Plant a Fruit Tree!

I'll never forget the first year that our Desert Gold peach tree was heavy with fruit! I realized then that planting a fruit tree is one of the easiest and most practical ways to start your own edible garden. Besides, there's nothing better than a warm, tree ripened peach!

Here in the Phoenix area, we plant our bare root fruit trees in the Spring, that means late December or early January. By mid March the bare-root trees at our local nurseries have been potted or containerized and are ready to bud. The sooner you get them in the ground the better. Here's what you do! Find a nice sunny location. If you are planning on keeping your tree small, which is what backyard orchard culture is all about, think about how tall you want your tree to grow. The best advice that I have heard is, "if you stand on a small step ladder and reach up at arms length, that's how tall you want your tree to grow. No higher!"  If your property is small turn your tree into a shrub or hedge. 

Now, start digging. I like to dig the hole a few days before the actual planting, that way you can fill the hole with water to check for drainage (we do this a couple of times). Fill the hole with water in the evening, make sure it has drained by morning, and you are good to go. Drainage is really important, you don't want your tree sitting in water!  Dig a hole about twice as wide as and no deeper than the root ball.You want the roots to fit nicely, no crowding or bending.  Make sure you let the soil dry out before you begin to dig again, or you'll have big dirt clods and damage the soil structure.

As you dig, slope the sides outward at the top. We take a shovel and score all around the sides, if the soil is really hard ( in Arizona it is!), we use a heavy bar to break up the clay like dirt. This makes it easier for the roots to penetrate as they grow down and outward. We make a mixture of mulch, or organic matter, a few hand fulls of sand and bone meal and add it to some of the native soil.We put this in the bottom of the hole.

Next, cut down the side of the pot, and gently slip the bottom out from under the container. I didn't get a photo of this part because I had to help hubby hold it together. This is really a two person job! You can then place the whole container into the hole. This holds the contents and roots a little more secure, and it causes less stress to the root system, otherwise it easily falls apart. At this point, start to refill around the pot with the original soil that you have taken from the hole. We throw a few hand fulls of mulch in as we fill.

As you fill in around the container, gently lift it out of the hole. Continue filling in around the root ball and as you do hold the tree straight and tall. It should sit in the hole at about the same level it grew in the pot. The top of the root ball should sit 1 to 2 inches above the ground. Make sure the bud union is well above the soil level. Tamp the soil down as you fill, adjusting the tree as you go. 

Keep filling until you get the hole filled in. Pack down to prevent air pockets. 

 Build a nice basin around the tree to hold the water. As the tree grows, extend this basin outward in a circle in a radius equal to the trees height. You want the roots to reach and grow outward, just like the top of the tree.Put a top dressing  around the base of the tree to help retain moisture and keep it weed free. You can use, straw, compost or mulch.

Give the tree a deep watering, fill the basin a couple of times to give it a good start. Always water slowly and deeply to a depth of  two feet, deeper as it matures.  Make sure the roots don't dry completely out, (don't drown it either!). You will have to keep an eye on the tree for a few weeks until the root system gets established. 

After planting, prune your tree ( our peach tree hasn't had it's first pruning in this photo). This helps to establish a balance between the branches and the roots. Stand back and look at your new tree. Think about the size of your tree. If you prune your tree knee height, it will force new branches to form just below the new cut. Later you can choose the best three or four most evenly spaced branches, they will become your main branches or the scaffold branches. If the new tree already has evenly spaced branches, I usually prune less off the tree and use the existing branches. Make sure you prune where there is an outward facing bud. That's the direction that your new branch will grow. Remove all of the smaller shoots. Choose the branches that are more horizontal than vertical. Don't be afraid to prune as the tree grows.
My favorite place to visit when I want to review planting, pruning and other backyard orchard culture techniques is the Dave Wilson's website. Here, is an excellent video on how to prune a fruit tree.

 The best place to find local, organic food can be just steps from your own back door! Fruit trees take a little time and commitment , but it is well worth the effort. Besides, it's the perfect way to eat!

Linked up with The Prarie Homestead here!

