Planning Your Home Orchard

Autumn is a great time to plan and plant fruit trees on your property. Before spring blossoms and fall harvests can occur, a lot of thought must be put into planning exactly how fruit trees interact with each other and pollinators. For successful plantings and bountiful fruiting, take into account the following information.

Self-Fertilizing & Partially Self-Fertile Trees

Some fruit trees, like certain cherry and peach varieties, can self-fertilize. Because of this, you can plant an individual tree without worrying about placing it within range of another, and it will bear fruit. Apricots are a reliable example of self-fertilizing trees, and will produce adequate fruit solo.

Partially self-fertile trees can fruit on their own, but often yield a better crop when paired with another tree of the same species but different cultivar. Asian pears and European plums are examples of such trees, and will produce a bigger bounty if cross pollinated.

Asian Pear

Cross-Pollinating Trees

Many fruit trees require a second tree of a different cultivar in order to have any crop. Fruits like apples and Japanese plums require this. For some, pairing two fruit trees requires very specific companions, so it is worth investing some time and research before purchasing and planting. For example, sweet cherries exhibit considerable incompatibility issues between varieties.

Sometimes folks think that getting trees that bloom early, mid and late season will result in bearing fruit all season long, but in fact the varying bloom times force the pollination to be missed. This will result in no crop. If you would like to stagger bloom and fruit times, be sure to do so in pairs so that there can be pollination and fruit success.

When picking varieties to cross-pollinate, they should be very different from each other in addition to being compatible. Apple varieties that are too similar to each other, such as Gala and Red Delicious or Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, will not pollinate each other well. A more mealy fruit should be matched with a less mealy fruit, like McIntosh and Sweet Delicious. However, most Vermont gardens are in proximity to a neighborhood crabapple, which is an excellent partner. Many orchards plant crabapples as pollinizers to improve their crops.

One outlier in the world of cross pollination is multi-graft trees. Several cultivars of a fruit can be grafted together, and therefore are able to self-pollinate. In some cases, different fruits can even be grafted together for a tree that produces a very varied crop.

Crabapple

Thinking Property-Wide

There are many factors that contribute to a successful orchard set-up, and it is important to think about your property as a whole in order to address them.

In terms of spacing trees, there is some leeway. Trees to do not need to be planted close together, as bees and other pollinators travel far and wide. Within a hundred yards should do just fine. Of course, you can always plant in closer rows or clusters for a traditional orchard feel.

The source of pollinators is very important to consider. Orchards work very closely with apiarists who bring in the bees for fruit pollination each season. At home, you should consider planting for pollinators in order to achieve the best fruit set – you’ll want as many pollinators as possible at the time of fruit trees blooming. To accomplish this, plant pollinator-pleasing helpers that bloom in time with your new fruit trees. Or better yet, keep your own bees!

Be aware if you are spraying around your garden that it could impact how many pollinators visit your trees. Mowing and pesticide application can disrupt pollinators. Without adequate pollination fruit will be stunted, or you may experience overall early fruit drop. The average window of pollination during bloom is just over a week. Cool weather during bloom will lengthen this period, and warm weather will shorten it.

Tree collars in the Horsford growing fields. 

Avoiding Common Mistakes

There are two common failures of growing fruit trees at home. One is that the soil in the pot or root ball is lighter than the clay soil typical of Vermont. When you dig out the hole to plant it, you create a “bowl” of wet soil which the tree sits in over the season. One recommendation is to plant your tree upon a berm, a slight slope that drains well. The more drainage, the better.

The other failure is your tree being girdled by rodents or deer. For rodents, beware mulching up around your trunk. Add wire screening around your trunk for protection, making sure to keep it a bit loose for future growth. As for deer, you’ll want to consider more robust and taller fencing, at least until the tree is mature and established.

Another great option to stave off rodents girdling under the snow line in the winter (young fruit trees are their favorite) is to use a tree collar, a white plastic collar that wraps around the base of the plant.  This serves two purposes: it keeps the voles out and the white reflects light off the trunk. Without a collar, warm light on the trunk in the winter months heats the water within the tree during the day which then freezes at night, causing frost cracking in the bark.