I must confess… Just saying the word “orchard” makes me green with envy… fruit trees do NOT thrive here in Wyoming.
My dreams of a homestead orchard probably aren’t going to happen as long as we live here. So, I’ve invited Angi Schneider, author of The Gardening Notebook, to share her best tips for planning an orchard on the homestead.
Fruit trees and bushes are important on the homestead, with minimal effort they can supply your family with many pounds of produce every year. Unfortunately, growing fruit is often one of the most neglected things on a homestead, especially on a small homestead.
Growing fruit takes time. Sometimes there will be years between planting and harvest. So, the sooner you get those fruit trees and bushes in the ground the sooner you’ll have a fruit harvest. Fruit trees truly do take minimal effort, but it is not as easy as digging a hole and planting a tree.
There is some planning that needs to happen before you buy and plant your first fruit tree. That is why I am sharing what you need to do when deciding you want to plan an orchard for your homestead.
Sometimes, here on the Prairie Homestead, we attempt to grow fruit. Check out our video (above) to watch us try our hands at growing lemons.
Planning an Orchard for Your Homestead
1. Start Planning an Orchard with a List of Fruits
This is when you get to dream about all the fruit trees and bushes you would love to have on your homestead. Don’t worry about whether or not they grow where you are. Make a list of all the fruits your family enjoys and the fruits that you use for things (like jam or peach pie ).
2. Find Out What Varieties Will Grow in your Climate
- Use the Internet -You can start your search on the internet, many nursery sites list what trees do best in each gardening zone. If you don’t know what your gardening zone is, you can take a look at the USDA Plant Hardiness Map. Once you locate your zone you will have a better idea of what fruit trees will thrive in your gardening zone.
- Talk with Local Gardening Friends – Talking with others in your area that have fruit trees is a great way to find out firsthand what varieties grow well in your area.
- Check with Your Local Nurseries – Local nurseries have a vested interest in your homestead orchard being successful. They will be helpful in figuring out what type of trees do well in your area and supply you with your trees.
- Contact Your County Extension Office – Your extension office keeps records of things that can contribute to the success of your homestead’s orchard. One thing they keep track of is chill hours, some fruits need a certain number of hours per year below 45°F to produce fruit. The County Extension keeps these records so if you cannot find your hours online you can always call your local office.
These are excellent places to find information about the trees that might grow successfully in your area but don’t cross the others off your list yet. There are some fruit trees that can be grown in colder climates using non-traditional methods. Try growing dwarf fruit trees or other potted tree varieties; Meyer lemon and Satsuma oranges are two citrus trees that can be grown in colder climates, potted indoors.
3. Learn What Trees are Self-Fertile and Which Are Not
Self-fertile trees are exactly what they sound like – the flowers from this kind of tree will pollinate themselves. Here’s a list of the most self-fertile fruits:
- Apricot
- Pomegranate
- Citrus
- Fig
- Grape
- Persimmon
- Peaches
- Berries
- European plums (although they do better with two varieties).
Some trees are not self-fertile, which means two trees are needed to produce fruit. This means you will need to make sure that the two trees are different varieties that bloom at the same time. Two trees of the same variety won’t work as pollinators and neither will two different varieties that don’t bloom at the same time.
Now, that does not necessarily mean you have to have two trees on your property. Surrounding trees can be used to help pollinate the fruit trees on your property. Find out what kind of fruit trees your neighbor has and buy a different variety that can cross-pollinate. This is a great way to get fruit in an urban yard since the trees need to be within 50 feet of each other.
Not self-fertile and require a pollinator:
- Apples
- Pears,
- Japanese plums
- Cherries,
- Nuts trees
4. Know Your Homestead Orchard Conditions
Before you run out and buy fruit trees for your homestead orchard you should consider what the growing conditions are like where you are going to plant them. There are 4 things that you should look into before choosing a spot to start growing your orchard.
