I don't think there is such a thing as dwarfing plum. I don't know about nectarine. For the plum I would figure about 12' for the tree, 6' from the trunk plus 1' to be safe, plus a little walking room. Although unless you're in a serious lake effect area I'm not sure either of those would be very reliable bearers.

dagger, you certainly should be able to grow citrus in this manner and space. I would make sure you purchase trees on a significantly dwarfing rootstock not just semi-dwarf trees. Four Winds Fruit Growers put nearly all their citrus on very dwarfing rootstock, Cuban Shaddock. This will help to keep the trunk diameter down for you, as well as the mature height. As Al has mentioned, you can prune for both height and shape. Just make sure not to over-prune, as you'll prune off your flowers & future fruit (citrus flower at the ends of their branches). Citrus are often used as lovely screens along fence lines and serve well as double duty - screening and fruit. Plus, they don't litter much, so they do make a very nice screening option if you can wait a bit for them to "grow up". Also, just so you know, there is a Citrus Forum on GW, where your question might better addressed. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: Four Winds Growers

My dwarf orange tree is coming back. In 2 months, all leaves have curled, turned yellow/brown, and fallen off. At what I thought was the end, green curled leaves fell off, smaller branches have all turned brown and died. Thought the small dwarf orange was a goner. First, my mistake was I left the soil that was from the original pot around the roots. For some reason, the stuff they used clumped hard, and would just soak all the water in, so in a week it still felt moist. I didn't check till all the leaves have fallen off, and I thought it was too late. I later made my new soil with plenty of rocks at the bottom and used potting soil with the little Styrofoam looking beads mixed well in and moved the tree to a larger pot. I used about 10 drops of miracle grow plant food, and just let the tree sit there for a week, 2nd week I just very lightly watered, barely sprinkled it. 3rd week, small buds and leaves are forming all around again, small flowers seem to be jutting out of branches that I thought were almost dead. So now, i'm limiting my watering down to 1 to 2 times a week and this is just a basic light sprinkle till it re-establishes itself. Then I will start watering it once a week fully as before when the roots start growing more. But so far so good. My lesson? Even in the heat here in LA, these small dwarf trees do not need extra water, if you see leaf curling or browning tips and leaves falling off. Cut back on the watering. this picture is from my cell phone, so not the greatest, but I hope hope you can see the little buds of leaves and flowers starting to jut out. This post was edited by Marky350z on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 17:24

I'm growing citrus seedlings under T8s. Currently 4 bulbs per shelf. However as they get larger I feel they will need more/better lighting, so I'm getting some narrow profile T8s so I can squeeze more light across the shelf - my current fixtures are about 7" wide so I can only get 2 of them on there; with the narrowest profile I could find, I can easily fit 5 in there for 10 bulbs total across the width of the shelf. I will hang lights vertically along the back as they get larger. A single 2 light fixture will help, but 4 bulbs (or more) would be better. How big are the citrus plants at present? I'm guessing they shipped you something around 5" or shorter? If so you can most likely get by with the one fixture for awhile yet. More would be better. Lowe's carries a 2.75" wide narrow profile double bulb fixture I will most likely be getting several of pretty soon here. Metalux Narrow Profile double lamp T8 fixture It's a tad more 'spensive than some of the Home Despot offerings - $25 compared to as low as $15 for a dual T8 fixture - but it's about half as wide, so I can put up twice as many in the same space. More lumens = more betta happy plants! The bulb also makes a huge difference. Many of those fixtures that come with bulbs are fitted with low-lumen bulbs in the wrong color range. These are the type of bulbs you want. EDIT: Currently the website is showing that light as "no longer available" - something that LITERALLY happened while I was typing this message - but after calling corporate headquarters I was assured that they are not, in fact, discontinuing this light. So if it shows up as "no longer available" when you go look at that link, apparently that's an internet glitch. My local store has 11 in stock and assures me they can order more at any time. So it SHOULD still be available. Here is a link that might be useful: 4 ft. T8 32-Watt Daylight Deluxe (6500K) This post was edited by zensojourner on Mon, Nov 17, 14 at 16:51