Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => GARDENING AROUND THE HOUSE => Topic started by: hive101 on March 08, 2009, 01:58:11 pm
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My wife and I just ordered some fruit tree saplings that'll be delivered in a few weeks. Four in total--apple, pear, cherry and peach, all self-pollinating.
My question is: how far apart should we plant these trees? Ideally, I'd like them all in my backyard, which is fenced in. Any thoughts?
Thanks.
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Im ordering 30 fruit trees but they are not self pollinating. Here is a link to the nursery where I am buying from and what they suggest on palnting.
http://www.acnursery.com/acn_planting.php
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we have a fruit orchard. you want to have a good idea of what the mature size of the tree will be. many varieties sold now are compact, dwarf, miniature, etc. once you know that, plant them far enough apart so that the tree branches will not overlap. you also want to have easy access to clean up underneath, mow, etc. size can be controlled by pruning, but you still need to give the trees plenty of room to branch out. i have 8 to 10 feet between most of my trees. there are a few dwarfs that are probably closer.
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Are they full size or dwarf? Figure how big you think they will be and plant them so they won't be touching. :)
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Thanks for the replies thus-far.
The smallest is a compact stella cherry, which should be about 10-12' tall, according to the nursery. The others seem to be about 16-18' tall. I have no idea what that'll equate to width-wise. :?
We live in a suburban subdivision, so our backyard is roughly 60' wide from fence to fence. I was hoping to just evenly space them out across the far end of the backyard, but if I need to keep 10-15' between them, I'll only have room for 3 there (since I can't plant them on the edge of the fence, obviously).
I'm thinking maybe the stella cherry can go in the front yard. The front yard gets a lot more sun, though... much more than the backyard. They're both what I would call "full sun", but our home faces south so the front yard gets the extreme mid-day temps, which in TN is about 98-ish degrees.
Thoughts?
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you can put them closer together. they will just be harder to manage, but a lot can be done with trimming. 10 to 12 feet tall is not very tall. those can probably go closer together. the 18' might need a little more room.
if you have to put them closer together, just keep the branches trimmed so that they don't jam together and make sure you can clean up underneath. remember that roots will spread approximately the width of tree, untrimmed. estimate somewhere around 1/2 the mature hight, or a little more. depends on the type of tree. apple sometimes are as big around as they are tall. you don't want your roots eventually growing into your septic tank if you can help it. :-)
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cherry need the least room usually. Pears are also compact.
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Figure spread as 2/3-3/4 the height. Therefore a 20 foot mature tree would have a 13-16 foot spread. Such a spread would place the planting 20 feet apart. Height is a good way to guage planting distance.
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Awesome! Thanks for all the replies, everyone. We did some measuring yesterday and decided on putting the apple, pear and peach trees in the backyard, and the cherry tree in the front yard.
We're on sewer, so the septic tank isn't an issue (although it's a good tip). I just need to make sure the roots for the cherry won't grow into the phone and cable lines that are run from the road to our home.
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My question is: how far apart should we plant these trees? Ideally, I'd like them all in my backyard, which is fenced in. Any thoughts?
Thanks.
How big is your hammock?