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If you live on an urban or suburban homestead, planting dwarf fruit trees in your orchard is one idea for fresh, organic food.Choosing which varieties to plantIf you’re interested in establishing a fruit tree homestead orchard, you first need to select the varieties you want to plant.Remember that many fruit trees will require one or more varieties to successfully pollinate.You also need to take into consideration when the fruit trees will bloom. Some apple varieties, for example, will bloom earlier than others, so selecting fruit trees that bloom at the same time will ensure pollination.For example, Red Delicious (one variety we planted) blooms at the same time as Galas.We chose to plant several Red Delicious, Galas, Honeycrisp, and Yellow Delicious dwarf apple varieties this year. They’re all reliable cross pollinators and varieties we like to eat.We also planted two dwarf plum trees to they could cross-pollinate each other.Even though some are reportedly self-pollinators, you will have better luck and get more fruit by planting more than one tree.
Once the flowers are pollinated, your fruit trees are fertilized, and this allows fruit to grow. Without pollination, the flowers will grow, but will not set fruit.If your fruit trees set fruit, but they don’t grow or are very small, it’s likely an issue of not being pollinated well enough.Bees, birds, wind, and even people (by hand) can pollinate fruit trees, but the most common way is with honey bees.Many people even keep bee hives in their homestead orchard to promote pollination, and a single honeybee can visit as many as 5,000 blooms in one day. The bee’s aim is to gather nectar from the flowers, and helps the fruit trees pollinate in the process.Planting peach, pear, and fig trees in your homestead orchardContinuing planting fruit trees in our homestead orchard in a major priority, and we’re planning on including pears and peaches.PearsAlmost all varieties of pear trees require an another tree to set fruit. If you’re, count on including more than one tree.PlumsPlum trees are unique in that European varieties (such as Bluefre, Blue Ribbon, Earliblue) require pollination from another European varieties, while Japanese plum trees, which are what we planted, need another Japanese variety to be fruitful.
We will try again!Planting a homestead orchardNow that you have an idea how to choose fruit trees for planting a homestead orchard, here’s how you actually plant them.Make sure the site of your homestead orchard is in full sun. On our farm, we took great pains to ensure the trees are in a location where they will be successful.Fruit trees require soil that drains well, but is near a water source if you live in an area that does not get rain too often. Their first year, fruit trees require frequent watering.Dig a hole at least twice the size of your tree’s root ball, but not too much deeper, unless the ground under is very hard – then you will have to dig down to loosen the soil so your homestead orchard can properly establish roots.Ensure the soil has settled properly (to check your tree is planted at the right depth) by watering the area after planting your fruit trees. The roots should be just below the surface of the dirt.The University of California Davis has.Establishing a homestead orchard is another step toward self-sufficiency you can easily take, and one that we plan on working on even further in the upcoming year! I’d like to hear from you!Are you thinking about planting a homestead orchard this year?
Which fruit trees interest you? Email me at or comment below! I suggest planting Williams Pride apple. Wish I had planted more. This is an early red apple, it matures even before my graventine apples do!One early summer I was checking on my graventines, as I was eager to bite into one, but they still needed more time to ripen. As I was leaving my little orchard of 19 trees, I walked by my Williams Pride apple tree and I said to myself “what the heck are all those red things in that tree?!” I took my first bite and went nuts, so good and so beautiful.You see it was my ‘orphan’ tree the year I planted the orchard.
It was like a left over tree, like where can I plant it. So it was planted off to one side, not ‘in line’ with the other apple trees.
It’s now my most loved tree. If you are trying to grow a fig tree please understand that they require a HUGE amount of water. I have one and all i planted was a rooted cutting with two leaves. We average 50+ inches of rain a year most of which occurs in the summer months.
Figs also like to be near you home for north wind protection. There is a southern planting rule that says plant your fig where she can hear you sing as you do your dishes. Figs are one tree that is self pollinating. The fruit is actually the bloom. They are pollinated by a fig wasp by boring into the young fruit and escapes when the bloom starts to open (ripen).
