Planting Fruit Trees

fruit trees

Many years ago when I lived on the ranch we had orchards of peaches. They were our main crop.  For many years I watched my grandmother cook for the workers that picked the fruit and wondered if one day I would be doing this work. Well sadly my future didn’t include living on a ranch or farm and growing food, but as I got older I planted a garden or if I didn’t have room in my yard it was in pots or flower beds.

Planting fruit trees is very important and picking the right place is most important because once the fruit tree is planted you don’t want to move it.  I planted a citrus tree several years back and just as it was doing well I had to move it. During transplanting the dirt all broke off even after watering to keep it moist so I had a bare root tree. Several months after that we got a bad frost and now both of my citrus trees look burned. I watered them during the frost and covered them but still look pretty bad.

I have been reading about trees, types to try and what fruit trees are going to produce more fruit to use. I like cherries but the birds always seem to get them first. So am going for the bigger fruit. I have a fig tree that is doing great and now am adding some others. The first thing am doing is scouting the area I have left and marking the area for the holes and according to what soil they like. Some like sandy soil others are happy with well drained area where water doesn’t stand.

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The trees that am thinking of getting are apples, peaches, nectarines, pear and plums.  Our son has oranges and a huge lemon tree so I don’t want to use valuable space for those. I may get a Meyer lemon tree, they are easy to grow and a smaller tree.

Apples: the ideal soil pH for apples is 5.0- 6.5 but they can adjust to more acidic soil if it’s fertile and well drained soil.

Peaches and nectarine trees need deep soil with no compacted subsoil or hardpan and because of wood-boring insects plan on new trees every 10 years. Peach pH is 6.0-7.0

Pears can tolerate wetter, heavier soils and colder weather than most fruit trees.   No need to worry much about pH they tolerate a wide range of garden soil, but there pH is 6.0-7.5

Plum need soil with a pH that is between 6.0 & 8.0 and loose soil.  Stay away from soils that are extremely heavy or poorly drained soil.

Lemons need soil with a pH of 6.0-7.5

Orange trees need soil with a pH of 6.0-7.5

I know that many of you have lots of snow and planting is the least of your worries, but hopefully this information will be of some help to others. Here in California we think its spring already.  If any of you have any suggestions and ideas for planting, please pass it on.

Preparedness Mom

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2 thoughts on “Planting Fruit Trees”

  1. Oh rats! Not my figs too. Am trying to keep my tree medium high, so I can reach the figs when ripe. Guess I better keep an eye out for netting. Thanks for the information.

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