Just purchased 3 acres and have been planting 11 fruit trees (5 nut trees going in later in the fall). I'm here because I would like to document this amongst others that might be thinking about doing something like this. Also, because I need as much inspiration and advice as I can get!

Ok, some pictures!

Here are the holes I dug with my John Deere 2025R Loader with the Heavy Hitch teeth attached. $180 add-on instead of the $5k backhoe attachment on my 2025R tractor has definitely made financial sense:

I did 11 of these in just under an hour. The orchard is on a slope, so I left the old clay soil on the downslope as a berm of sorts, and filled the holes with $35 / yard leaf compost. I asked a local arborist if I should mix the soil together so I don't form a soggy bowl of sorts, he said no. Each hole is approximately 3 feet deep, the loader took a pretty huge chunk out.

Here in Zone 6 in Northeast Ohio, we have lots of deer. So I chose to plant standard varieties so they'd grow tall enough and (mostly) out of reach of the deer.

For the first 5 years of each tree's life, I bought 22 6' metal posts + 6 rolls of 5' x 50' hardware cloth from Home Depot, and followed this very informative video to construct a 4-5' radius of 5' high deer proof fencing.

Here's what they look like installed. I originally purchased zip ties to secure the hardware cloth to the 6' metal posts, but I later purchased these small 1" caribiner clips from Amazon to use so I can easily get in and out.

You will also notice that I've used 6' wood stakes to secure all of the bare-root trees. I tied some hemp rope around each tree to keep it fighting the good fight against our winds. This location is pretty well protected from winds from the north, east, west, and southwest.

Here is the layout of the fruit trees. I have 3 hazelnut + 2 almond trees going in (planting in the fall) further down the slope.

You probably noticed that those big old buckeye trees aren't there in my photos above. This is what they looked like:

I've since planted a 4' staggered row of deer-resistant (I've tested this already!) Green Giant Arborvitae all along here.

Ok, back to the fruit trees. Like I mentioned above, I wanted to get standard trees when possible, to aid in the deer issue. I also ordered 5/8" caliper when possible. I did all of my orders from Stark Bros website:

The bare-root trees came on March 1st, so I waited about 5 days to plant, and I don't think anything dried out as far as I could tell. I soaked the roots in cold well water for 3-4 hours before planting.

I know nothing (other than thousands of YouTube videos and a heavy dose of Tom Spellman from Dave Wilson Nursery) about growing fruit trees. I have gardened my whole life, but never took care of a fruit tree. So planting all of these varieties is crazy, but that's just me -- I go for it. I only operate at one speed -- 110%.

I planted on March 6th. Temps were barely above freezing, but workable. A local arborist told me to use PHC Tree Saver 3 times in the first year. I didn't hear about this until I had planted, so I roughed in the first treatment by spreading around the root ball and using my gloves to dig it in.

Next, I've found a couple good resources about spraying schedules. Most were using chemicals that I'd never want around or in me or someone I'd love, so finding non-cancerous spray schedules was more difficult.

I found this guide from a nursery in Oregon, which led me to purchase the following:

• Bonide Products All Seasons 210 Horticultural Spray Oil Concentrate - 16 oz
• Bonide Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew Insect Spray Concentrate, 1-Quart
• Agra Quest Serenade Garden Disease Control Concentrate, 32 Ounce Concentrate

I'm not sure when I am supposed to start spraying. Year 1? Year 2? I also have 6 old Apple Trees that I've been renovating in another spot on the farm, so I will start spraying first there.

I purchased this awesome 27 gallon ATV sprayer from Amazon that I've been using to water the trees, and in the future use the products mentioned above. It's been working great:

I used 2 rachet straps and put it in my 120R Loader. Those teeth are amazing, that's how I dug those holes.

I used 2 bales of straw to cover each hole. I'm planning on using wood chips to add to the area around each tree so I don't have any grass within 5' of the trees.

I've also since installed these tree guards around all of the new trees.

So far so good. The deer fencing has held up to much probing!

Yes, I installed OrchardCam. I have a bunch of Arlo cameras all around the lot. If you technical and are interested, I've also found a way to do a timelapse with Arlo cameras using nothing but a small Python script and an IFTTT applet. I'll be moving the camera around for the first year to see what the best angle is, but so far its catching a bunch of deer along the creek!

Because of my older apple trees, I've already obtained a very nice pole saw from Oregon.

So now I am wanting to pick all of your brains. What did I mess up? What am I about to mess up? :)

• I've heard that growing sweet cherry trees is very challenging. I put them on the high end of the hill for the best drainage.
• How should I prune each variety: sweet cherry, apple, plum, peach, pear? I've seen Tom Spellman talk about an open center but that is more of the smaller, easier to reach, backyard orchard style. I'm going to be growing these to at least 15 ft and trimming them at the bottom to stay out of reach of the deer.