Does anyone have any fruit trees?

We have an apple tree and an ornamental crabapple tree. Not sure what kind of apple tree it is exactly but it does seem to be mainly just a cooking type of apple. Anyway, it seemed to be an off year for apples here in our area and we didn't think we were going to get very many but a week ago, we did pick 80 pounds. We were so excited and had planned to freeze some, make some pies and try our hand at making apple chips. However, after the apples were picked for almost a week they developed weird ribbon like marks all over them. Turns out they are infested with apply sawfly. That is so disappointing after all the work we went to with pruning the tree, spraying with dormant spray last fall and again in spring to get the coddling moth under control.

Has anyone got any experience with fruit trees?

GK

We have an orange tree, but I don't think that's the kind of experience you're looking for! Good luck! That must have been so disappointing!

I have pear, plum, peach, fig and apricots trees. Apples do not do well in this area. I didn't know about the 15 year lifespan on peaches. That explains why the tree only bore half of what I would have expected. I "inherited" these trees with the property. I planted a peach and pear this year, so will probably plant another peach next year and cut down the old tree when they start producing. Thanks for the heads up.

Interesting information. Thank you so much. I will have to check it out. Our tree is old and has been sadly neglected for years and badly pruned before we inherited it when we bought the place two years ago. Even though the apples are not great for eating out of hand there is just something wonderful about picking your own apples and making a pie or apple chips.

We would like to try growing a peach tree in a half barrel. I have seen articles on it and want to try espalier style along the fence just for fun. There are short season varieties that I have a line on from a place in Alberta.

GK

We also have an apple tree. This year the fruit didn't pollinate well and most of the fruit dropped off when very small. Needless to say... no fruit either.

We have a young orchard, and two apple trees bore fruit for the first time this year. We harvested about ten Yellow Transparent apples in July. Something got all of our Golden Delicious apples on an older tree as well as every green pear on our established Bartlett tree. Now it appears that all of our green Arkansas Black apples on the young tree have disappeared as well. Squirrels?

Thanks for the info Ward. We'll try to find a copy of the organic orchard book.

I guess all the critters are suffering from this hot, dry summer, too, and have to get their food where they can find it.

Hello,

I'm new to SFG but thought I'd throw in my 2 cents re: fruit trees. I've had several in our Santa Clara home (S.F Bay Area, N. Calif.). Had several varieties of cherries Queen Anne, Bing, Black (analysis: WAY too much work fighting pests and thieves a.k.a. squirrels and birds) (result : removal after 10 years)

Improved Meyer Lemon: great fruit, produces often but sporadically. Finally ripped it out after neighbor's tree turned huge and hung over fence (meets all of our lemon needs); planted raised bed in place hence me joining SFG

Nectarine: analysis: WAY too much work fighting pests and theives a.k.a. squirrels and bids) (result : removal after 3 years)

White Genoa Fig: BEST TREE EVER! Loads of fruit in summer to late fall, produces in time sequential manner (not ripe all at once), absolutely YUMMY fruit, No diseases, little pest or thievery activity, can prune the hell out of it and it's payback is more fruit!

Would like to put in a Fuji persimmon but understand they don't tolerate pruning at all

Also .... neighbor has had tremendous success w/ Kiwi vine

Yup, plums, pie cherries, apples, Asian pears and figs. Here in rainy Western Oregon, it's imperative to plant disease-resistant apples, which we do. One of the best is a golden-delicious-like very disease-resistant tree called SirPrize. (Any apple tree with "PRI" in its name indicates disease resistance.) The figs are still too young to comment on, and one is recovering from having been stripped of its leaves last year by the resident deer. Best crops we get are from the two Asian pears, enough to can, even! The apple and European pear trees down along the drive way have been stripped every year for the past 3 years by elk herds, so we don't count on them, just on the above-mentioned SirPrize planted close enough to the house to be temporarily fenced every fall. Thinking about adding a couple more apples to an area that can be easily fenced against elk, but some large firs must be cut first. Even with all the trouble growing them, eating one's own home-grown fruit is so very satisfying! Nonna

I'm new to fruit trees. Spring of 2009 I put in 2 dwarf apples (1 each Granny Smith, Honey Crisp) and a Amalden Duke dwarf cherry and last year I added a Fuji apple beside our long driveway.
The first year was a battle with deer which ate many of the branches and I thought I'd lose them but they came back pretty good in 2010.

My dwarf orchard along the driveway last year. The big one in the far front which you can barely see is our Korean crabapple several years old.

I found the tip about hanging anti-perspirant soap from the branches and that worked. I used Irish Spring. The deer have not bothered them since. I renew the soap each spring.
In 2010 I got 3 Honey Crisp apples from my 2-yr old tree and was thrilled.

Here's my apples with a few tomatoes I picked that morning, Green Zebra and Matt's Wild Cherry. Their flavor was fantastic.

On my cherry tree I had what I thought was some sap leaking on the branches. I didn't find out til this winter while reading up on trees that it was actually scale. I hope there hasn't been too much damage when I check this spring. Right now they are nearly buried under snow. At least now I know how to deal with scale this year.

There's more to planting trees than sticking them in the ground and waiting for the luscious fruit, I'm afraid. I'm always battling Japanese beetles out there twice a day to protect my leaves. With a soapy jar of water, I tap the branch on which the beetles are eating and they immediately drop down before flying off. They drop right into the soapy water I'm holding under them.

I don't like to use anything chemical anywhere on the property so its an ongoing human against pest battle.

So how many fruit trees per sq ft hole?

