Need a "Growing Fruit Trees" 101 education

I'd like to plant some fruit trees on our farm so my daughters can enjoy the fruits of my labor in about 15 years. I'd like to plant 3 each of apple, pear, peach, persimmon, and cherry. I have about 2 acres picked out that is near and pond, so I'd always have a water source. Thinking maybe drip tape ran from a solar powered pump during the warm and dry summer months. There are a few local nurseries who sell fruit trees so I plan to consult with them before buying.

Just looking for some do's and don'ts from those with experience. I had one guy tell me you should never have a pear tree close to other fruit trees but he didn't give me a reason why. Will 2 acres be enough space for 15 trees of different species? I'd like to buy trees that are already at least 3 to 5' tall.

ol' dad

Dad used to say make a $10 hole for a $1 tree. But the best advice I can give is to make sure you plant when they’re still completely dormant (barefoot always preferred) and prune back heavily. If your tree already has scaffold branches 2-3 ft long stub them back to 6-8 inches. The roots of that tree were mostly lost when it was dug so the equivalent top of the tree needs to be lost as well. This is the biggest mistake most newbies make.
First year moderate fertilizer and regular water. Keep weed free with mulch or plastic or mechanically. Some fruit trees will need fungal sprays.

As far as spacing goes you can fit about 4-600 trees in two acres.
Good luck and if you need any specific info on a species feel free to reach out

Also stake it so it remains straight and put a wire cage around it if your in an area with rabbits or deer. Dormant oil in the spring and insect spray as needed. You can usually get that info form a nursery or university.

These guys got it. Get it started right as in right size hole, prune off broken and damaged at planting, head it back to balance the root and train and prune it right the first few years to build a strong well structured tree that can produce and carry a good crop of fruit.

Too many folks stick one in the ground and forget about it. Come back in three to five when they figure it should be bearing and wonder why it's either dead or a tangled mess.

Once established and well trained keep it that way. And don't be afraid to ruthlessly manage the fruit load each season because if you've done your job right it'll set more fruit than it can hope to fully fill out. How much depends on the type and cultivar.

great info! thanks! So many different varieties to choose from! The nursery I was planning on buying from said most of their trees are two years old and don't have branches. Should I spend the extra money and buy from a different supplier with older trees?

ol' dad

This was day one of apple planting this spring. 4-6' bare root apples soaked for 3-4 days, plowed in 8" deep. Watered for 12hours that day then 12hours every 7 days after. trim damaged limbs that's about it. Planted watered and tied to the trellis same day.
Peaches and cherries same way just a little further apart. Nitrogen applied directly to the ground, everything else is sprayed.

No, you’ll do fine with un-limbed whips. No worry, stub them back to 2-3 ft and they’ll make branches. For fruit trees size is measured in stem diameter at the base. Ie: 1/2 “ or 3/4 “

Feel free to PM me if you like we are Kansas' leading producer of fruit trees, not sure where you are located in MO but we are only an hour west of KC. Sound advice above, but you might want to consider root stock type as well and if you haven't done a soil test that is beneficial as well. Some soil amendments are easier to do before planting than after.

I’ll add that you might want a rabbit guard around the trunk…I’ve used 1/4 wire mesh. The wire mesh prevents rabbits from girdling the tree but also lets air flow so mice don’t use it for nesting. I did about a 6 inch diameter x 36” tall…we get plenty of snow here and you need to get the trunk protected above the snow line. In Missouri, I’m not sure how much of a girdling problem you’ll have. I think rabbit damage happens when they are looking for food after substantial snow.

I also would use at least a 6 foot high fence around the tree to protect it from deer browsing. I did about a 6 foot diameter and it worked good.

Deer will do your pruning for you down here, lol. Leave you a stub if you ain't on top of it.

I agree with rootstock…it’s a smaller tree but grows twice as fast. Idk why but maybe less transplant shock.

Good advice

Can you share a link to your business? I will check it out. I'm in NE Missouri. Can you elaborate on what "rootstock" is? I see trees listed as dwarfs and semi-dwarfs. What is the difference and are there advantages from one over the other?

ol' dad

if there full size trees space them about 25 feet apart.

