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anna_lee8261

fruit trees orchard layout dilemma

5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago

Hello, I live in Yucaipa, Southern California. I am planning to build a small farm in my vacant land, and I am starting with a fruit trees orchard and some decorative trees.

I want to plant lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange, persimmon, avocado, plum, cherry, apple, pomegranate, mulberry, etc, preferably dwarf size, around 10~15 trees.

The decorative trees will be jacaranda, Ginko, mimosa, magnolia, etc. around 5 trees.

I need your advice on where to plant them.

I read that some fruit trees do better together, some need more light and heat, some are resistant to wind, etc.

At the same time, I would like them to look good from my backyard yard since there is a downslope to the vacant land. My idea is naturalistic looking, simple, and rustic.

Thank you !!



Comments (6)

  • 5 years ago

    Social media format doesn't really lend itself to telling you where to plant individual specimens. Better to have a garden coach, consultant or designer working in your geographic area advise you on this. Maybe even draw up a planting map.

    Individual fruit cultivar information will be available from California Cooperative Extension. Involved aspects needing to be investigated in order to make successful choices include local climate suitability as well as cross pollination.

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    First you should check the land to make sure it's suitable for an orchard. Is anybody in your area growing fruit trees? Try to dig some deep holes all over the property, fill them with water and see if it drains properly. Your plan may look good on paper, but once you start digging it may turn out you have rock or caliche, so certain areas would be impossible to dig through and be more suitable for raised beds or a shed. (Don't know if you have caliche in Yucaipa...)

    Then you need to figure out which trees will require another variety for cross pollination, so you can plant them together. Even self-fertile varieties will set more fruit if they are cross-pollinated. So, are you OK with a smaller fruit set or would you like to have more fruit, e.g. to sell?

    An empty lot always looks larger than it is, and people normally overestimate the number of trees they can squeeze in. You will still need space in between them to walk comfortably with a wheelbarrow, etc.

    Also, how are you going to WATER the trees? Where is your water source located? Are you installing irrigation? This may determine your future layout.

  • 5 years ago

    Good project. Have you figured out what your water needs will be and where the water will come from? Is there a history of water restrictions during the recent droughts?

  • 5 years ago

    Make sure you have a water source, given Cali passed a law where they are going to limit everyone's water consumption to 55Gal/day/person (no idea how they will do this). Fines for overages are only for the utility companies, but they will find a way to pass that on to the customers.

    I can't tell from that pic if your property is fenced in or not. If it isn't I would put your landscape trees on the perimeter of the property restrict view of what is in your yard from those passing by. I have heard several stories from other growers about people walking onto their land and helping themselves to the harvest.

    Do you know your chill hours and winter lows? Most places that can grow cherries cannot grow citrus. Persimmon, Pear, Pomegranate, figs, and Jujube are all good low water fruit trees. Pomegranate can get tricky with male and female flowers and bloom time, so make sure to check on that for the varieties you are interested in, or plant several, they normally don't get too big (around 12-15' for most of them) and they can also create a nice looking hedge.

    As for Dwarf trees, you can always prune to keep trees to the height you want. Even if it is a full size tree, if you prune it to keep the height you want every year, it will perform well. Sometimes you can find varieties that you want, but they are not available on dwarf rootstock.

    For variety sake, I am a fan of high density planting. dig a big hole 28"-36" wide and plant two trees in it, keeping them 18" apart. You want to have them be the same type of tree, so two plums in one hole. But this helps you get more from less space.

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    But this helps you get more from less space.

    Except each tree will grow half as big as it would have if it had had the full use of the entire space.

  • 5 years ago

    Seek out the agricultural department of your nearest state college and/or the local county extension office and have a conversation about the quality of your soil (get it tested), what you will need to be adding your soil in order plant what you would like to plant and/or what would grow better in the kind of soil you have. Certainly not a pro, but I can recall my late father in law saying some plants do not do well adjacent to others and/or in certain kinds of soil. Rainfall levels may also inform what you would have the most success planting.