Plant farther from the fence and closer to the house. You can get dwarf rootstock (Flying dragon or us897) and you will have no size problems. You can use semi dwarfs and have the trees grow up a bit B4 they branch out. This will get the canopy high enough to clear your house's shadow. I am assuming you are on the northern hemisphere.. It is alright to have a trunk lean away from a fence to get the canopy over concrete where the tree could not be planted. I believe with the spacing you have you would not have any problems with a tree that stays less than 40 feet tall. The spacing between each tree is very much governed by rootstock choice or size limiting pruning.

Anything growing over the fence can be cut by the neighbor without your permission. If tree is overly heavy on one side and falls, your problem and you have no right to be mad at the neighbor. If the neighbor picks the fruit on his side, again you can't get mad. It's his tree if it's on his side of the fence.

Just be aware.

Thanks for your input! I am at Northern California. What if I keep my trees at 6' high, kind of wide, like a hedge?

Espalier?

Paint the fence white so that sunlight that misses your trees will hit the fence and light up the backside of your tree from a brightly lit white fence..This will really make a significant difference in growth and fruit production possibilities. My fruit trees cross over into my neighbors' yards. I have invited them to pick any fruit on their side for themselves.

I was going to suggest espalier as well. Especially on a southern facing wall with a house in the way, you want your tree as close to the wall as possible. Don't expect much growth in the winter without full sun. The best time to plant those trees will be when the sun starts hitting the area you want the trees this spring. That will give them all summer to get established before losing the sunlight for the winter. Just my .02

Evan

Steve was nice to give his neighbors permission to pick fruit on their side. But they don't need his permission. It's only Steve's tree until the property line. Anything after that is the neighbors tree. Or in other words you can't own a tree that's on someone else's yard.

We thought about Espalier. Can you espaliete citrus tree? We are thinking about satsuma plum. Is it worth it to do it from bare root or just buy one. not sure where to find one. We don't want apple or pear espalier.

Hi evdesert,

do you mean to plant a citrus tree right close to my house (not the fence)? Will the tree root damage my house foundation?

hi Steve,

do you mean 4' or 40' tall?

Summerix, if I understand your layout correctly, your side yard runs east/ west, fence on the North side, house on the South side. If that's the case, you want your trees as far North as possible against your fence so they get as much sun as possible. NOT against your house wall facing North.

Evan

You have picked two smaller cultivars. You may have to work to get the Kishu to be large enough to espalier at all. What rootstock?

Meyer is another smaller cultivar. Even a standard will likely never get really tall but they will get wide. I planted two standard Meyers 10" from a block wall to espalier against that wall.

Steve brings up a good point about the house. I hope it is a one story if those trees are going in 6' north of the house.

^^^What gregbradley said^^^

Hi Steve, my house is one story, but tall, my gues is about 15'. What is the winter angle?

hi evdesert, thanks for your clarification! My other side yard has my house wall facing south, my fence facing north, wider, the middle section is the paver pathway, but we use this side yard all the time.

hi grey: good to know you can plant the lemon tree so close to the fence and can espalier citrus tree.

Do you all think that 2' wide dirt is enough to plant citrus or stone fruit tree? How about the corner opening to east and north, 8' fence on the south west side? We have grass area 2-3' away. Is this a good spot to plant citrus tree. I do like the fact that citrus tree can be used as a screen for privacy for both side yard and this corner. Maybe I should choose big orange tree?

thanks so much for your help!

solar angle at winter solstice

In degrees 90- 23.5(Earths tilt from sun)-39.5(my parallel from equator=27

At winter solstice the sun reaches a maximum hight of 27 degrees from horizon.

For you just replace my number of 39.5 with the parallel of you place. For 1 month before through 1 month after solstice there is very little change in the solar angle. If you have a sloped roof how far from your tr is the 15 foot peak. A picture of the house is worth a thousand words

I don't have a current pic, but here are the two I potted and started training on espalier. They have rain "hats" from the expected heavy rain. South espalier is Bearss Lime, North espalier is Gold Nugget. Both standards. The middle is Thornless Lime, which will naturally stay small.

I kept them mobile while I played with positioning against the wall and ensured there was enough sun for them to thrive. You can see the neighbors house 10' East of the wall. My house is 10' West but has a gable roof instead of the hip roof on that house. That makes the roof taller at the peak in the middle.

I thought I would address some other points.

I'm in SoCal at the base of the east-west San Gabriel Mountains on the Los Angeles - San Bernardino County line where it is hot and sunny. Mostly sunny in the winter also, where we probably have more sun intensity times hours in the winter than the upper midwest does in summer. I have been unable to get any citrus espaliered against a south facing wall to survive as they get cooked in the heat.

The standards are doing better than the semi-dwarfs as they have a central trunk and the semi-dwarfs are trained by the grower into a bush. It is easier to get the standards growing flatter against the wall. If you try to plant the typical semi-dwarf 10-12" from the wall, you are going to have pretty much destroy the plant.

I would check the foundation of your wall. I was able to get the trunks of these 10" from the wall because that wall was built in 1970. The block wall on the other other side of the house was built under the current requirements in California so has a foundation that comes out 1' from the wall.

A 2' wide planter will be fine for small citrus but you need to give them more surface area along the wall and make sure the soil is not too dense. Citrus need some air to the roots. As you can see from the digging, I removed all the rocks and added a bunch of pumice and turface.

Also, if you plant a citrus, you must pull the grass. It gives off a gas that is bad for citrus.

Thanks greg for all the helpful information! I will try espalier gold nugget with standard rootstock. I have just planted a satsuma plum semi dwaf 1.5' from the south facing fence. Should I try standard rootstock instead? Is the plum rootstock works the same way as citrus?

What do I need to do so the soil is not too dense?

I have bought a Meyer lemon a week ago and planted close to the south facing fence with my house 5' south to it, and I will espalier it. I didn't add anything to the original dirt. Now I have just purchased 1.5' to 2' tall 5 gallons kishu from local nursery in Bay Area (redwood city, ca) and ordered a meiwa kumquat (1 year old), 1 year old kishu and 2 years old pixie from four wind grower. I am overwhelmed on planting them. Still deciding the location: south facing wall in a container or against south facing fence with my house 5' south of the fence? Container planting seems so much work. I searched on The mix formula in the forum and overwhelmed as well. I can have the 2nd kishu in a container out against the south facing wall with the dirt underneath. I am afraid that planting them next to the wall (3' deep dirt from house wall to the paver pathway) could damage the foundation. It would be much easier if I do plant in the ground. Kumquat in the container at the south facing wall as well. I could plant pixie next to the south facing fence to esplier it or trim narrow and tall.

Here are my questions:

1. Do I need to fertilizer the new citrus tree now?

2. Is it ok if I Plant in the container that is against south facing wall with a lot of sun and heat?

3. How big of the pot? Four wind grower website recommends using a small pot, then change it a year later. Can I use a bigger pot (18") immediately so I don't have to repot it soon?

3. Anyway to catch the water underneath the container so it will not get to my house foundation? If not, will a lot of water from pot sink into the dirt underneath?

4. What if I plant two citrus 1' away from my south facing house wall? Will the root and moisture damage my house?

5. Simplest way to plant the citrus in container and in ground?

Gold nugget mandarin is sold out, I am still looking to buy one. If you have a source to get them, please let me know. Thanks