruit trees to consider, including apples, cherries, peaches, pears, and plums. Since we live in northern Illinois, apples are likely to be a staple fruit tree grown in our backyards as they are very cold tolerant.
Dwarf apple trees are smaller than their full-sized siblings and are much easier to train, prune, and maintain. It is dwarfed because it grows out and limits the size of the fruit tree. The smallest fruit trees are a combination of grafted or sprouted spurs on a dwarfed rootstock. These root systems are limited and can be easily blown away, so they need support. The catalog lists mature sizes, but the final size of your dwarf tree is up to you.
Dwarf fruit trees are not limited to apples only, so larger mixes can be planted in smaller spaces. please. Next time, let’s take a closer look at pollination.