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Fruit Trees for the Homestead

© Debra Eversole

I honestly know of nothing that can test the patience of a gardener more than waiting for their fruit trees to produce its first usable crop. There are so many things to learn and so much that can (and does!) go wrong. While I am far from an expert in this field, I have had success with the dwarf and semi-dwarf trees that came to us, via snail mail, as 4-6 foot-long twigs.

When we decided that we wanted more fruit trees than our property came with (1 peach, 1 pear and 2 apple), I first asked others who had young orchards where they had purchased their trees from. Were they happy with the trees? The list of questions went on to include death rate (of the trees) and maintenance costs and time, ending with if they were pleased with their decision to take this project on.

We wound up ordering, via mail order, from Stark Brother's at www.starkbros.com, taking advantage of their Pre-Pruned Fruit Tree Service ($1.00 per tree). The free Planting and Growing Guide that came with our order was impressive; it landed in the front of the notebook I was now keeping for our little orchard.

Before ordering, I made up a simple grid of the land that remained in the area of our existing orchard and studied the space requirements for each tree in the catalog. Some semi-dwarf trees were larger than we could handle so we ordered the dwarf variety. The consideration here is that we knew what equipment (or the lack thereof) we had and what we would be able to afford in the future, not just space available. See www.localsource.net/phxscripts/fruit.htm for planning information.

I also ordered a couple of books on this subject from Storey Books at http://www.story.com, Pruning Simplified by Lewis Hill (oversize paperback) at http://www.storeybooks.com/garden/417-4...., and Bugs, Slugs & Other Thugs: Controlling Garden Pests Organically by Rhonda Massingham Hart (hard cover) at http://www.storeybooks.com/garden/664-9..... These gave me the secure feeling that I could handle whatever came my way. I was right. Our trees flourished! Why? Because we did exactly as the instructions and other materials provided through Stark Brother's said to do. Also see www.ces.ncsu.edu/teletip/2335.html for pruning information. We kept complete records, from receipt date to first harvest, of our trees. Fruit trees are a wonderful addition to the homestead - IF you follow the rules.