This is a good general explanation on planting fruit trees:

http://www.creators.com/lifestylefeatures/jeff-rugg/Edible-fruit-trees-require-some-effort.html

 

Planting trees is like building a garage-------You can not get too many or too large.

 

Why not find out how much the projected annual yield for each variety that you'd like to plant is? Then figure out how many pounds per year of each fruit you want and plant accordingly.

 

Also make sure you dont plant the same types, Get several varieties of each fruit type and even better from several nursery's. This way if a plant gets a disease it may not affect all your plants.

 

Plant a lot more than you will need if you have bear in the area.

 

I agree with those above. Lots of things will affect your production of any type of fruit....

Do lots of research on the varieties for your zone, which ones need pollinators, which ones do better in your soil.. Take a soil sample to your AG dept and be sure to tell them you are going to plant a orchard.

Plant more than you think you will need=then, if you have extras, you can sell, share or donate. Plant several different varieties weather/frost etc. may affect them differently.

Make sure you are willing to spray those fruits that will need it--I thought I could get by without spraying my peach trees, I have three different var., older trees that I have not gotten one peach from--beautiful blooming but no fruit! I have antique apples, muscadines/grapes, fig, plum, cherry, blueberry, blackberry, dewberry and pears and I have not sprayed any of them.. I have a bumper crops almost every yr...

Make sure you can prune the trees, vines as needed to produce the max. production. It takes me a long time to correctly prune my 15 muscadine vines, but without it I wouldn't get the production I do.

Make a list of all the things you want from these trees/vines! Do you want to make juice? jelly? jams? pies? breads? Do you want keepers (those var. that will keep well into winter)? Or do you just want them to eat fresh??? Your list will determine what var. you should plant.

Good luck. I am so glad I started my orchard/vineyard 12yrs ago.. I add new/dfferent var. each yr. I started with the ones that took the longest to produce ( pecan trees)..

PS -don't be discouraged if you have a var. that fails. Keep trying until you find one that works for you..QB

 

Like others mentioned, plant more than you think you need, and differing varieties. With different varieties, you have a better chance of a tree 'liking' your site and producing tons of fruit.

If my best pear tree would only produce each year regularly, it'd provide enough pears for several families. But, frosts get the fruit on it some years, and not on others. Having different maturing dates will help you in surviving late frosts.

My advice? Buy two trees of each species, per family. Or, buy enough fruit trees to completely fill up your orchard space. You can't have too much fruit... that's what neighbors or for (or can it all and put it under the beds!).

 

As many as you can afford and care for properly.

 

Thanks for all the input! It's been very helpful. I think we definitely need to plan for lots extra... the nice thing is that space is no object (120 acres) and the $ factor isn't really a problem either. Initially we're going to make up a plan and fence it in so the deer don't attack them and then start planting trees over the next couple years.

I really wish there was a store or something I could go to and taste all the different varieties of fruit that grow around here...

 

http://www.pickyourown.org/WAnortheast.htm

 

Plant as many and as you can and as many different varieties as you can. You can't have too many fruit or nut trees in my opinion.

The main thing is to just get at least something planted. They won't grow unless you get them in the ground.

 

We planted a lot of different trees when we first bought our property. I suggest you research thoroughly what grows well where you live. We wish we'd planted more dwarf/semi-dwarf trees and not so many. Only plant as many as you can take care of properly. We have to deal with deer, squirrels, cedar apple rust, rot, etc., and most recently crows. We wish we'd have put a smaller number of trees in a smaller area that could have been easily fenced off and netted. It would have been easier to maintain, spray, keep pests away, etc. It would have also made watering easier.

 

Farmers market and fruit stands you can get some of the local l grown fruits. Taste it. Different orcahns have stans and tate theirs. By a littl of this and that.

I am trying to do this too but much smaller scale. I think I have 100 feet one way and maybe 80 the other way and it is full of elms. I have started clearing. Here they will have to be watered. So I am figuring out a simple system to get water to them all. I have irrigation water for them. I plan to have the watering system in before I set any trees. I want berries and grapes too. I want enough to can and can enough for two years on hand as the frost can take and wind this year took the apricots. Beautifully in bloom and wind made it a ragged mess of bloom and no fruit. Apricots are are worse to frost as early.

What are stone pines?

 

Plant 5 times as many of each of everything you plant than you think you will need, it takes heaps of fruit to make jams, jellies, preserves, cider, wine, crumbles and the like and anything left over can be fed to the chickens and pigs.

Have you thought of just fencing each tree instead of the entire orchard? A large park near here does just that as it has a large herd of deer but keeps planting new trees. Four posts and some wire does hte trick. It just seems to me that it would work out cheeper to do it that way.

The only suggestion I can make as to planting is to factor in when the tree will bloom and try to give it some cover with other trees, I have my apricots in the middle of my orchard so late blooming trees take the brunt of the cold wind and frost.

Good luck with it.

 

Stone pines are for pine nuts. They take forever to start producing though.

You know, I've suggested that though my dad is pretty set on fencing the entire area. Considering we're talking around 100+ trees/vines/bushes eventually I imagine it's a lot easier to just fence in the area itself. It might be cheaper to do it by the tree, but I think in the long haul it'll be simpler to just fence in the area and then plant the trees as we go.

 

Fence the area you plan to put into orchard - when the trees are big enough you can run your free range chickens in there. The fence will help to protect them, and they will keep the bug population down, and clean up the fallen fruit.

 

Don't forget about all the maintenance! Easy to suggest planting all the trees you can afford. But can you 'afford' to spend a month each year pruning? fruit trees need a lot of love! And that starts day 1 with correct initial training.
But in 10-15 years (and you will be older don't forget) these trees will become quite a "hobby" Orcharding is a lifestyle- from pruning, irrigation, pest control (from bugs/disease to bears/crows), to all that mowing around the trees.

 

Start now on improving the soil and dealing with weeds. Talk to other folks with small home orchards. Take classes through the County Extension if possible, read lots of books. Check out NAFEX and similar groups.

 

I have pinon nut trees on the other place. You can eat. If they get enough moisture they make.

To get in with tractors and equipment and if each tree was fenced be hard to work or more room?

 

How many do you need?

At my house that's directly related to how many trees the goats will eat (and kill) before I've discovered they're out and get them back where they go!

Beth

 

I only have a family of 4 and I've got about 100 trees in the ground now. I still ask myself whether or not it will be enough. To me, the key is diversity, with several different varieties of just about everything. With the more varieties you have, you can strech out the picking season so you'll have fresh fruit longer. Check out "www.davewilson.com". They have a great full color chart of fruit ripening for hundreds of varieties, and that can help you decide what to put in the ground.

The fruit on the tree looks like a lot when you are only eating fresh off the tree. Once you start preparing products like apple cider, peach butter, prunes, and others, the fruit disappears VERY fast. When making preserves to feed a family over the course of a year, I'd say that one half to one acre per family is about what you'll need. So, for twenty people, maybe 2-2.5 acres of trees could meet all your needs.

There are lots of things to take into consideration when planning your orchard. Aspect, slope, soil, pollunation, and ripening date. One other thing to consider is that young trees produce less fruit and older trees take up more space. You might find that to feed you family now you need many more trees than you will twenty years from now. By then, you may chose to cut down you less favorate trees to make space for your best producers. Plan ahead so that you don't have to cut down all the apples to make room for the cherries.
Michael