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[<dmnorton@royaloakfarmorchard.com>]

As the Midwest Fruit Explorers web site says: "Anyone who doubts they have 
enough space to grow apples should talk to Gene Yale.  He'll set you 
straight." If you have never seen Gene's backyard orchard, take a virtual 
tour of his backyard orchard at  http://www.midfex.org/yale/intro.html.

Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm Orchard
Office (815) 648-4467
Mobile (815) 228-2174
Fax (609) 228-2174
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
http://www.revivalhymn.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 1:39 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] High Density Planting


> > Wow, interesting document, didn't realise you could get away with 
> > cramming trees so close together.
>
>
> Well, in my very limited experience with this, there are advantages and 
> disadvantages:
>
> Advantages:  Basically, this was the only way to grow a *lot* of different 
> kinds of fruit in my backyard.* I live alone, and I don't want much of any 
> one kind of fruit at any one time. Planting this way, you get less fruit 
> of each variety, but you can get a bigger variety. That means different 
> kinds of fruit, but it also means different ripening times. (That has 
> worked particularly well with my peaches, with one variety ending just as 
> another gets ripe.)
>
> If I had a large planting area, I wouldn't even think of using this 
> technique. But that's not the intention. (* This wasn't the ONLY way, I 
> guess. I could have learned grafting and then grafted different varieties 
> onto one tree. That might have been a wiser choice, I don't know.)
>
>
> Disadvantages:  It's a LOT harder than I expected to keep these trees 
> small. OK, I don't do enough summer pruning, but it's usually very hot and 
> dry here in the summer, and I worry about stressing the trees even more. 
> Or maybe I'm just too lazy, especially when it gets hot. But the whole 
> idea of keeping a tree whatever size you want doesn't work nearly as well 
> as it sounds.
>
> It's also hard to prune trees that are this close together, especially 
> when you can only have branches on one corner of the tree! And it's very 
> hard to spray them, especially when you've got different kinds of fruit 
> trees, because you have to worry about getting the spray on the wrong tree 
> at the wrong time (notably when they're blooming). I can't find anything, 
> much, that I can spray on every kind of tree, especially while avoiding 
> damage to bees. And note that crowding the trees like this probably 
> increases the disease pressure. If you've got the room, I'm sure you're 
> much better off keeping them at a distance to promote better airflow.
>
> I planted four apples in one spot (in a square 18" apart), four plums in 
> one spot, and four peaches in one spot. This has worked, but for each 
> tree, you get all the branches - and all of the heavy fruit - on one 
> corner of the tree. So I've had to worry about them falling over. I've 
> tied the trees together, so we'll see how that works. But I probably 
> wouldn't do that again. Instead, I might plant them in a line, close 
> together, but so that I could have branches on opposite sides of each 
> tree. That way, the weight of the fruit would be balanced.
>
> In other cases, I've planted fruit trees in a row, 8' apart. But even 
> there, I'm having trouble keeping most of the trees small enough. Some 
> "dwarf" trees are surprisingly vigorous, and there are some fruits which 
> are hard to find with dwarfing rootstock (and "semi-dwarf" are VERY 
> vigorous here). Again, it's been harder than I expected to keep the trees 
> small. Heck, even my fruiting bushes are getting bigger than I expected 
> (and since the gooseberries are heavily thorned, I'm paying for that in 
> blood).
>
>
> Would I do this again? Yeah, probably. I just keep seeing all the neat 
> fruit that I DON'T have, and I'm still trying to find room for something 
> else. It's an addiction, I suppose. But I wouldn't plant this way if I had 
> lots more room.
>
> Bill
> Lincoln, NE (zone 5)
>
> --
> It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never 
> reasoned into. - Jonathan Swift