Saturday, April 4, 2015

Planning the Orchard

The fruit trees I ordered this winter should be shipping next week. So, it's time to figure out exactly where they will be planted.  I have been studying high density planting for fruit trees and found a few interesting videos: High Density Planting for Fruit Trees and High Density Fruit Tree Growing.
The first video is helpful in seeing the trees as they are planted and the second video shows mature trees and how they look when pruned to stay small.
Deep Green Permaculture has a nice article on backyard orchard culture with lots of diagrams on different planting layouts. I think the hedgerow plan would work best with the slope of my orchard space.

I have four apple trees, two pear trees, a columnar self fertile peach tree and a crabapple tree going in the orchard; and possibly a sour cherry tree. I remember it was a lot of fun picking out the apple trees. How could I pass up a "Sheep Nose" apple tree!

So the plan, I think, will look like this:
The two Johnagolds are at the top of the orchard and I still haven't made up my mind as to whether or not they will stay. They seem to have more buds on them this year so we'll see how they have recovered after last year's buffet by the deer. Right now the chickens are wintering in the upper orchard but will have to go somewhere else soon.

2 comments:

  1. Great post and great planning! Funny how the names can really be appealing. It took great will power to not order a Cinnamon Spice apple tree this year. But that was not only because of the name, it's because it's an heirloom that "excels in the South." So I'll get it next year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I also had to get the "Smokehouse" apple found in Pennsylvania growing next to a smokehouse, since I live in PA and really want a smokehouse! Have fun with the Cinnamon Spice apple tree!

    ReplyDelete