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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Make a four-on-one apple tree
  • Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:11:28 -0500


Some of us don't want a whole tree full of apples all ripe at the same
time. I wanted an apple tree that started ripening in late July and finished
ripening in October. Here is how I accomplished it:


Very interesting, Jim. I was in the same situation a couple of years ago. I've got no need for a whole bunch of any particular kind of fruit. I want a little bit of several different kinds, ideally some that ripen at different times or at least will keep well. But when I looked into four-on-one apple trees, I kept seeing recommendations against it, that planting several trees in one hole would work out better.

There's information on this intense Backyard Orchard Culture from the Dave Wilson Nursery in California:

http://www.crfg.org/tidbits/backyardorchard.html
http://www.crfg.org/tidbits/byo-examples.html

Of course, Nebraska is considerably different from California, and no one around here had ever heard of this, it seemed (this was before I joined the NAFEX list). Most of the people I asked seemed to think I was completely out of my mind to even consider it. But I thought I'd give it a try, so my first plantings two years ago were four dwarf apple trees, in a square 18" apart, four dwarf peaches in an other square, and four plums in a third. The plums were not dwarf, but I'd hoped I could keep them small enough with summer pruning.

Well, everything looks fine, though it's still too early to tell. The freeze this spring killed all the blossoms on my young trees (though I've got four apples on one tree that bloomed again afterwards). But I'm not entirely sure that I'd do it this way again. (I think I should have planted them all in a long hedgerow, instead. See the examples in the second link.)

The biggest problem for me is that they're hard to prune. Of course, I'm very new at this, so I'm learning pruning as I go, anyway. The Dave Wilson Nursery says it's easy to keep trees as small as you want with summer pruning. Well, it's not so easy for me! The dwarf apples haven't been so tough, but the plums are REALLY vigorous. And the peaches are pretty vigorous, too. Maybe they'll slow down a bit once they start bearing? At any rate, I'm sure it's a lot easier to prune one tree standing alone than four standing together.

Since each tree must be pruned to extend only from one quarter of a "normal" tree, I suppose that makes them even more vigorous than usual. And since all the weight will be on that side, I suspect I'll have to cable the trees together when they start bearing fruit, to keep them from falling over. Well, I hope that will work. As I say, I think I might have been better off to plant the trees close together in a long row. But... who knows? I'm very much a beginner at all this.

I guess I'll see what happens. Since then, I've made more room by cutting down non-fruiting trees and bushes that have been in my yard since long before I bought the place. Therefore, I had more room than I thought, so I've been planting my other dwarf fruit trees 8' apart - still close, but nothing like the Backyard Orchard Culture examples. Well, I figured there was no need, since I'll have more fruit than I can eat as it is. But has anyone here tried that sort of thing in a climate at all similar to mine?

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
I will not throttle my criticisms of the despicable gang of anti-intellectuals who run this country because it might irritate all those millions of people who voted for George W. Bush; they were wrong and he is wrong and it is my responsibility as a scientist to oppose ignorance, especially ignorance that has power and influence. - PZ Myers




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