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Florida Gardening

Where to find information on spacing of fruit trees?

pinknwhiteshells

16 years ago

hello....

i am sketching out a plan for my backyard landscape but am struggling to find out how much space i should allow for trees. i have found books that define the potential height of trees but not about how much space to plan for regarding width/circumference (drip line).

anyone have any suggested books or websites to help me?

(i'm planning on a mango, pomegranate, lemon, tangerine, and grapefruit trees--as you can tell--my backyard is completely empty right now!)

thanks in advance :)

andrea

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Comments (6)

an_ill-mannered_ache
16 years ago
your guru here is dave wilson... pay NO ATTENTION to ifas -- those measures are for commercial growers.

read everything at this site...

Here is a link that might be useful: backyard orchard culture
gatormomx2
16 years ago
Plant the tangerine , lemon and grapefruit with as much room as you can but also know that you can safely trim them every few years to keep them the size you desire .
Citrus trees are usually trimmed for two reasons - to keep the branches out of the way of the lawnmower and to restrict their size . The commercial groves often trim their trees to stay short and round so they are easier to pick . You can often see these along major highways . I trim my trees to keep them out of the power lines overhead and to make it easier to pick . Some of my grapefruit trees have gotten 18 to 20 wide and as tall !
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Angelique: There are no rules for spacing fruit trees. Ignore what it says on the label and space them however you need, which goes for all fruits. You ought to see how modern commercial apple orchards cram in the trees, and triple the yields of the old "big tree, large spacing" orchards. I keep three seedling rootstock (standard size) apple trees espaliered and spaced three feet apart, and they are way less trouble to maintain than the mini-dwarf and dwarf trees I have. A Jacaranda branch fell and whacked one of the mini-dwarfs, breaking a couple branches off. It'll be two years until it grows back to normal. The standard would sprout a new branch in no time. I prune the standard trees twice during the summer, which is enough to keep them behaved. Your key to success is summer pruning. Pruning in the winter just perks them up; it's summer pruning that sucks the vigor out of them and keeps them tamed.
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pinknwhiteshells
Original Author
16 years ago
thanks for your help on this matter. i've been doing some reading and i'm thinking about getting the semi-dwarf variety so i can fit more trees in the backyard.

thanks again...andrea
castorp
16 years ago
If you buy citrus on Flying Dragon rootstock you can plant them 8 feet apart and still allow them to grow to full size. They can fill out an 8 x 8 space.

Bill
an_ill-mannered_ache
16 years ago
of course i got three flying dragons and planted all of them in the same hole... but i like living on the edge.
gcmastiffs
16 years ago
Andrea, you need this book(G). But remember, you can prune fruiting plants to fit, in the space you have.

I have over 400 fruiting plants on 1 & 1/3 acres. Yet, my property is very open, as most plants are in groups.

I bought lots of dwarf, semi-dwarf fruit trees years ago, since we were a little house in the shady woods. I grew most on my deck. Hurricanes took all the big trees, so now I have no shade, and lots of short trees(G).

But, I'm having fun planting them in groups as to size, watering requirements, spraying needs and overall mature sizes. For instance, I intentionally planted Papayas too close to Macadamias, knowing that the Papayas will need to be removed in a few years, thus adding more room. But in the meantime, we get the fruits!

On my "Fruit Tree Hill" a diamond shaped area with 18' by 9' sides, I have a multi-variety Banana grove, Cinnamon, Ice Cream Mango, Kampong Mauve Sugar Apple, Red Lime, Coffees, Cacao, Sapodilla, Barbados Cherry, Pineapples and several flowering and foliage plants. I plan to add Figs, and maybe a Pom or two.

On my orchard area east of my shed, I have 11 Apple trees in 1/2 whiskey barrels. The barrels are decaying, so I'm switching to stone walls. The Apple trees are easy to keep small, and they produce very well here. They are less than 5' apart.

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Floridas Fruiting Plants

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