Backyard orchard culture

Backyard Orchard Culture –
My wife and I downsized in 2004 and decided that the city offered us the most options for a full life as we aged. I had personally lived in everything from very rural and isolated to the burbs – but never within a mile of the center of a city. The new location created an interesting environment for someone who is focused on outdoor living and providing safe fresh food for the table. I previously wrote of my experience with raised beds, food storage, and extending the season with cold frames.
Not the least of our problems trying to set up this little lot was fruit. Fortunately my wife manages a nursery center and therefore she is exposed to a lot of information related to new findings and techniques for plant management. We get to go to trade shows and talk to vendors offering all manner of products. Several years ago she shared the Dave Wilson Backyard Orchard Culture with me. It is a philosophical approach to orchard management that flew in the face of everything I believed. For example, semi dwarf refers to a root stock and not the ultimate size of the tree, prune year round, not just in Feb/Mar, control the size of the tree, etc. And I should add that the Dave Wilson Nursery is the major supplier of fruit trees for garden nurseries in the southwest. Not just some flaky internet philosopher.
The web site is: http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/homeindex1.html
For me the information was huge. There is not a lot of room on a ¼ acre for 20’+ trees on a 20 X 20 spacing. When we bought the property it had an out of control pear tree and decaying apple tree. The apple tree had long ago succumbed to borer and came down.

The pear tree in the garden in April 2005. Over 10’ high and although flowering in the photo most of the energy went into shoots. I didn’t do anything to it the first few years and by 2008 it was 12’ tall and really starting to grow.

I needed ladders to get to the little fruit it produced and it was approaching the wires. The tree was also exhibiting signs of severe blight damage. I knew if I didn’t do something in a few years it would be gone. So I started working on it and over 3 years of obsessing –

Got it to where I want it. I can reach the top of the tree without a ladder and I can get the shoots and fruit from the ground (important when you get older and the balance and depth perception goes).

Last year’s pear crop. Plenty for eating, drying, and giving away. I got the blight under control by –
1. Removing any effected branches I find throughout the season
2. In the fall I remove the straw mulch, rake up all the leaves and dispose of them in the city yard waste. I do not compost fruit tree leaves. I get rid of them.
3. After the leaves are removed in the fall I spread an inch or so of compost and remulch
The result is a manageable tree located in the garden that provides a place to sit and doesn’t shade the beds.
This is a 5 in 1 plum tree that I have limited to 6’ I am still working on the shape but all the varieties produce as long as there are insects working when it flowers. Last spring was so damp and cold only one variety was pollinated. Still had a nice bunch of dark Italian plums.

The tree in front of the barrels is a 2 in 1 Asian Pear with a Bartlett pollinator. It would be bigger right now but for our greed. We let it fruit instead of removing the fruit to encourage more growth. I am still getting branching but not what it would do if it were not fruiting. I prop all heavy branches when they are full of fruit. We had fresh Asian pears into December. They really hold well in the downstairs fridge. Have not tried them in the cold room. Fresh fruit is too valuable to take a chance of spoilage in the winter.

In the foreground in this pic are 3 apple trees planted in one hole. 2 of them show a decent shape and I might espalier the third. This will be the third year and we’ll see what they do.
Note that the plum, Asian pear, and Apple trees are in a 20 X 20 area with two 3 X 6 cold frames that double as raised beds in the summer. Traditional fruit tree spacing would allow for one tree and no raised beds. Too much shade.

On the outside of the garden, south east corner, is a genetic dwarf peach. It is about 4’ tall right now and a slow grower. It has given us real peaches for the past 2 years. I had to prune the lower branches more than I wanted to keep the dogs and chickens from eating the peaches.

Peach tree as it looked early last summer. I should have removed some of the foliage but I like the look of the tree and shape so it takes longer for the fruit to ripen. Each year it has given us more fruit. Fresh peaches get eaten pretty quick.

Along the fence we have service berries and currents. Right now the chickens get them but I am hopeful that when the service berries get a couple more years of growth the berries at the top of the bush will be out of chicken reach. I don’t think we will ever get currents as long as the chickens are free ranging.
Although we have been in the house for since 2004 we did not really start to focus on fruit until about 2008 so this part of the journey has not been very long. Retirement has given me more time to work on the house and grounds. Last summer we remodeled the kitchen and that is a disruptive experience to say the least.
I would encourage everyone interested in home grown fruit to explore the Dave Wilson site as it contains a lot of useful information.