- The Amount of Sun
Most fruit trees like to be in sunny spots that get 6 to 8 hours of sunlight. You will need the right amount for your fruit trees to grow and produce ripened fruit. - Soil Conditions
I am a huge believer in having your soil tested, it is better to know the condition of your soil so you know how to amend it. It is much easier to fix your soil before your trees are planted, rather than stunting them and trying to guess how to fix your soil later. You can get soil kits from your local extension office, a farm store or my favorite is this one from Redmond Agriculture. - Standing Water
Look into whether to not your location has standing water for long periods of time. This could mean water is left for days after heavy rain or spring snowmelt. Think about the condition of your location throughout the year. (Trees and fruit bushes are planted for the long haul) - Access to Water
Finally, you will want to consider how easy it is to get water to your tree’s location. Fruit trees require water and when it becomes hot and dry in the summer you will want to be able to provide it for them. You can provide water through hoses, buckets, and rain barrels. There are many options you will need to research what works best for your situation.
Just because you may not have the ideal conditions doesn’t mean that you can’t grow fruit trees. Take a listen to this Old Fashioned on Purpose podcast episode: A Lesson in Rolling with the Punches: Growing Fruit in Wyoming. In this episode, you will learn how to embrace your surroundings and change your expectations when it comes to growing fruit trees.
You can also learn some great tips about growing fruit in any climate by listening to my podcast episode: Can You Grow Apples in the Arctic?
5. Determine How Much Space You Have Available
Standard-size trees have about 20 feet spread, semi-dwarf trees have about 12-15 feet spread and dwarf trees have about 10 feet spread. Depending on what type of tree you are considering you may need to about a non-traditional orchard.
If you live on an acre or less, you can still have an amazing orchard but you might have it spread out in different areas of your property or consider smaller varieties. You can also use walls or fences and espaliering some of the fruit trees. An espaliered tree is a tree that you will prune in such a way that it fans out over the wall or fence. This is a great space saver and yet you’ll still get a lot of fruit.
If you live on an urban or small homestead you will also want to consider planting dwarf trees. Dwarf trees are trees that are grafted onto a rootstock that will not allow the tree to grow large so you get the same great fruit in less space.
5. Planning an Orchard on Paper First
This is the fun part! Get out some paper and colored pencils and map out your yard or acreage. Take your list of varieties and start putting them on your map. Go outside and walk the map to make sure your plans will work. Things to consider while you walk:
- Is there enough space for the tree variety you have listed?
- Is there enough sun for your trees
- Is there an adequate water source nearby?
- When the tree is full size will it cast a shadow on an area that you don’t want to be shaded? A vegetable garden for instance).
Make sure you keep this map in a safe place, like your gardening notebook, so you can refer back to it when it’s time to plant your trees.
6. How Much Fruit Can a Home Orchard Produce?
When you are planning an orchard you will need to understand how much fruit comes from one or two trees. Just to give you an idea of just how much fruit these trees can add to your homestead: a mature lemon tree can give you over 200 pounds of lemons, a mature peach tree can give you well over 75 pounds, and so can a mature plum tree. That is a lot of fruit!
So, unless you plan on selling your fruit or have a lot of friends who love to have freshly picked fruit, you don’t need more than one or two trees of each fruit. Diversity is key in the home orchard.
Are You Ready to Start Planning an Orchard?
An orchard is a long-term relationship, so you have time to plant everything you can in your area. To begin with, try to add just a few new trees or bushes each year. It’s a good idea to start with either the fruits that your family loves the most or the most expensive ones to buy. You will have a full-blooming orchard in no time!
More About Growing Your Own Food:
- How To Plan Out Your Fall Garden
- The Best Organic Fertilizers for Your Vegetable Garden
- How to Store a Yea’s Worth of Food for Your Family (Without Waste and Overwhelm)
- Canning Peaches with Honey and Cinnamon
About Angi
Angi Schneider is a minister’s wife and homeschooling mom. She is passionate about growing food for her family and living a simple life. She blogs about their homesteading and homeschooling adventures at SchneiderPeeps.com and is the author of The Gardening Notebook which she wrote to help other gardeners remember all the great information they are learning.
