North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

I have to recommend on the side of more space is better in a home orchard.  Up here a well managed fruit tree usually lives.  When I started my home orchard business it was hard to create enough business to survive and I would error on the side of commerce to determine spacing so I could sell more trees from my nursery (this was not my explanation at the time, even to myself).

 

I used to plant peaches on seedling, plums on myro, apples on 7and 106 and pears on seedling and OH X F, all at spacing of 12 by 15 feet.  Many years later I'm called on to tend many of the original orchards I installed and I wish they weren't so close.  Although I've learned some training tricks over the years I would have to remove many scaffolds to retrain some of these trees to an efficient structure.

 

Some species and varieties function well close depending on their precocity.  Asian pears are one example.  In apples, Goldrush, Jonathon and any very spurry apple are also OK close.  In general, trees on the above mentioned root stocks usually function best on a spacing of 20' between rows that have trees spaced by 14'.  Of course every variety has it's individual level of vigor so this is just a general rule but adequate space insures adequate sun and air which goes a long way in determining the quality and quantity of harvest.