fruit trees for small yards

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tamra on March 3, 2009 at 12:13pm

Some dwarf fruit trees can be as short as 8 feet. Read the descriptions carefully when buying. Another great space saving method for fruit trees is espalier. Here is a description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espalier

I am doing this on wires a posts to form a fruit tree fence around my vegetable garden. Here is a picture I took a few weeks ago. http://www.eatseasonally.com/garden_com.php?plant=Espalier%20Pruning

My trees are still real young, but once mature should yield more fruit than a traditional tree.

Also fruit trees are pruned often, so you could prune any dwarf tree to fit you site. The fruit trees that sit in my lawn have planting planting beds under them, with flowers, chives, and strawberries growing as a living mulch.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Terri on March 22, 2009 at 1:40am

Good Morning Tamra,

Thank you for your thoughtful and well written reply. I just found KG and it makes me remember my long talks about gardening with my father before he passed away. I can hardly wait until I retire and can get stuck into gardening in my own home.

Terri

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anoush Wiggins on March 5, 2009 at 2:14pm

I don't know how the climate might affect them, but the easiest and most productive fruit tree I've ever had is a Brown Turkey fig. It produced from the first year, but it took a year to really set roots well and growth took off. You would have to prune the main leader to keep it shorter, but it does bush out well. As a perk, the bottom branches (after my pruning) arch over and it is a favorite hide and seek spot for my boys! The figs are so sweet and delicious that the kids pick them for snacks as they play outside - something that my apples, peaches, and pears have never really inspired them to do... I hope your fruit trees provide the same kind of fun for your family!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Catherine+2 on March 5, 2009 at 2:17pm

Have you considered growing "small" fruits, that is, berries and vines?

I have 2 apples and an apricot in my yard and find that without a lot of attention (thinning, spraying, bagging, etc) the apples are small, and more than half are wormy; and the apricot blossoms freeze 4 out of 5 years, leaving me with a boom/bust/bust/bust/bust cycle. My mom had great luck with a Stanley prune plum (we love them fresh!) in her yard, but a bear broke down half of the branches several years ago (you may not need to worry about bears in your yard, but we do in our mountain community), and the poor tree never recovered. Anyway, I'm just finding the fruit trees, whether standard (my apples), semi-dwarf (my apricot and my mom's apples), or dwarf (my mom's plum) are more trouble than they are worth most years.

Check out Stella Ott's book, the Backyard Berry book. I have now have blackberry, raspberry, blueberry (in pots), gooseberry, and strawberry plants, most put in only last summer so I haven't harvested much yet. I also intend to put in several bush pie cherry plants and a couple of Arctic kiwi vines this spring. You can plan a berry garden to produce fruit from June (strawberries) to frost (everbearing raspberries and blackberries), and have some to freeze and make jams with, as well.

OTOH, I do still plan to put in one more apple, a dwarf or semi-dwarf Jonafree. I love Jonathan apples, but they are no longer a popular orchard tree, as they are considered prone to disease. Jonafree has been bred to be hardier, so I will be puting one in this spring. My rule is, don't bother to grow what you can buy any day at the grocery store (Gala, Fuji, Delicious, etc), plant the great ones that are hard to find! ;-)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gillian on March 5, 2009 at 4:50pm

I live in tropical australia, so can grow lychees,pawpaws and bananas, but would love to grow a citrus. Limes do pretty well in this area, but because of space I think I would like to try one of those grafted ones where you get more than one type of citrus on a tree. Has anyone tried those?
Kalyanii, I would look at what your neighbours are growing. I often find when I have problems it is because I am tryng to grow something which just does not like my climate. Of course that doesnt mean that I never try - I think most gardeners have a high degree of optimism! That is what makes it so much fun! Fruit trees are a long term investment though so worth doing the research.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tamra on March 5, 2009 at 5:02pm

I have a dwarf meyers lemon that I grow in a pot b/c winters are too cold here. You could try one in the ground. I have seen dwarf oranges as well.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Maggie on March 5, 2009 at 7:22pm

Lots of folks in the SA Rare Fruit Society graft a whole variety of fruits on the same root stock with great success.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shawna on March 5, 2009 at 7:37pm

I saw those trees that grow two fruits from one tree in Stark's catalog this year....interesting concept!!!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pete on March 5, 2009 at 8:27pm

A lot of folks are doing high intensity plantings. Plant similar rootstocks but different varieties-- 3 trees in the same hole. Dwarf root stocks don't really do that well. By planting 3 trees in the same hole the roots compete thus keeping the trees small. Also by doing some pruning in the summer you can remove unneeded branches. This method keeps the trees small and allows you to have different kinds of fruit ripening at different times. Check out this website:
http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOC_explained.html
Have fun!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Glenn Fletcher on March 17, 2009 at 3:50pm

Some years ago i bought [in the UK] what are called "maypole apple trees". These are trees that do not grow large branches and they flower and fruit like mad very close to the trunk. They do not take up much space, although eventually they did grow quite tall, but i trained them around an arch so they were quite a nice feature.
http://my.kitchengardeners.org/photo/maypole-apple?context=user

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Glenn Fletcher on March 19, 2009 at 4:42pm

http://www.pallensmith.com/index.php?id=8&video=1486

What we call maypole trees in the UK are called colonade trees in the US. See the video link above.

▶ Reply to This