I have a lot of experience with planting and maintaining fruit trees for clients. I’ve grown dozens of potted fruit trees as a Melbourne renter. When I moved from Melbourne to Central Victoria, I used my experience and invested dozens of hours to design my ultimate orchard. Three years on, the hard work of planting it is a distant memory. My family enjoys the freedom of picking our own delicious, home-grown fruit. I love pottering in my orchard.
The orchard that I designed on paper was perfect, but the reality is different. You’re always learning in a garden. As I once wrote,
There are things I’d like to tweak in my orchard. I’m still learning. But if you’re looking to plant a few fruit trees, or even a large-scale orchard, the post gives a quick overview of what I know about backyard orchards.
When to establish your backyard orchard
The optimum time to establish an orchard is winter, when deciduous trees are dormant (usually July and August in the southern hemisphere). This allows the trees to develop a strong root system before the onset of summer. Winter is also when there’s the greatest availability of fruit trees. Bare rooted trees are cheaper because you’re not paying for a pot and potting mix.
Before you order your trees online or race out and buy from your local nursery, there’s quite a bit of planning you need to do. How many trees will you need? Often folks reverse engineer this question by asking, how many trees can I squeeze into my space? I recommend considering the optimum number of trees from both angles.
How many trees do I need?
By carefully choosing the ripening times of your fruit trees you can spread your harvest and avoid huge gluts. Using a ripening chart will allow you to optimise your choices. In many situations just 10 well-chosen trees will allow you to pick fresh fruit from your own garden all year round.
But you don’t want to overdo it. The more trees you have, the more work is involved. Each tree needs to be protected from marauding wildlife. They need watering or irrigation, and you should monitor them for pest outbreaks such as Queensland Fruit Fly and Codling Moth. Autumn is always the busiest time in my garden because harvesting is hard work. The more trees you have, the more time you’ll need to do something with all that fruit. Less is more when it comes to planting a backyard orchard.
How many trees can I fit in?
How big is your space? Are you working with a tiny courtyard or a hobby farm? What space within that is available to plant? Do you need to leave some backyard space for the kids to kick the footy? (In my experience, footies and fruit trees don’t coexist very well.)
The size of the mature tree also affects this equation. And that leads me to rootstock selection.
Rootstock choice is crucial
Don’t buy just any tree from the bargain bin: make sure it is on the correct rootstock so that it won’t grow too big.
Some trees are grafted onto rootstocks that will encourage the tree to grow into utter monsters 15-plus metres tall. Other rootstocks, even with minimal pruning, will keep trees to a modest 3 metres. Then there are the super dwarf trees that grow only about 1.5 metres tall and can be used for stepovers or growing in pots.
Growing trees on dwarf rootstocks enables you to squeeze a lot more productive trees into a small space. Careful rootstock choice can also reduce pruning requirements, enhance disease resistance, ensure a good match between your soil and your trees, and have other benefits. Not all rootstocks, or even dwarfing rootstocks, are equal.
Read more about rootstock selection here.
Freestanding vs espalier
Will you train free-standing trees to an open vase or a central leader? Or will you try your hand at an espalier? Two-dimensional espaliers make a great use of small spaces and can become a garden feature. However, they are also (slightly) higher maintenance. A fruit tree espalier could last centuries, so make sure that you over engineer the trellis structure – don’t just whack it onto an existing paling fence that will need replacing in five or so years.
There are many different espalier shapes and forms. Want the traditional horizontal cordon? That shape is best suited to spur bearing fruit trees such as apples and pears. Want to grow stone fruit as an espalier? Then you are best working towards an informal fan (this might require a different trellis set-up). Whatever shape you go for, the cost and time to build the trellis is going to be high. While you can fit more trees in the same space if you espalier them, you’ll need to budget for the support structures.
Read more about setting up and maintaining espaliers here.
Growing fruit trees in pots
You can grow fruit trees in pots. I had a forest of them when I was renting in suburban Melbourne (more on rental gardens here). Make sure you select the biggest pots your budget can afford. A 50 cm pot is the minimum, but even bigger is better. Use a good quality potting mix and keep the tree well fed and watered. More on how to support fruit trees growing in pots here.