Signs of Spring

I think it was all the cloudy, gray skies that threw my timing off. Before I knew it, a new season had arrived and my peach trees awoke from their dormant slumber with a burst of pink blossoms. I'm not sure how it happened, but one day my Desert Gold peach tree was bare, and the next it was brimming with life! Of course I had not finished my winter pruning, and now it was totally out of control! The branches were at least 25 feet high and way out of my reach. According to Dave Wilson Nursery, Backyard Orchard Culture, " you should be able to reach for thinning and picking while standing on a low stool." I'll have to do some extra pruning as I thin in the next few weeks. This summer I'll need to prune again even more vigorously to bring the height down to a managable level.

Peaches are fast growing. If you are growing a backyard orchard, trees need to be kept to a manageable size, so heavy pruning is required. The peaches emerge on the new growth. If you don't keep the tree small enough to cover, everything on the top is just "bird food". The Desert Gold peach tree is considered to be a very early ripening (mid-may in Arizona), heavy bearing and yellow clingstone tree. The chilling requirements are 250 hours. That's the amount of time needed below 45 degrees to produce fruit. If you live in the Phoenix area, you will need to choose varieties that are well adapted to our desert climate. Here's the list of deciduous fruit trees that we have planted in our little orchard, some are only two or three years old. We'll have to wait and see how they do this year. We have tried to choose varieties that will be harvested at different times to extend the harvest. We buy most of our trees at our long-time, local nursery, Baker Nursery in Phoenix.

• May Pride - very early-ripening peach for warm winter climates. Delicious, sweet and tangy, semi-freestone when soft-ripe. Very large for such and early peach. 175-200 chill hours.
  
• Mid Pride - Best yellow freestone for warm winter climates. Known for it's exceptional flavor and dessert quality. Ripens mid season. 250 chill hours.
  
• August Pride - Large, all-purpose yellow freestone, sweet, aromatic,rich flavor, one of the very best. Ripens 3 to 4 weeks after mid-pride. Chilling hours required, is less than 300 hours.
  
• Gold Dust - small to medium fruit, streaked with red skin, sweet, yellow flesh. Early harvest. (These peaches are shaped like a little heart, and are very sweet).
• Katy Apricot - Large, all purpose , flavorful freestone. (Our only apricot, it only gives me about 20 pieces of fruit, maybe not enough chill hours for this one).
  
• Santa Rosa Plum - Juicy, tangy, flavorful. Reddish purple skin, amber flesh tinged red. Late June harvest. (This tree is always loaded).
  
• Beauty Plum - Sweet, flavorful plum, red over yellow skin, amber flesh.
• Fuji Apple - Sweet, very crisp and flavorful. Ripens in July (Both of our apples are espalier trained and give us baskets of fruit).
• Anna Apple - Heavy crops if yellow, crisp, sweet apples.

Here are some photos of our recently pruned peach trees. We've trimmed about 2/3 of the new growth back. If it were up to me, every yard would have at least one peach tree. They are the most adaptable of all the deciduous fruit trees. Almost any yard can accommodate fruit trees if kept small. One of the best examples of high-density planting, (lots of trees in a small area), is a hedgerow. Just down the street, my neighbor David has created his own edible hedge around the perimeter of his front yard. He's planted 65 to 70 fruit trees, from pomegranates to nectarines and apples, and will harvest an amazing array of fresh, sweet fruit just steps from his door. There is nothing as delightful as a juicy, tree-ripened peach from your own tree. If you think you don't have room for a couple of fruit trees in your yard or garden, think again!





















Oh, here's one more bit of added inspiration. These are photos of Potager du roi, which means kitchen garden of the king. It was created in 1678 for King Louis XIV, and is of course located in Versailles, France. The "Jardin" contains 5,000 fruit trees, including row upon row of espaliers and hedgesgrows. There are fifty varieties of pear trees and twenty varieties of apples in the royal fruit garden. The twenty-five acre garden employed 30 gardeners to tend and maintain this work of art. Although the king had unlimited resources, we can at least allow these gardens to motivate and give us insite as to what might be possible in our own garden's and communities.

Have a great Spring!