Some rootstocks are mostly about restricting the tree’s growth. Like dwarf or semi-dwarf. These rootstocks are grown out as clones and so the orchardist can expect identical growth results from all his trees. Some rootstocks were bred for other characteristics such as nematode resistance or drought tolerance. Others are better for heavy or sandy soils.
Rootstocks are planted out in the spring and then bud grafted in late summer. The following spring the rootstock is headed off just above the graft union. The first year whip may grow 4-6’ on some species. That whip is then headed back and scaffold branches are produced.

Semi dwarf trees typically bear sooner than those on standard roots. Personally for a homestead I like to have a few apple trees on standard roots and let the tree get big.

One of the good reasons to deal with local or regional nurseries is they already have taken into account local conditions and choose rootstocks and varietals for those conditions.

great info! Thanks BP!

ol' dad

Some before and after pics on fruit tree pruning for newly planted stock. These are peach trees I just planted:

That's the way it's done. Open the center to get light and air to all sides, leave three to four main scaffolds that'll be your solid frame for years to come. And have them down within reach.

Beaverpeeler, I know you know but could you describe the why for ol' dad.

Would this be how you do apples and pears?

There are different strategies involved, but the one I favor is as Warrior mentioned; leaving 3-4 scaffold branches to form an open center to allow light in and air to circulate. When your trees come from the nursery some have side branches where you want them. Some don't but you can stub it off with zero side branches...no fear, it will sprout lateral branches all the way down to the graft union the following spring, just select the 3-4 you want to keep. I try to choose branches that have a less acute angle as these form stronger scaffolds once they get big.

My example here are peaches but I do all my fruit trees pretty much the same way. You can see that I took out over 80% of the top which will help this tree to get off to a good start since the pruned back roots don't have to support so much of a top.

And when possible plant as early as possible! Fall if possible. The nursery dug these trees just days before I planted them, so once roots begin to grow it is into their permanent planting spot...not in a bin filled with sawdust.

Tree roots always break out of dormancy long before top of the tree does.

Thanks for taking the time to explain this. I really appreciate it! It has given me a jump start to planning my orchard. I'm hoping to get my trees ordered and in the ground by the end of next week.

Ol' dad

Good for you! You may expect to get 20-30% more growth next year over spring planting.

So I ended up having to wait until spring to buy my trees. Going to put them in the ground this saturday. They are about 1-in diameter in the base maybe 6 to 7 ft tall. Any dos or don'ts when I plant them?

My plan was to take one 20 inch excavator bucket worth of dirt out. Set the root wad in and fill in with bottom ground top soil. Lay down a 30 inch diameter of landscaping cloth around the base and put mulch on top. Was thinking I would cut 2 ft sections of black perforated drain pipe to wrap around the base and keep rabbits from girdling. What is the best way to stake them? With a single t post or 3 guidelines to shorter stakes?

Ol dad

do you guys like square holes or round?

Just make sure that you plant the tree to the same depth it was in the nursery. Make sure there are no air pockets around the roots. Everything you outlined in the above post seems OK to me. I don't add support to the tree. Never saw a reason with a tree that has a 1" diameter girth.

Like in the pics of my peaches, you will want to cut that 6' tree down to about half of that.

I assume that size tree is potted or balled/burlapped? Pruning back is strictly a function of balancing for root loss when the tree is dug. I wouldn't cut a 7' tall tree down to 3-4' tall, that is excessive in almost all cases.

I don't cut back the top of any trees anymore, everything you said should work fine, are they bear root? no need to stake them, might have to fence, to keep deer off,

Thanks for the info. This is some of what i have. It looks like the main trunk was already cut down on most of them.



Ol dad

Fruit trees don’t do well if you spray weeds around them much I’ve killed about every fruit tree had or planted.