We were thrilled when we found property that already had an orchard. We spent the last three Sunday’s at a Fruit Tree Pruning Intensive which allowed us to learn hands on how to prune our trees.
One problem that we have is we have three Gravenstein apple trees that have never produced fruit. I’m thinking it is because a Gravenstein is a triploid (which requires TWO pollinators in addition to the Gravenstein) and two of the trees are surrounded by pears and plums and the other by apples that don’t flower at the same time. We might have to graft some pollinators into the trunk since I’m not willing to cut down the stuff that is around it.
Great info in this post. I’m hoping that our orchard will one day produce more than it has if we take care of it properly.
What a great opportunity to go to a fruit tree pruning intensive. Was is done by your county extension office? Grafting a pollinator is a great solution, I wouldn’t want to remove a tree either. Glad you enjoyed the post.
Clackamas Community College and The Home Orchard Society. They have an arboretum on the campus. It was a great learning experience.
Karen,
I highly recommend you watch the Permaculture Orchard video. He points out that there is a difference between trees (with his arms up in the air) and fruit trees (arms pointing out by his sides). I am in no way associated with this venture. I bought and watched the movie myself and it is chocked full of wonderful information. He talks about an already established orchard and starting a new one. He has wonderful recommendations for natural growing.
http://www.permacultureorchard.com/
Chris
What an encouraging – and motivating – article! My in-laws gave me 3 different apple trees for my 30th birthday. We ate our first 2 apples already this past Fall after just 2 years, so I’m hoping for a good first harvest this next Fall. You’ve motivated me to plant something else this year. Rhubarb? Blueberries or strawberries? Or lemons? I love the idea of lemons!
How fun! I can’t wait to see what you plant next – I have a soft spot for Meyer lemons. Glad you enjoyed the post.
Hi to Jill and Angi! Jill, I just wanted to tell you that it is possible to grow fruit trees in Wyoming. Difficult, but you can. I’m not sure *exactly* in WY where you live, but I encourage you to take a look at UW Extension’s resources and publications. There are some about growing fruit trees. There is also a gentleman who sells fruit trees with appropriate root stock for cold climates and high altitude adapted varieties at the Cheyenne farmer’s market in late summer (again, not sure where you are precisely). Might be worth investigating if you are really wishing for fruit trees. Based upon the pictures of some parts of your homestead, it looks like you may be in an area that would support fruit trees (based upon the fact that you can produce grass hay).
Good to know Amanda! I should definitely check out the trees at the Chey Market– maybe they would be better. The ones I planted previously might not have been the best fit for this area. Off to research!
I live in Saskatchewan, Canada and I have an awesome fruit orchard. We can’t grow lemons but we have sour cherries, Saskatoon berries, raspberries, plums, apricots, pears, and tons of apples! I find the key is to not let grass grow around the trees. The grass sucks up way too much moisture.
I too love in Saskatchewan and have lots of cherries saskatoons and raspberries. This year we are planting a couple each apples plums and pears to add to our permaculture efforts.
I’m jealous of your cherries!
Zone 5 here & a Master Gardener. I have several fruit trees (29 on a 1/2 acre) – but it would be misleading to say they are minimal effort. They are very labor & time intensive. You are fighting the wildlife (under the ground, in the air & field) that not only eats the fruit of your labor- but they can destroy the trees. Then there are fungus, bacterial, molds and insects to deal with. Every week I am spraying for something. Then there’s the weather. (harsh winters, high winds, scorching heat, high humidity) Regardless, I do LOVE having fresh fruit right outside my backdoor. For all of the effort- it is worth it. To extend the season, we also have berry bushes. (cherry, blueberry, gooseberry, currants, goji) Please try a few trees yourself. There are colder places that have orchards- so unless you are on a rock- you should be able to grow something. (except citrus)
Thanks for sharing your experience. Climate is definitely a consideration when caring for fruit trees. To be honest we haven’t found a need to spray our fruit trees for insects, fungi, bacteria or mold. Since we have bees on our property we need to be very careful with sprays (even organic ones).
