10 Keys for Success Growing Healthy Fruit Trees, Delicious Fruit

This video provides 10 tips and keys to success for how to grow healthy fruit trees and delicious fruit. Topics covered include, sun, soil, water, climate, cross pollination, size (smaller is better), fertilizer & mulch, pruning, thinning, and insect pest management, as well as sunscald or southwest winter sun damage as a bonus tip.
The video is shot all around our foodscape showing a variety of our fruit trees including apple, pear, peach, nectarine, plum and pluot. Some of the trees are free form and kept small using summer pruning and some are managed on espalier fruit fences.
BLOOM TIME:
One topic mentioned is the bloom time of different types of fruit trees. When growing fruit trees in areas with spring frosts and freezes, a late spring freeze can wipe out a crop. In these cases, a late blooming tree may avoid the freeze and be more likely to yield a crop. For example, almonds and apricots bloom very early and apples bloom relatively late. So in a place with lots of cold late in the spring, an apple would likely be more successful. Also, different varieties will bloom at different times, so you can look for late blooming peaches, for example, to have a higher chance of success. In general, the sequence of bloom is almond, apricot, Japanese plum, peaches/nectarines, Asian pears, European plums, cherries, pears, apples. To see short video showing some of our trees in bloom and their different bloom times, visit: foodscapingutah.org/?p=2154
For lots more on growing fruit trees, including more info on pruning and espalier, check out the 'Fruit Trees & Grapes' tab at our website: foodscapingutah.org/category/...
GROW YOUR OWN Foodscape and organic garden in your frontyard.
foodscapingutah.org

[@bhajansbyguptani8114]

HELLO FRIEND GOOD MORNIG

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Hello 👋

[@charlotte6807]

Merci de nous donner vos vidéos en FRANÇAIS. Bonne continuation.

[@Rach1688]

Thank you so much! It’s so nice to see a Utah garden video. Utah is a rough place to grow food.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Glad to help!

[@larryc56]

Thanks for the great info. BTW, your chapter markers are a bit off.

[@alim1000]

Thank You For Sharing your Idea Bro

[@vulk86]

You can see that you really love fruit trees!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

We do! They are magic.

[@jessoair]

Great info! I need to look more into that modified central leader. Is that for apples and pears?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Yep! For apples and pears but not for stone fruit. Apples and pears are also great for espalier!

[@saribmahmood]

i already have grass at my property all over. you mentioned not to plant a fruit tree in grass. how do you suggest i start?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

We started with grass everywhere on our property as well. In our case, we started foodscaping in a small corner by laying down cardboard and mulching heavily with wood chips (4-6 inches). You can plant trees immediately as long as you dig a wide hole and do your best to pull out all the grass and roots in the soil of your hole. After planting, we usually also put one inch of compost, then cardboard and then the wood chip mulch. We also try to not to have mulch on the trunk of the tree (we leave a few inches bare around the tree). Hope this helps!

[@susanerni9652]

I have a Bartlett Pear tree that I trimmed to be Espalier last fall and I didn’t realize at the time that I needed a pollinator to get fruit. I have a tiny yard and no extra space for a second pear tree. Would it be possible to just graft in some branches of another pear tree for fruit production? Or would I need to sell the tree and find a 2 in one pear tree?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Hi Susan, I believe Bartlett can be at least partially self-fruitful, so you may be fine without doing anything. Also, is there a chance someone else living near by has a pear tree or a flowering pear (flowering pears are all over in my neighborhood). It might still be beneficial to graft another variety on to your existing tree. It could help with production of the Bartlett plus help you stagger out the harvest times if you get a later producing variety. If you are interested in trying to graft, you can check out our grafting video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4umf6aJn5eXiJI

[@QigongInstituteOrg]

what size of organza bag do you use for apples? 3x4? 5/7?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

5x7. -and they get tight on really large apples, so 6x8 might be better in some cases.

[@mariaavery5004]

Where do you get your mulch?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

We get our mulch from our city green waste facility (Ogden, UT). They do a really nice job with compost and mulch.

[@Rach1688]

I want to foodscape my front yard and have fruit trees, but I am concerned my others plants won’t do well like tomatoes because of the shade that they may cast.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

It is definitely a good idea to think about where shadows will fall and making sure plants like tomatoes are getting tons of direct sun. If your fruit trees are already large, you will need to look for sunny spots on their south side or potentially west or east as long as they are far enough from the trees. If your fruit trees are small, you should try to keep them small with summer pruning and/or espalier. You can check out our videos for more on those techniques.

[@Rach1688]

@@foodscapingutah5239 Thank you! You and your wife are so inspiring!