You have to space fruit trees according to the span of their branches when they are full grown.  Depending on variety, that could be 8' to 15' apart.  My dwarf trees are doing well 8' apart.
Digging the hole is the major issue.  Twice the width of the root ball and only as deep as they were grown in the nursery.  For dwarf trees or grafted trees you don't want to bury the 'knob' near the bottom. 
I don't support or brace new trees against the wind.  I feel the tree has to get used to the wind in its home so no supports and I've not lost a one.  They need some sway in their trunk so they don't snap off on a windy day.  Their roots will strengthen according to their home.
Of course if you have hurricane winds all the time, some support will be needed til they are a couple years old.

1 fruit tree in a 4x4 bed with no weed block below should work   

you then could companion plant in this 4x4 bed with other veggies that would bennifit from some shade   

happy gardening
rose

As long as the MM doesn't cover the trunk. I've seen so many people in the city building little flower beds around their existing trees and filling with material that comes up the trunk.

quiltbea wrote:  My dwarf trees are doing well 8' apart.

Thank goodness! I'm so glad you posted this, QB. I had planted my dwarf pear trees 8 feet apart after reading that somewhere. And then I read later that they should be further apart. I was sure hoping I didn't have to dig 1 up again..

I feel much better about it now. But I sure wish I'd thought about planting them in an SFG box as Rose mentioned above. What a great idea and place to plant lettuce and such.
CC

I have several fruit trees that are going into the third year since planting
We had a couple that developed a fungal type of infection, thought we would lose them, 
(of note because we have terrible quack grass, I HAD put down thick plastic under them.... DUM DUM...
Funny thing I took the plastic out and just put in newspapers and wood chips and they both went on to thrive in the summer

Just to say to be careful of what you put down for weed control

I have one cherry tree in the ground, as well as an apricot and a plum tree awaiting planting.  Two apple trees should arrive any time.

The local Extension advised me to wait another week or two to plant, although it's been warm the last few day, and no extra-cold temps are in the forecast.

Still, around here, one never knows.

I'm thinking of planting a Pluot, yummy!!. The local nursery said I also need to plant a plum for pollination, so I'm in the process of trying to figure out where to put them. My new neighbor abandon a portion of the property between my house and theirs. If you follow the fence line, that property sits on my side so I'm assuming I can claim/reclaim that area. It's about 3-4 feet wide and is in the front. I'm thinking of planing grass, a pluot & a plum there. The squirrels haven't been eating the guava, so I'm thinking the pluot might be safe. I have a lemon tree in the same area that is doing great! Every time it rains, the tree explodes with lemons. I tell everyone who walks by to take what they need any time, but leave the rest for whoever else wants some. I hope to have the same success with the pluot. I'm just not really big on plums...still just and idea brewing in the brain....but hey, why not live a bit and just do it?!

Before ordering my plum tree, I called the supplier (Jung Seeds) for information, and was told that I would need a pollinator.  However, as we discussed the matter, she mentioned that a flowering plum tree in the neighborhood would suffice.

Guess what?  I have two in my front yard!

Ahh!! I need to check with my neighbor. They planted a new tree in the front of their house and I wonder if it's a plum. Wouldn't that be a hoot? Ia'll also look around my neighborhood more closely. Thanks for the thought! All I really wanted was the Pluot tree.

Have you checked to see which plum trees cross-pollinate with the pluot?

You might want to try www.orangepippin.com, which I've found to be a great resource for such information.

From Facebook: https://www.growveg.com/guides/cordon-fruit-trees-how-to-get-the-best-harvest-from-a-small-garden/

If I use containers and grow upward to 6', does anyone know what size container the dwarf trees would need? I can't put them in the ground. I'm thinking for my area, peaches, cherries and maybe a nectarine.

sanderson wrote:From Facebook: https://www.growveg.com/guides/cordon-fruit-trees-how-to-get-the-best-harvest-from-a-small-garden/

If I use containers and grow upward to 6', does anyone know what size container the dwarf trees would need?  I can't put them in the ground.  I'm thinking for my area, peaches, cherries and maybe a nectarine.  

Now you're talkin' my language, Girlfriend! I started with a Meyer Lemon in a 6" pot. After that was a lime -- same size. Finally added a nice big navel orange from Costco. They're all in 3.5 gallon containers, now and 4'-5' tall (counting the containers).

It all started as an indoor winter garden, 3 years ago in my south-facing sun room. This shot was 2 years ago, when they were already in 1 gal. pots. For 3 years I took them out to the deck in the summer and brought them inside for the winter.


Here they are last year, after transplanting.


Now they're getting too big, so they'll have to be planted outside this fall. Waaaa! My BAYBEES! 

We got the orange tree 2 years ago. It now has its first crop of little oranges. The lemon and lime trees have been producing for 2 years.



The Meyer lemon had an accident 2 years ago, when a roll of bird netting fell on it during a big wind. Now it's more of a spreading bush than a tree. The lime tree is behind it -- hard to tell which is which.


Judging from how well mine are doing in small pots, I think you should be okay with 5 gal. pots, for 6' trees, but bigger would probably be better. Can you cut the bottoms out of your pots so the roots can grow down or must they be self-contained?

My peach and cherry trees are in the ground so I don't know how they'd do in containers, but if they're dwarf varieties they should be fine. I've never grown a nectarine. Good luck.

Hi Sanderson, I don't know if this is helpful or not but here goes....

My dwarf Elberta peach came in a 5 gallon pot when I bought it 4 yrs ago. When I went to plant it it was terribly pot bound. I planted it in the ground near the back fence. Last year I needed to move the tree because it was crowded against the fence. This tree is only about 5' tall and about 5' across. When I dug it up the roots would have easily needed a pot the size of a whiskey barrel to hold them. 

A gentleman I know grows his fig trees in food grade barrels with the top cut off. They are the size of 55 gallon drums.

Does anyone know what is wrong with my orange tree? Some of the leaves are turning yellow. }" />