Growing fruit trees in your backyard means having plenty of your favorite fruit fresh off the tree. Although a backyard orchard may seem like a good idea, there are many aspects of growing fruit trees that need consideration to help you determine what type of tree will grow best in your yard. Fruit trees need space, some have chill requirements and many require cross-pollination to set fruit along with a sunny location.
Fruit trees need a location in the yard where they receive at least six hours of sunlight daily during active growing. Sunlight is needed for fruit to produce healthy color and good flavor. During the first and second growing season, young trees may require sunburn protection for their trunks. Young trees generally have canopies that are not large enough to provide shade for the tree trunk, so you need to paint the trunks to reflect sunlight along with any large limbs that also exposed. You can paint trees using a mixture of half water and half white interior latex paint on exposed trunks and branches.
To successfully grow fruit trees, you need to know what trees grow in your area. Many trees require a certain amount of cold weather yearly to grow and bloom well; this is known as the chill requirements and is measured in hours needed at temperatures at or below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Apple trees, for example, have a chilling requirement of 900 to 1,200 hours, while citrus trees require heat, and many are frost- or freeze-sensitive.
Along with chill factor is the climate where you live. Some fruit trees are more cold-tolerant than others. Most citrus trees sustain damage in temperatures below freezing, or 32 degrees F, while some varieties of apples, hybrid plums and cherries can withstand temperature well below freezing. But you can often grow fruit trees slightly outside their native range by planting trees away from frost pocket areas and minimizing any frost damage to blooms.
Space and pollination are important for fruit trees. Some fruit trees, such as a fully grown apple, can grow up to 40 feet wide with a 30- to 40-foot spread, so you need to make sure you have space for large fruit trees or grow semi-dwarf varieties that reach only one-half to three-fourths the size of regular trees. You also have the choice to grow dwarf fruit tree varieties that grow about 5 to 10 feet tall.
Many types of fruit trees require cross-pollination to set fruit. Trees requiring cross-pollination include apples, plums and pears, so you need to plant another tree of a different cultivar that blooms at the same time to ensure proper pollination. Other trees, such as apricot, peach and nectarine, are self-fruitful, which means pollen from the same cultivar in the area can pollinate the tree. With self-fruitful varieties, however, fruit is enhanced if more than one tree is planted in the area.
- The New Sunset Western Garden Book; Kathleen Norris Brenzel, Editor
- University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources: Fruit Trees: Planting and Caring of Young Trees
- University of California Agriculture and Natureal Resources: Fruit Trees: Pruning Overgrown Deciduous Trees
- California Rare Fruit Growers: Fruit Growing in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Missouri Botanical Garden: Why Do My Fruit Trees Fail to Produce Fruit
- University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources: Fruit Trees: Thinning Young Fruit
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