Really interesting advice here. I have around forty fruit trees mostly apples in North-central WI. Have pear and a couple of plums recently started. I plant bare-root trees that are around 9 feet tall when I get them from a local nursery. I plant standard or full-size trees, my primary purpose was wildlife habitat but it has become way more than that, as I prune and spray for personal use. I have not cut my main lead or top trees. I prune down to one lead and the balanced scaffold limbs I want around the tree. I have not had to stake or tie off a tree. As stated good hole, good rich dirt, I use our own compost from our cattle. My trees as stated are like your planting out in the wild areas, so getting them large, tall, and mature to keep wildlife off them. I like them tall, and the deer keep the lower limbs trimmed up once it they are large enough to take fencing down. It is a lot of work but very rewarding. PS My wife hunts the main orchard fro archery season and shoots a dandy buck almost every year.

I get dwarf trees, apples, plums I would have to spray every two weeks all summer to stop the apple maggot flies,
I found the pear and reliance peach do well so far with no spraying

Try to choose 3-4 good scaffold branches and cut everything else off. Head back your scaffold braces too. You will not harm a fruit tree pruning way back, you will encourage good fresh strong growth.

I bought 30 apple trees from NEyotetrapers business about 3 years ago. One died but it was a victim of the neighbors overspray. I’m very happy with that since we have been in a stout since planting them. Chris gave me good advice and a choice of root stock. One is more suited to sandy soil and the other for clay type. Living on the river we went with the sandy root stock. Here’s his website:

www.turkeycreektrees.com

The only time not to prune is late summer/fall that'll promote young tender growth just in time for first frost/freeze. But that applies to all growing plants.

One other note: If your fruit trees have been in a pot for too long the roots tend to curl around the bottom of the pot. Try to get them spread out as best possible and scarify (scratch) the sides of rootball. They can also be nipped back a little if necessary. You don't want roots wrapped around roots.

I have all of my stuff in 5' Plantra staked tree tubes. Most all the hard and soft mast trees are peeking out of the top since getting them in almost a year ago. Fruit trees were 2-3' tall when planted. Would the recomendation be to prune the way described once eveything comes out of the tube or prune the central leader now as some of them are 2-3' out of the tube. Nothing has really formed a crown yet.

Too late to be of any help for Dad, but might be of interest to others following in his wake. I used to know a guy (now passed) who was a retired college professor whose hobby was apple trees. Had about 50 or 60 varieties on a vacant lot in town. Wrote a book on all things apple trees. Was never published, so only available in manuscript form. What a shame as it offered some of best information going. I only found out about him as U of MO extension specialist suggested I call him, as he knew more about it than they did.

But point to all his work, and his recommendation for home growers. Basically select 6 to 10 varieties.....that matured at 2 to 3 week intervals. That allows you to start mid summer and harvest applies all the way to first frost and beyond. Plant dwarf stock, as even most dwarf trees will produce 3 to 5 bushels of apples........more than most folks can eat or store. Who eats 30 to 50 bushels of apples each year? Dwarf trees can be planted 6 to 10 feet apart, so even a couple 50 foot rows is all the space needed. Dwarf trees come into production sooner and can be managed from the ground. Pruning, spraying and harvesting.

The criteria he used to select those to plant were combination of maturity, flavor and texture, keeping ability, disease resistance and suited to climate. Honeycrisp is an excellent eating apple, but as per John, once temps exceed 100*F, the trees stress out and drop all the fruit. So don't bother planting Honeycrisp in central MO. Another thing he was adamant about was not allowing trees to set fruit when they are too young. Understandable as you want to see what you have. But it will stunt the tree for life if you do.

The other thing is the root stock. A dwarf is a dwarf is a dwarf? Nope. There are maybe half a dozen or more and each has it's own attributes. Good luck finding out what root stock most container trees at the box stores are grafted to. Good to buy from a place as mentioned above so you know.

In the south, fruit trees are the devil. I maintenance watering and consistent spray.

Storage apples aren't really a thing down south as we can't do proper root cellars. Jellies, canned, butter, dried are how they got stored. Some did cider as well.

One source on the web that discusses apples for hot climates that I've found is kuffel creek.


https://www.kuffelcreekapplenursery.com/

Heat and humidity is fungus and bug heaven. Throw in warm winters throwing off chill hours or early bloom late frost and fruit trees are a challenge.