Fruit trees growing in pots will produce some fruit, but not much. Don’t be tempted to get a head start on some future forever orchard. Established pot-grown trees that are transplanted can have a hidden cost (more on that here).
If space is limited, then I’d be more inclined to focus on growing berries in pots. They’ll give you far better bang for your buck. Check out my guides to growing berries:
Optimising tree layout and microclimates
Layout and placement of individual trees is important for tree health and productivity. Some need morning sun, while others are less fussy. Some trees need a specific microclimate, such as my citrus grove has.
Before deciding on placement of your trees you’ll want to analyse your site and look for the following:
Morning sun vs afternoon sun: fruit trees differ in their requirements (or tolerance) of both. Some types of stone fruit need morning sun to dry the dew off their leaves as quickly as possible. Avocados hate harsh late afternoon summer sun (more on growing avocados in a temperate climate here).
Soil type: is your garden full of heavy clay, or do you have nutrient-poor but free-draining sand? Is the soil uniform across the site or varied? Are some areas prone to waterlogging? Are other areas raised and free from the risk of root rot? Different types of trees (and different rootstocks) vary in their ability to handle different soil types.
Airflow is important for reducing the incidence of fungal disease such as curly leaf. Good airflow can reduce the incidence of brown rot or pests such as woolly aphids. Are there areas in your garden with better airflow than others? Can the airflow be enhanced or optimised with careful tree placement?
Access: how do you move through the garden? Are there certain areas that require good access? If you are going to hand water, then where is the nearest tap? Do you need to maintain access for a ride-on mower or a tractor to haul away all that fresh fruit? How wide do the paths need to be to accommodate them? When I design a garden, I always design the paths first and then locate the garden beds and tree locations once the paths have been determined.
Garden thieves: nearby established trees such as eucalypts and plane trees will quickly send their roots into your orchard to steal as much water and as many nutrients as they can. Nearby trees may also have an allelopathic effect, which will slow the growth of your fruit trees. Consider which trees will handle this competition best and place them closest to the thieves. Sensitive trees should be placed further away.
Tree size: not all dwarf trees stay small. Some will grow to only 1.5 metres x 1.5 metres. Other dwarf fruit trees may grow to 4 metres x 4 metres. Trees on larger rootstocks will grow much bigger. There’s no standard distance to allow between rows of fruit trees. They need to be shuffled around at the design stage with consideration for their ultimate size. Wide spacing leads to good airflow and reduced disease.
I’m often asked if I have a standard fruit tree layout for the most popular netted enclosure sizes. But it’s not that simple. Site analysis and optimising fruit tree placement is very complex. For even a small backyard orchard it can take me dozens of hours to analyse the above aspects of a site and then come up with an optimised planting plan. Every planting plan will be different.
Want help determining the best layout for your orchard? Start by booking a garden consultation.
What varieties of fruit should I grow?
Grow what you eat! Have a look at your fruit bowl, which will usually tell you what your household eats. (If the fruit is rotting, it might be a guide to what you don’t eat.) Do you want to grow fruit that you can readily buy from a supermarket (such as a Pink Lady apple) or instead something that’s a bit more challenging to track down, and perhaps sentimental, such as a Snow apple? Do you want to grow something completely novel? I recommend that wherever possible, you try before you plant.
As mentioned above, you are best off spreading your harvest out, and this ripening chart is a handy planning tool .
Pollination: to bee or not to bee?
Peaches are self-fertile. They’ll pollinate themselves, so you don’t need to plant a second tree for pollination. Apples and pears must have a compatible variety as a cross pollinator (two Beurre Bosc pears won’t pollinate each other; you’ll need, say, a Beurre Bosc and a Williams). Some triploid apples have an extra set of chromosomes and require pollen from not one but two other different varieties to balance their genetic equation. Without cross pollination, the blossom won’t set and develop into fruit. There are plenty of pollination charts available from nursery websites online. However, they are often limited to the fruit varieties that the nursery sells. The appearance of blossom, like the ripening of fruit, can be early, mid-season or late depending on the variety. So long as there’s some overlap in blossoming in a nearby compatible tree, then cross pollination should occur. For any variety of apple or pear there are hundreds of varieties that can potentially act as cross pollinators, not just the handful listed on the nursery charts.
