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Growing Fruit Trees and Plants in the Garden

Fruit trees and plants add beautiful and delicious variety to a garden. Growing fruit plants and trees can be done on even the smallest lots.

Not all gardeners can boast a well-tilled orchard, but growing fruit plants such a grapes or gooseberries along a back fence or walk will produce satisfactory results. A back yard with 50 feet on each side can host six to eight fruit trees with fruit bushes in between.

Dwarf fruit tree varieties offer another alternative for growing fruit trees in tighter areas. Dwarf pears may be planted as close as 10 feet apart. Paradise dwarf apple trees may be planted eight to 10 feet away. All dwarf trees can be kept small by vigorous heading-in each year. They should be kept to a height of 12 to 15 feet.

When growing fruit trees, gardeners should note the age and size of fruit trees to be planted. Generally, you want to select trees two years old except for peach trees, which should be one year old. An optimum size is about five feet tall and five-eighths of an inch in diameter just above the collar. As a general rule, choose trees grown as near your home as possible.

Growing Fruit Trees: Pruning

Pruning is an important step in growing fruit trees. You should trim to heights according to tree type, though low heads for most fruit trees are desirable. Peaches and dwarf pears should have lower branches from 12 to 24 inches above the ground. Sweet cherry and standard pear trees should have lower branches, no more than 30 inches above the ground, with plums, sour cherries and apples a bit higher. A pyramid shape is preferred for all except the peach in northern states.

You should be careful not to over-prune or the fruit trees will limit fruit-bearing in favor of more wood production. Fruit trees should be prune in late winter or early spring. Grape vines should also be pruned in winter (but no later than March or they will bleed).

Thinning the Fruit

To grow the best fruit, you must tend to the fruit trees and plants so that they do not overbear. The act of thinning the fruit accomplishes four tasks:

causes the remaining fruit to grow larger
increases the chance of annual crops
saves the vitality of the tree
enables you to combat insects and disease by destroying the injured fruit

The thinning is generally occurs once the fruit is thoroughly set, a time that makes it easy to determine which fruits will persist. Peaches are thinned when they grow to the size of your thumb. This "rule of thumb" works for most other fruit trees as well. In general, people tend to not thin enough. You should err on the side of thinning too much. Thinning can also be done by pruning fruit buds.

Tips for Growing Fruit

Each fruit tree or fruit plant will have particular needs. When growing the popular fruit plants, follow these tips:

Apples: Apple trees thrive in a wide variety of landscape and conditions. They do best in a strong, sandy loam soil. Most varieties should be planted 35 to 40 feet apart.
Blackberry and Raspberry: Generally, the care for these fruit plants is the same. These berries ripen later in the season when dry periods are common. You need to ensure that their soil retains moisture. You should provide efficient mulch.

Berries generally grow one crop per cane. In other words, canes that spring up one year will bear fruit the next. Three to six canes are sufficient for each hill of plants. Old canes should be cut after fruiting.
Cherry: Sweet cherries (hearts, bigarreaus and dukes) boast larger, taller trees than sour cherries (morellos and pie cherries). Sour cherries usually ripen later.

Sour cherries thrive on clay loams. They should be planted 18 by 18 feet apart in well-prepared, under-drained soil. Trees should be trimmed slightly every year and the heads should be low and busy. Sweet cherries prove challenging and need much attention to spraying and picking the fruit when dry to reduce loss.
Grape: Grapes prove to be one of the most fruitful plants gardeners can grow. Annual crops come after the third year the vines are set.

Grapes do well on any soil that is well-cultivated and drained. One- or two-year-old vines should be planted. The vine should be cut back to three or four eyes after planting. The hole in which the vine is planted should allow for full root spread. If all buds begin to grow, save one or two of the strongest and cut the rest. Canes growing from these buds should be staked and allowed to grow through the season.

As far as pruning goes, you should remember that fruit is borne on wood of the present season, which was grown the previous season. In other words, a shoot one year will make buds. The next year a shoot arises from these buds and the grapes are produced at the base of these shoots. So, you should cut back a limited number of canes to a few buds and cut off all other canes from the previous year. Vines should bear a limited number of clusters—30 to 80.
Peach: Peach trees thrive in warmer climates where they are protected from frost but can grow in other areas. Peach trees are short-lived, so you should expect only three or four crops starting in the third year after planting.
Strawberries: Strawberries are another hardy crop that can be grown in most places. For best results, plants should be set in rows three feet apart and one foot in the row. In smaller gardens, plants can be set one foot each way in beds of three to five rows. Runners should be removed as fast as they form.

Each plant should have sufficient room to feed, full sunlight and a firm hold on the ground. Soil rich in potash produces the most flavorful berries.

Resources

Bailey, L.H. (2005). Project Gutenberg eBook of Manual of Gardening (Second Edition). Retrieved March 6, 2008, from the Project Gutenberg Web Site: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8mgrd10h.htm.

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