150 thousand dollars for a 3/4 acre orchard? Am I reading your post right?

Yeah, took that out. But that brings over power, drills the well to around 600', buys the pump and pump shed, improves the road, purchases and installs the underground irrigation infrastructure, etc., etc., etc.

What's the rationale for picking that specific site? Do you already have a house there? It doesn't look like a great location (windy exposed ridge; remote? arid? Sounds like poor topsoil?). Difficult to make up for those deficiencies. And expensive. Maybe more cost effective to buy a better site.

This site provides great info on soils: https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

i looked at about 50 sites before I purchased the lot where I built my house (and orchard) Soil was my most important criteria. Then water access, topography and exposure.

I do think it would be a good idea to discuss your plans with an extension fruit specialist before proceeding. It is an expensive plan but I like that site. In frost prone areas cold air drainage can be the most important aspect of an orchard site. It is more important than soil. As long as the soil is at least 3-4ft deep it can be modified much easier than fighting freezes every spring.

Fruit quality is best from trees with moderate vigor. The high levels of fertility and water on a site with great soil will reduce fruit quality and greatly complicate managing tree size. Crops like sweetcorn benefit from great, deep, rich soil. Fruit crops generally don't. Also don't over water. That waters down the fruit and can greatly reduce brix, ie sweetness.

A windbreak could be erected if that's really an issue.

Do be careful about trapping cold air with a solid barrier concrete fence around the site. A porous barrier would be better even for wind protection. Something like 30% polypropylene shade cloth erected around the site would be better than a solid fence and much cheaper.

Yeah...like the high elevation also, hard to see what you've got.. just keep Asian/hybrid plums together, the pears and apples separate etc.

>>with the help of a 10’ concrete wall enclosing about .77 of an acre<<

holy cow...this would look like a massive prison wall, are you a millionaire? lol.

10 foot game fence would do.

Doug,

10 foot on center is too close especially for the stone fruit. They grow like weeds and spread out. You will be spending alot of time pruning and keeping the growth in check if you want to keep the spread of each tree to less than than five feet on a side. Peaches & apricots, for example, grow fruit only on last year's wood. There is constant renewal pruning that needs to be done each year. So far, my apricots, plums, peaches and nectarines have put on 6-8 feet of growth EACH season during their first 4-5 seasons which I have had to "trim".

And, if you want ONLY a 2 foot path between each tree the radius of each tree will only be 4 feet. Except for the center and side isles you are developing a solid 10-15 foot tall hedge as the trees grow into each other. That would also cut down on light penetration and kill air-circulation within the trees.

Also, you should orient the orchard so the rows run north-south.

There are many more aspects to this project and setting up a consult with some experienced people will yield dividends.

As an aside, I would consult with a few different people to get a more encompassing point of view. You'd be surprised at the differing philosophies and viewpoints out there and each person will naturally speak more favorably (forcibly?) in support of his/her outlook.

Just remember, there NOT just ONE way to do this. There are many ways to do this right as there are many ways to do this wrong.

Choose the method that works with your "head". Because, if you don't enjoy what you are doing as you are doing it will be a very short lived project. You need to like what you are doing so you don't let the inevitable disappointments and setbacks to derail you.

Just remember , they call it "farming" not "harvesting" or "fishing" and not "catching" for a reason. ;)

Mike

Yeah, because the drop in elevation from the eastern to western end the west end will be nearly 30' as viewed from the outside. from inside it will be level with a 10' wall. thanks for the advice on pears and apples separate. Would 30' between the apples and pears be sufficient? Thanks!

Well...heaving said that, for plums it's better to be close for pollination but apples and pears...your trees are still very close together in this spot so you could alternate apples and pears, might help with pest / disease issue.

So pears and apples separate or together? I will definitely use water sparingly.

Just a few thoughts but I would consider:

1. Creating an earth berm around the area rather than using a concrete wall. I think it would be more attractive and also it would tend to gather any runoff water even in arid conditions allowing you to also plant things you might not be able to on the berm as well. If more cost effective, it would allow you to increase the area for the orchard/garden as well assuming you own additional land around it.

or

2. Any time you do earth/dozer work you pull up a ton of stones. You could also do a lower berm, and have a labor crew gather the exposed stone to build a lower stack stone wall 3' - 6'. I've done a few here in kentucky and they are very simple. That plus the berm would give you 10' and would look pretty nice. I think that would be the most pleasant to look at and probably cheaper than both a huge berm and a tall concrete wall.

Heck, with the berm you could also put pond liner in a portion to make a narrow pond along one of the edges.

I would plant two apples then two pears in the row.

It looks remote. Not sure what the commute would be to get there daily but lower maintenance, "bomb proof" trees for your area would be a good idea. Also allowing for greater spacing, it's easy for me to prune high density trees my backyard is a post stamp lot, I open the back door and I'm there!

Over the years I've seen grand plans like this on forums and they never seem to come to fruition (or at least the people never followed up with the results).