High Density Backyard Orchard
genghisbunny
10 years ago
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skyjs
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Backyard Orchard Culture (pruning bareroot trees)
Comments (11)One caveat on peach trees in particular is they have a harder time pushing new buds on larger stocks. I have lost a couple peach trees I lopped at 15". I would first look for clear marks of buds on the main stem before lopping off; if the tree is a 2-year tree it will have plenty of those and you should be fine. If it is an older tree you may want to leave some of the branches. Note that this is only an issue on a freshly planted tree, the combination of just being transplanted and needing to push new buds is the problem. Also it is only a problem on peaches. I have many rows of 3' or 4' spaced trees, its my favorite fruit growing arrangement. I see you are in zone 6b so you are probably in the midwest or east where it is more humid. In those environments you need to do a lot more thinning than the California-centric DWN backyard orchard culture method will give you; if you don't you will get significant disease problems. I know because I spent several years fighting various disease problems that could have been avoided had I known how to prune properly. Basically what this means is to keep plenty of spacing between the various branches. A very rough guide is that a 1" diameter branch should be about 2' from the nearest 1"-er, a 1/2"er should be at least 1' away, etc. If there is too much density you just pick one of the two that are competing for the same space and remove it. It doesn't matter if it is from the same or a different tree, the same principle applies. Scott...See Moreinfo. from califonia backyard orchard site
Comments (2)Low chill is only a good thing in low chill areas. In an area where chill hours accumulate rapidly, a low chill tree will break dormancy long before it is safe for the tree to do so....See MoreBackyard Orchard Culture
Comments (5)What type of rootstocks (standard, semi-dwarf, dwarf) are being used in this mini method? How many fruiting plants are you trying to crowd into how big an area? Answers to that could result in insightful replies. Crowding fruiting plants together can require more pruning. They will yield more fruit in full sun rather than when shading each other. I don't know if dwarfing rootstocks result in shorter plant lifetimes compared to standard roots. The grower of a mini backyard orchard may expect smaller crops of a larger variety of fruit, kind of a sampler orchard. Most people cannot use more than 50 pounds of any single fruit for their own annual uses anyway....See MoreMy Backyard Fruit Orchard
Comments (9)Hi Cori, Thanks for the tip on the pollinator. I usually get somewhere between 500-600 chill hours in S. San Jose, sometimes more depending on the year. I've never had any troubles getting my Baby Crawford peach trees to produce fruit in my backyard, even though the stated chill hour requirement is 800 hrs. I'm sure having the other peach varieties helps with pollination quite a bit. With respect to chill hours, the only fruit variety which I think really DOES need the rated chill hours (or more) are cherries. Most of the other stone fruits, like peaches, apricots, plums, etc, if you're in the ballpark of the necessary chill hours, they'll produce fruit. My experience is the chill hour requirement is a rough gauge, not a hard and fast rule, but others may have experienced something different. The BC blossoms are pinkish-white, definitely not the deep red of Red Baron. You can get easily get BC from a lot of places - Peaceful Valley Farm, Bay Laurel, etc. I have loamy clay soil in my backyard and Citation tends to do well for me with this soil, which is the predominant peach rootstock I have (some are on Nemaguard). Baby Crawford does naturally tend to produce a somewhat smaller tree, so if I had to do it over again, I would have gotten the BC peach trees on Nemaguard, but I'm happy with what I have. Getting the Cal Red peach tree is another matter all together. I've been trying to get a Cal Red peach tree for at least the last 5-6 years. To my knowledge, it's only grown by Burchell Nursery and has historically only been available to commercial orchards. The Cal Red is listed on Tomorrow's Harvest website, which I believe is the retail arm of Burchell, but the tree is not in stock - they did not produce any trees last year, and may not produce any for the foreseeable future (I've inquired and I keep checking every year - lol). https://www.tomorrowsharvest.com/store/fruit-trees/peach-freestone.html...See Moregenghisbunny
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agocanadianplant
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
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10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoScott F Smith
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKevin Reilly
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agogenghisbunny
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoScott F Smith
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10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoScott F Smith
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10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoskyjs
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agogenghisbunny
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoScott F Smith
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoMrClint
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoUser
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoMrClint
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoUser
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKevin Reilly
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoMrClint
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agomilehighgirl
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoMrClint
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoolpea
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoolpea
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agofruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agodrew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoolpea
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoeboone_gw
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agofruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalan haigh
10 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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