Do you have other ways of protecting your trees from insects? I’m in zone 6b in Virginia. Last year Japanese beetles wreaked havoc on our newly planted fruit trees. We put out traps, but they still kept coming back. There are also a lot of ants. Our apple tree (with 3 varieties on it) got hit the worst.
You might want to look into planting trap crops, aka things that will entice the bugs more than your trees. For example, plant evening primrose and the japanese beetles will be distracted and eat that instead (they cover the evening primrose plants and you can pull them off and drop into a bucket of soapy water, bonus: the evening primrose bounces back without issue). You can google specific bugs and their favorite plants. From my own experience, I know that ants love peonies, so you might want to do some research on that. Hope that helps!
Yeah, maybe I should give it another try… I’m still a little burned out after my first attempt– 3 of the trees died the first year, despite my avid watering, and they other one lasted another 3 years, but never grew an inch! It barely maintained itself before dying… :/ I probably didn’t give them enough TLC, though.
I’m a zone 5 master gardener, too, and I think it depends on which varieties you choose to grow and how you choose to manage them. Instead of spray we range our chickens in the orchard on and off and it works really well. Most insects will spend at least part of their life cycle in the dirt so having the chickens there prevents a lot of out of control bug issues. They dealt with the worms in my cherries until my neighbors cherry flies came over. Win some, lose some. I don’t grow cherries anymore because they drive me bonkers – some things I’m willing to buy.
The hardest part for me with fruit trees is getting out there and pruning when it’s still cold. I’m a native Californian and I don’t dig these Utah versions of early spring – too freezey!!!
Have you thought about training the branches down after the branch is 3 years old? When the branches are pointed down, the tree sends out fruiting hormone instead of growing hormone. Once you have the tree in the right size and shape then you will do less and less pruning. Since less effort goes into sprouting new wood, they have more energy to fruit.
I live in zone 5 as well. (Kentucky) I just inherited my family (now 57 acre) farm, and have no clue what I am doing!! My great grandfather planted 2 pears, 4 spice Apple’s (only 2 left) and a sour cherry (3 New ones have started to grow on there own and already producing) All of these are on the outer edge of the front yard scattered. We also have wild blackberries, EVERYWHERE.
I am planning and want to make an orchard of, plums peaches, Apple’s, bluberries, blackberries, raspberries and maybe grapes. I have my eye on a piece of land in front of our house but not sure. I am new to all this and it’s just overwhelming!!
Hi Jill,
I am really glad to read this blog! My husband and I planted Milam Apple Trees last fall that we had ordered earlier in the first part of 2014. We are so excited to see what will happen this first spring. We immediately wrote the ranch where we ordered them from when we experienced an early cold snap right after we planted our trees last fall. They were so good about getting back with us to let us know how happy they were that we were so eager to be good stewards of the trees they had grafted for us. We ordered 4 trees to start with and were able to get 2 trees so we have already placed our order for 6 trees in hopes that we get 6 trees this fall. My husband is retired and we are eager to plant not only for ourselves, but for our future generations and to bring back to life the Milam Apple Trees that Mark Twain talked about in one of his books, with my husband’s last name being Milam and my love of genealogy we thought it would be an awesome gift for all of us to be able to eat fruit that bears our name and also that would be grown on our own little piece of ground. Thank you for the informative articles that you write and keep up the great job! We’ll let you know how our trees do in the next couple of years and what kind of progress we have.
Blessings to you!
Kathy Burton-Milam
How fun!
How cool to plant trees that share your name!!
When we bought our property there were about 175 peach trees in the orchard. They are a lot of work. Without the proper maintenance for insects and diseases you can loose it all fast. We have no experience caring for fruit trees so we outsource this to some experts.
It is true that you will enjoy the “fruits” of planting the trees for many many years. Our grove was planted 25 years ago and still produces more fruit than we can count.
We recently added apple and pear trees. Yum!
yeah, 175 trees would require quite a bit of work!
