your guru here is dave wilson... pay NO ATTENTION to ifas -- those measures are for commercial growers.

read everything at this site...

Here is a link that might be useful: backyard orchard culture

Plant the tangerine , lemon and grapefruit with as much room as you can but also know that you can safely trim them every few years to keep them the size you desire .
Citrus trees are usually trimmed for two reasons - to keep the branches out of the way of the lawnmower and to restrict their size . The commercial groves often trim their trees to stay short and round so they are easier to pick . You can often see these along major highways . I trim my trees to keep them out of the power lines overhead and to make it easier to pick . Some of my grapefruit trees have gotten 18 to 20 wide and as tall !

thanks for your help on this matter. i've been doing some reading and i'm thinking about getting the semi-dwarf variety so i can fit more trees in the backyard.

thanks again...andrea

If you buy citrus on Flying Dragon rootstock you can plant them 8 feet apart and still allow them to grow to full size. They can fill out an 8 x 8 space.

Bill

of course i got three flying dragons and planted all of them in the same hole... but i like living on the edge.

Andrea, you need this book(G). But remember, you can prune fruiting plants to fit, in the space you have.

I have over 400 fruiting plants on 1 & 1/3 acres. Yet, my property is very open, as most plants are in groups.

I bought lots of dwarf, semi-dwarf fruit trees years ago, since we were a little house in the shady woods. I grew most on my deck. Hurricanes took all the big trees, so now I have no shade, and lots of short trees(G).

But, I'm having fun planting them in groups as to size, watering requirements, spraying needs and overall mature sizes. For instance, I intentionally planted Papayas too close to Macadamias, knowing that the Papayas will need to be removed in a few years, thus adding more room. But in the meantime, we get the fruits!

On my "Fruit Tree Hill" a diamond shaped area with 18' by 9' sides, I have a multi-variety Banana grove, Cinnamon, Ice Cream Mango, Kampong Mauve Sugar Apple, Red Lime, Coffees, Cacao, Sapodilla, Barbados Cherry, Pineapples and several flowering and foliage plants. I plan to add Figs, and maybe a Pom or two.

On my orchard area east of my shed, I have 11 Apple trees in 1/2 whiskey barrels. The barrels are decaying, so I'm switching to stone walls. The Apple trees are easy to keep small, and they produce very well here. They are less than 5' apart.

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Floridas Fruiting Plants