Fruitnut tipped me off to your post. You do not say where in Arizona you are so I will keep my comments general. I am only in the beginning of my third year in BYOC. I have well over 200 fruit and nut trees planted in a half acre that includes a 2,200sq ft. home in a flood irrigated lot. Planting trees together in a hole works well as far as growth goes. It is still too early to say about fruit production as only a dozen or so trees (mostly peach/nectarine) set fruit their second season and I stripped all of those off as soon as I spotted them as the trees are too young to be fruiting. Have the people who are dissing BYOC tried it?---I bet not. They simply go with the claim that trees must be planted 10 or more feet apart, blah, blah, blah. Nothing like 800+ peaches on a tree that you have to get eaten/processed/given away within 10 days period before it rots! High density planting works in Phoenix. Greg Peterson at Urban Farm has over 80 fruit trees on his 1/3 acre (with 1,750 sq ft home) most planted three feet apart along boundary lines. But I do not think he has any multiples to a hole. If you are in the Phoenix area you can ask him tomorrow (Wednesday). Be warned, he is whom got me started---I only attended a class of his 3 years ago to plant maybe 2-4 trees, and look at me now. http://www.urbanfarm.org/ http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/events/fruit-trees-with-greg-peterson-9 Basically the limits IMHO are soil (usually not as bad as people always claim, the summer, if you go with tropicals the winter depending upon the temps it gets at your place, your current resources, your planned resources, how you lay things out, the varieties (cultivars) and species you chose and the rootstocks you get them upon and finally your practices. The results are dependent upon proper pruning and a reasonable amount of observation and care (fertilizing and pesticide). In addition to the two links above, the other resources are Googling both your County Cooperative Extension and Master Gardeners. The Arizona Rare Fruit Growers as well if in Phoenix area. And I rather like local nurseries as well for answering pest, and other questions appropriate to your area. edit: I suppose I should make it clear almost all of my fruit trees are planted 4 to a hole, 18" apart and 7' between holes. My target height is 8'. I keep rootstocks and species the same in a hole if I can, but not seems to work too. You can plant trees within 6" of one another effectively growing them into a single trunk down the line, and straight up or slightly angled out from one another. Tom Spellman prefers 3' apart for easier pruning. I cluster cross pollinating close to make it easy on the insects. If you live in the zone 9b and 10 areas, and possibly the 9a areas, there is no summer pruning. Once it hits above 85F the trees stop growing so there is no need to prune in the summer. You prune just before summer to let some air and light into the canopy by keep in mind shading the trunk is numero uno. Paint trees white with water based latex (50% diluted works too) to protect from sunburn. Heavy organic mulch at least 4" to protect roots from temps and desiccation and improve soil life and fertility---I use predominately wood chips. I have not had a great deal of success with nut trees. I have pecans for a primary canopy and almonds for a western shade on the house. Remember self fruitful is great but across pollinator usually produces more and larger fruit. In some cases more seeds. If you live in zone 8/9/10 Arizona you can grow darned near anything except some berries without too much fuss. The sky is the limit. And with proper selection you can have both year round gardening and fresh fruit. Here is another BY orchard class on the 26th in the Phoenix area, by one of the most ingenious people I have met: http://www.meetup.com/GardenPool-org/events/141868522/ Here is a link that might be useful: You might want to start reading here This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Tue, Oct 15, 13 at 15:27

This tree does fantastic in my area, the Northern species atleast. The catalpa worm does not range in my area and these trees are blemish-free all year up here. A Chinese species has been planted in the area with pronged leaves and is seeding slightly, as evidence by the young trees around, but those small plants donÂt survive a really dry summer usually, but there are atleast 3 juvenile plants that are 15 feet tall now. Mature plants are very hardy here. Also pretty, but I prefer the northern.

I adore the Gulf Fritillary butterflies! My neighbors had 2 passion vines on the wood lattice topper on our shared wall. Both ornamental, no fruit. One was the classic purple flower and the other was a red flower that was more bell shaped and produced nectar that meant it was always full of ants. Well we always saw butterflies flitting about but never caterpillars. I think the ants ate them as soon as they hatched. Well the lattice was rotten and new neighbors moved in who sweetly asked if it was OK to remove it. We were more than happy since we wanted to replace wood with steel topper. But then I seriously missed the butterflies. I saw zero for a year. I missed them so much I planted a passion vine on the shared wall of the other neighbors. Just the purple flower that doesn’t have nectar so it won’t attract ants. Well for the first time in a year, I see not only butterflies but larva! I plan to cut it back to the “trunk“ each winter so it doesn’t get out of control this time. This vine is incredibly vigorous and could completely cover a carport if you let it. I don’t care about the flowers which are always there or the look of the vine, which is always green with chew holes, but my heart sings when every day I sit in the patio surrounded by the fluttering of beautiful amber butterflies. Usually 2 or 3 but sometimes 7 or 8 as I also provide nectar flowers for them. For me, the whole point of the vine is the butterflies.

Okay . . . here's the deal: I got some BT, which stands for bacillis thuremgienesis (Kurostaki strain) -- Go Figure! The bottle says all it does is make the cattrpillars lose their appetite -- to the tune of never eating again. Basically, they starve to death. It goes on to say that it won't harm anything else; plant or animal and that it can be used on fruit the day it is picked and eaten. I'm still gonna wash things off with water to be on the safe side. I sprayed all my tomatoes both top and bottom (of leaves) today. I'll be listening for little growling tummies! If this seems cruel to anybody, the alternative is to pick them off and smash them under my boot! Hey! You should have seen the mess I made squishing 80 at once in a coffee can! :O)