How To Orchards Planting In Backyard Gardening
The biggest mistake home gardeners can make when growing fruit trees is to adopt the practices used in commercial agriculture. A farmer's objectives are completely different from those of a home grower.
High- Density plantings of small fruit trees can produce good yields without waste and extend cropping throughout the year. Above Vigorous growing fruit trees such as apricots may need to be summer pruned 2-3 times a year Left A backyard orchard with young trees spaced close together
The intention of commercial fruit growers is to produce the largest possible harvest to meet mass-market demand. They achieve this by growing large numbers of identical fruit trees, sometimes pruned low for hand-picking, sometimes grown to full size to maximise yields, since they have no shortage of space.
Having fruit trees widely spaced apart and growing to maximum size may work in large-scale commercial orchards, but that's not the best option for backyards.
Why Big Trees Doesn't Work At Home
Large fruit trees create a whole range of problems in an urban setting:
- Limited space A typical backyard cannot accommodate many full-sized fruit trees; deciduous fruit trees generally grow to 4m tall by 4m wide or larger.
- Limited variety Two full-size fruit trees will produce only two types of fruit, no more.
- Overproduction A regular family cannot consume huge amounts of one type of fruit, even when using the excess for preserving by drying and making jams, chutneys, etc. People tire of eating the same thlng over and over.
- Short productive season All the fruit comes at once over a few short weeks, then nothing. It tends to be a glut followed by a famine.
- Difficulty of harvest Picking fruit high up in tall trees is not an easy task, even with the right equipment. Birds and possums usually get to the fruit first before it ripens fully.
- Difficulty of maintenance Spraying and pruning full-size fruit trees is very labour-intensive and challenging and may be physically impossible in some backyards.
- Pest control Netting tall trees is often not feasible due to the difficulty and the amount of protective netting required. Tall trees are also more attractive to birds, possums and fruit bats, as they provide the safety of height.
These problems are completely avoidable by using small trees - but there's a little more to it than that
In this system, the size of the fruit trees is restricted through various methods to a scale of our choice. These smaller fruit trees are planted closer together, at specific distances apart, to create high-density planting.
The combination of these two factors provides many benefits:
- Optimum use of limited space Many small fruit trees can fit in the space occupied by one large fruit tree.
- Greater variety The more efficient use of space permits a wider variety of fruit trees to be grown, or more varieties of the same fruit which can act as pollinators to maximise yields.
- Limited waste Smaller trees can produce enough to provide for a family's needs without excess.
- Extended productive season Higher-density plantings occupying the same space as a single large tree can significantly extend the harvest season by allowing for the inclusion of early, mid-season and late varieties of one type of fruit, or various different kinds of fruit with consecutive harvest periods throughout the year.
- Easier harvesting We can choose to keep trees as high as our arms can reach, or a little higher, for picking convenience.
- Easier maintenance Low fruit trees are much easier to spray, prune and net. requiring less effort, fewer materials and no specialised equipment.
How To Restricting Fruit Tree Size
- In Backyard Orchard Culture, it's the gardener's responsibility to keep trees small: to train them to the right size and shape when they're young and maintain them this way through regular pruning.
- As a teacher of fruit tree pruning.I teach students that traditional winter pruning is ideal for formative pruning, training young trees to the desired shape in their first three years of growth.
- Once the shape is created. the size of the trees is maintained using summer pruning, also known as detail pruning or maintenance pruning. This restricts the size of tree much better than winter pruning by reducing the leafy canopy area available for photosynthesis.
- It's important to note that summer pruning may need to be carried out 2-3 times a year for more vigorous fruit trees such as apricots, Japanese plums, peaches and nectarines.
- With this system, trees are also planted close together to limit one another's growth as they compete for nutrients and water. Their size is then maintained with summer pruning.
Why not just use dwarf trees? Many fruit trees are not available on dwarf rootstock or as genetic dwarves; also, some "dwarf" trees may grow to several metres in height and still need pruning!
Give Spacing Trees Close Together
- Backyard Orchard Culture makes use of various training techniques to create high-density plantings and fit fruit trees into small spaces.
- Espaliered trees grown flat against a wall or trellis and columnar cordon-pruned trees can take advantage of very narrow spaces.
- Fruit trees such as pomegranates, guavas and feijoas can readily be clipped into fruiting hedges.
- As an alternative to multi-graft trees that have several fruit tree varieties grafted onto a single trunk, its possible to use two-in-a hole tree planting and variations such as three or four-in-a hole, with trees planted 45-60cm apart and pruned to create a tree with multiple trunks and a single canopy.