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Fruit & Orchards

Please Help me on deciding Fruit tree planting location

8 years ago

I am very new on planting fruit trees and hope to get some help from you.
1. Can I plant apricot, Pluot, plum and aprium trees as hedge (3' - 5' apart) on my side yard? My side yard is east west on the length, south is my house, north is my fence to the neighbors yard with soil. It is about 7' wide, but only 2' wide soil close to the fence, the middle is a pebble/small stone pathway (size stone is smaller than a clove of garlic). The trees will be a little less than 1' away from the fence and 7' from my house). Will the trees damage my house and fence? Will the trees be happy here? Will the trunk grow very thick if I prune the trees very small.
2. two spots in our backyard: one is 3' wide in between the fence and grass, I want to plant a mandarin tree(gold nugget or kishu). Another spot is 8'x9' corner, but neighbor has a lemon/orange tree very close to the fence). I am not sure if the 4 stone fruit trees (apricot, plum, Pluot, aprium) will be ok here duo to the close by citrus tree.. I also consider this spot for the mandarin tree. I want to plant both nugget and Kishu. Stone fruit trees or citrus tree or fig tree on this spot?
3. One other spot: front yard. 10' from my existing huge orange tree. south facing, next to my driveway. I am thinking about planting a brown turkey fig. I was also thinking planting the two mandarin trees in one hole here, but then no place for fig. I heard fig tree root could damage house foundation.
4. My other side yard has 3' wide soil in between 4' paver pathway(then soil, then my house) and my fence.. I am not currently consider planting any fruit tree because I don't want the mess on my paver or any root damage to my paver, also my family room and kitchen have windows to this side. I want evergreen and something nice looking. Should I put Meyer lemon and/or orange trees on this side? They may make the paver path way too crowded and damage the paver?
Please help me plan the fruit tree layout. Thank you!

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Comments (2)

eastmeetwest
8 years ago
Lots of things to consider. Where are you located? What state? Location has a lot to do with what you should and/or could plant.

Stone fruit is usually advised to plant in full sun with good air circulation. Many even prune their trees open centered or vase shape to let more sun in and air flows better.

Thus, growing stone fruit as a hedge may not be a good idea. Also, you need to think long-term, those tiny sticks can grow tall, far and wide. Planting only 1 ft from a fence will force you to consider a certain way of pruning it. A plum can put out 3-4 ft branches in all directions in a growing season.

Let's start with what state do you live in?
summerlx
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks for your reply! I am in Northern California (palo alto). If I plant the 4 stone fruit trees(4-in-one hole method) in the backyard corner 8'x9' dirt, there is a lemon tree on the other side of fence, would it be better choice?
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