I disagree with you on trees not growing here. I’ll be opening a U-Pick, here, in Wyoming, soon. Everyone says I can’t do it but the trees, they are alive.
Where in WY do you live? Out here on the exposed, SE WY prairie, it’s tough.
I am near to the capitol. About 20 minutes outside of it. Very open where I am. We are surrounded by wheat fields and our property is former wheat field. Unlike your beautiful property, we do not even have grass enough to sustain a single animal. It is a work in progress. I planted last year and so far all but the walnut trees (which I completely neglected) have survived. Perhaps if I get enough Wyoming weather tolerant trees I’ll send you a few grafted root stocks.
I think the wind is getting worse here every year. I understand your struggles!
I loved this article, we recently planted our mini orchard and had to go through all of the steps that you indicated. I would like to also suggest that when planting that you add a 3″ wide by 4′ PVC pipe about 12″ away from the tree trunk, planted about 2′ deep with holes in the pipe facing the tree. This creates a slow drip watering system when you fill the pipe and instead of having watershed on the top of the ground, the water gets down deep to the roots.
Keep up the great work!
THAT is a great idea! I’m going to put this on the project to do list. We do something similar with milk jugs in our garden.
Thank you! It really makes things a lot easier and you do not have the wasted water.
Peach trees here galore but since we are in Iowa we sometimes lose them all. I had one peach tree on the property when we moved here in 1995 and after canning the first bunch I planted some of the pits and got 8 more the following year. 4 of which I planted in the chicken poop and the other 4 randomly around the year. The 4 in the chicken poop produced in 3 years and profusely! Unfortunately we had a hard freeze the next winter and only 1 survived. But I again planted the pits and last year got close to 100 new trees! I planted them all over the place but this spring I see the rabbits and the deer have really done a number on them. Nipped them off right over the protective fencing and the smaller rabbits have eaten all the bark off. I am hoping at least 20 or so will make it and I will start piling on the poop this spring! Always an adventure!
Like your attitude. I had to smile at your words…..always an adventure.
Alexa-asimplelife
How fun! Sounds like I need to start piling on the chicken poop.
Good article showing that preparation and a bit of research is needed .
When we lived in Adelaide South Australia we had wonderful fruit trees which now just at the thought makes my mouth water. But there was no fruit fly problem.
Now living in Sydney Australia we cannot grow the same fruits because of the dreaded fruit fly.
Thinking citrus would be an easier fruit to grow here I’ve still found pests. Just discovered the gall wasp had attacked one of the orange trees so half of my little tree has been cut back.
I shall persevere 🙂
Alexa-asimplelife visiting from Sydney, Australia
I love your attitude, Alexa. I’m sure you’ll beat ’em. I had no idea fruit flies could be so invasive. I’ve only had them in my house when we’ve left bananas out too long. {ahem}
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Something else to consider when you are thinking about tree size. The dwarf trees are more susceptible to drought. The dwarf root stocks are not as deep as semi or standard sized trees so they are more sensitive. In general, the deeper the roots the healthier the tree. Dwarf trees, although they still live a good while, have a shorter lifespan than those of semi or standard trees.
Great post! Lots of lovely information. We currently manage a garden with an orchard ~ cherries, apples, pears, plums, walnuts and hazelnuts. I adore it. Except for the 2 horse chestnut trees. Why oh why didn’t they plant the eating kind? Any good ideas what to do with horse chestnuts?
The worry is people who have put up a high install and excess construction fees now on 3 year terms with a price hike. They can probably get out of the 3 year term as a result, but after paying all that install they won’t want to.
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Nice article but you left out the mention of root stocks. You have to be careful about the selection of the proper root stocks for the soil conditions in your orchard. Some people think root stocks are too advanced for the beginner but I firmly believe the opposite is true. Anyone who starts an orchard without thinking about their soil conditions and root stocks is likely going to be disappointed.
Hi Kathy, you mentioned a ranch where you bought the Milam apple trees, I would like to buy some too if I could. How can I contact them?
Thanks,
Dave Milum