If you’re growing in a suburban setting, there are likely to be different varieties of apples, pears and other common fruit trees growing nearby. Bees aren’t concerned about where your property ends and your neighbour’s begins, so your trees will be pollinated regardless of whether you have a cross pollinator in your own orchard. Growing on an isolated rural property? Then you might want to include a cross pollinator, but you can always wait and see if pollination is a problem and then fix it by planting an additional tree. You can even graft a second variety onto the existing tree. In short, I don’t overthink pollination when designing an orchard, and neither should you.
Crop protection
What’s stopping the Kangaroos, rabbits and deer from having a nibble? In a few years’ time, how are you going to protect your tree from parrots? If your budget can extend to it, a netted enclosure is a perfect way to protect your crops. Otherwise, there’s the option of “white ghosts” of poly pipe and insect netting (using insect netting will keep the cockies and the Queensland Fruit Fly from attacking your fruit).
If the purse strings are tight, then you don’t need to implement permanent crop protection now, but if it’s an option down the track you do need to plan for it now. Netted enclosures suit long and narrow orchards (10 x 30 metres is my company’s most popular size). Netting an area 20 x 20 metres is very challenging and will cost you significantly more than say a 10 x 40 metre structure, which has the same sized footprint.
Watering and irrigation
All plants need access to water. Some of this may come from rainfall but it’s likely you’ll need to supplement this with hand watering or irrigation.
Established fruit trees don’t generally need as much water as, say, vegetables or berries. In summer I activate my irrigation system several times a day for my vegetables, but only once a week for my orchard. The orchard trees receive a much deeper soaking than the vegetables do (a little often for vegetables, less regular but deep soaking for fruit trees). However, there’s no blanket rule. “How often should I water my fruit trees” is one of those “How long is a piece of string?” questions. Fruit tree irrigation requirements differ based on:
- environmental conditions and microclimates. Hot and dry conditions or exposure to strong wind requires more frequent or deeper watering.
- tree type. Some fruit trees, such as citrus and avocados, require far more water to remain productive than, say, pears.
- tree maturity. A newly planted bare-rooted tree doesn’t have an established root system, so the soil must be kept moist until it has established. It needs watering more frequently than an established tree, but perhaps not as deeply. An established tree has far more foliage, so it needs a greater volume of water to keep it productive and healthy.
An irrigation system can ensure that watering is easier. Use drip systems rather than sprayers – sprayers make tree canopies more humid and therefore more prone to fungal disease. If you have only a few trees, then hand watering can be a great mindfulness activity.
Mulching your fruit trees
Grass or mulch? Edible forest garden or bulbs? What to put under fruit trees is a question that keeps me awake some nights. The short answer is that I don’t think it matters that much, but they do all have different pros and cons. You can read more about options for backyard orchard ground cover here.
Integrating chickens into your orchard
Including chickens can provide a host of benefits to your backyard orchard, including pest control and fertilising with their manure. However, I’ve found that over extended periods of time chickens and fruit trees don’t mix well. Chickens scratch and excavate root systems, which leads to problems such as suckering or trees falling over completely. I’ve found a few ways around this and have covered them in my article about integrating poultry into your backyard orchard.
Getting your backyard orchard set up just right takes a lot of consideration, but that effort will repay you with increased yields for less work. If you need advice tailored to your individual site, then you can request a site consultation. Together we can explore your property and discuss your vision.
Of course, you can go with the “bang it in the ground and wait and see” approach. If you don’t get it right you can always cut it down and start again. The wrong tree in the wrong spot will soon turn up its toes (or develop into a monster). Dwarf fruit trees will reach maturity in just a few years, so if you need to make changes either small or significant, then restarting isn’t as drastic as it used to be when we only had access to full sized rootstocks and trees that took much longer to produce. Whatever approach you take, a backyard orchard can produce an abundance of fruit, memories and fun.
This article is a quick overview of planning a backyard orchard. I’ve written many articles covering these topics and more in greater depth. You can see all my posts about backyard orchards here.
Happy gardening!
