5 Tips for Starting Your Own Orchard

I‘m excited to report that this year I finally got the orchard started and we now have 20 young fruit and nut trees under our tender loving care. I get asked many time ‘how do you start planning and planting an orchard?’ and I was recently reminded I have not posted anything about starting an orchard here on the block…so Thank you Tim:)

When considering a new orchard area there are a few questions to ask yourself before investing time and money and once you have your answers the rest is relatively easy.

Five Tips for Starters
1) Consider what trees you would like to grow.
This is not as silly as it sounds, how much land do you want to turn into an orchard, the lie of the land, the type of soil you have, your micro-climate plus regional climates and your finances are all going to play a huge part in determining what, how many and success of your orchard.
Consider things like the amount of annual rain fall, prevailing winds, yearly temperatures: do you have hard frosts, snow, droughts and so on.
May be an idea to consider the effects of neighbours chemical spray drift if you are going to go for an organic orchard.
If this is the case, write a letter to your surrounding neighbours telling them of your intention and ask them to be considerate with their chemicals. This will help if you have any unwanted chemical spray drift, they cannot say they didn’t know, a shame we have to do this but we do.
Once you have an idea of the above, make a list of all the fruit and nuts you like then next to each choice put the growing requirements, and any special requirements.
2) Think Small.
There are some other considerations before you buy, are you going with dwarf varieties or ‘normal’ size trees?
The amount of years to fruiting is the key here. As we would all like our trees to begin gifting us their delicious fruits as quickly as possible.
Dwarf varieties are grafted fruit varieties onto a smaller growing main stem.
This is usually plum rootstock and these trees usually grow to 2-3 meters, and take 2-3 years before they produce their first small harvest .
‘Normal’ fruit varieties are grafted onto the same rootstock as the parent variety or grown from seed and usually grow to the varieties normal height this can be very very tall and these can take 5-7 years before they produce their first small harvest.
The great thing about dwarf rootstocks is:
They produce fruit quicker
The fruit is accessible because the tree grows to an average 2-3 metres only
The dwarf rootstocks can be ‘dual’ grafted. This means you can have 2-3 different varieties growing on one tree.
Consider these advantages especially if room is limited, just because they have been grafted onto dwarf rootstock it doesn’t mean the variety has been altered in any way.
This is the great thing, they still retain their original varieties taste, characteristics and charm.
I think, in gardening terms, it’s one time when modern intervention has been an advantage
3) Be kind to your soil.
Preparing the holes in advance will give you time to nurture your soil and make sure it’s in tip top condition and packed with all the nutrients the young trees will need in their first year of growing. Because, once the trees are planted you will not be able to disturb the soil around their roots of they may die, or get damaged or simply not produce fruit.
The person who brought my goats, planted apple trees at least three or four years previously and hadn’t had even a single bud.
It was because the grass had grown right up to the trunk of the young trees and this was their response.
Young fruit trees root systems do NOT like competition for nutrients or moisture and they will fail to thrive and set fruit if either of these factors is challenged.

In late summer it would be a good time to begin to dig the holes for your new trees.
Ideally, each hole should be double the ‘rootball’ size in diameter and double the depth of its container.
However, as we are preparing our holes in advance, use a normal plastic 5L bucket as a guideline and prepare your holes double its diameter and double its depth.
Re-fill the hole with a mixture of the soil you removed, mature manure, compost and comfrey. Simply scoop this out to plant your tree and replace as needed.
Mention post hole borers & mechanical diggers how they destroy structure.

4) Natural pest controls.
As I have mentioned young fruit trees resent anything interfering with their roots and the same goes for their young leaves and buds.
It takes a lot of growing in the first year or so to get your new trees to a state where they are big enough and established enough to build up their own resistance against pest attacks.
In the mean time it is a good move to help the out by setting up natural pest barriers and decoys.
Most orchard pests target the new sappy green growth, and as the trees will be doing a lot of that consider the following options.
Grow a cover crop of Alyssum under and around you trees. This provides a beautiful short, ground cover and is a fabulous hover fly attractor and great natural predator of common orchard pests.
Disguise the shape of your trees, especially their shadow. Many pests can target trees because of their shape, aroma and availability.
Grow herbs, wild parsnips and other predator attractor plants amongst the ‘grass’ A herbal ley of wild flowers and herbs is stunning in the middle of summer and will readily self seed.

5) Give the trees room.
Fruit & nut tree roots are relatively shallow as they spread out from the tree trunks to increase their surface area, so they can effectively anchor the tree better.
Orchard trees for this reason don’t appreciate what we regard as ‘normal’ grass as competition.
Grass on the whole, and couch grass in particular, doesn’t make a great companion for any other plant or tree,
The reason being it emits a growth inhibitor from its roots and there fore stunts the growth of everything in the surrounding area.
Grass alternatives need to be considered, but you will need to keep any alternative away from the tree drip line as the shallow root systems need room to search for food.
Grow Lucerne as your ‘grass’ and this doubles up as a nutritious mulch and attracts earthworms and fixes nitrogen in the soil.
When planning your where to put trees and how much spacing you need for your orchard, remember to allow enough room for a lawn mower, wheelbarrow, quad bike and any other mechanical equipment you need, to turn and pass by trees without pulling at the branches.

Related posts:

1. The Healing Power of Touch As a nurse I have always been aware of the...
2. I Have A Dream As you know when we first saw ‘our’ piece of...
3. Just Shear Madness!! Is it shear madness or a case of gritty determination...