And by the way a fig wasp is nothing to be afraid of. They are tiny and do not sting. They live their entire life cycle inside your tree. Chances are you will never know they are in there unless you take a microscope out to your tree.
Ken Kern, author of THE OWNER-BUILT HOME and THEOWNER-BUILT HOMESTEAD, is an amazing fellow and everyoneinterested in decentralist, back-to-the-land, rationalliving should know of his work. Back in 1948 he begancollecting information on low-cost, simple and naturalconstruction materials and techniques. He combed theworld for ideas, tried them and started writing about hisexperiments.Eventually, Mildred Loomis started publishing Kern'sarticles in THE INTERPRETER, WAY OUT and GREENREVOLUTION. Ken has also issued a three-year series ofpieces (called TECHNIC) on his own and a greenhouse-sunpit design of his has been featured in ORGANIC GARDENING.This series of Ken Kern's work is being taken both fromOWNER-BUILT HOME and OWNER-BUILTHOMESTEAD.— MOTHERTrees full of soft foliage; blossoms freshwith spring beauty; and, finally—fruit, rich,bloom-dusted, melting, and luscious—such are thetreasures of the orchard and the garden, temptingly offeredto every landholder in this bright and sunny, thoughtemperate climate.
Downing 1845 Wheneverthe subject of Homestead Orchard is discussed, two thingsflash to mind: First, I am reminded of the manyagricultural Titans who have devoted major segments oftheir lives to the furtherance of tree crops.There are hard-working devotees in every field of plant andanimal husbandry. But pomologists appear somewhatdifferent. They seem to be a more dedicated and intensebreed. To them tree crops offer philosophicalsubstance as well as taste and nutrition. Professor JohnGifford was one of these Titans who saw social and economicimplications in tree crops. In 1934 he wrote a small bookon diversified tree crop farming for the tropicalhomestead.In it he showed how annual crops are unsuitable to tropicalclimates, where deep-rooted trees thrive.
The Mayans failedto survive because they planted corn and cut down forests.For the most part tree-men consider corn the killer ofcontinents, and regard corn as one of the worst enemies ofthe human future. Annuals are the crop of primitive man. Food needed in a hurry, Promethean man supposedly has theculture and the leisure and intelligence to subsist on treecrops! This is my favorite passage from Gifford'sbook:The furtherance of the tropical forest subsistencehomestead has been and 1 hope always will be uppermost inmy mind.
For 40 years my life has been shaping itself tothis very end because it seems to me about the mostessential thing that can give life and comfort to themajority of our people, in fact, the only permanent way outof the difficulties which beset the world. The small farm home is the essential basic unit of society.The prosperity and strength of any country can be measuredby the number of small self-supporting homesteads which itcontains. The best nations of the world are not those withthe greatest natural resources but with the largest numberof small, self-supportive, free-of-debt homesites. THE TROPICAL SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEAD.The secondthing that comes to mind in a tree crop discussion isdisheartening: A tremendous knowledge of tree crops hasbeen amassed by many at great cost in time and energy.but is virtually unknown or unaccepted by contemporaryfarmers. There is no better example of this unfortunatesituation than exists in a review of the life work of J.Russell Smith, tree-man par excellence. Smith launched hisstudy of commercially useless trees in 1910, with aworldwide quest for new varieties. In 1929 he publishedTREE CROPS—A PERMANENT AGRICULTURE.His valuable tree discoveries were then intensified withmore worldwide travel followed by a revised edition of hisbook in 1954.
As a loyal tree-man, Smith (who, incidentallywas professor of economic geography at Columbia University)spoke vehemently against annual row crops. Crops that mustbuild themselves from scratch for each harvest are victimsof the climatic uncertainty of short seasons. Tree crops,on the other hand, are not affected by drought to the samedegree.
Deep roots enable a tree to accumulate andstore moisture. Smith was repulsed by the fact thatfour-fifths of everything raised by the American farmergoes to feed animals.He made a good case for a tree crop diet instead, realizingthat meat contains 800 calories as compared to nuts whichcontain 3,200 calories. If animals are to be raised, Smithmaintained that they should be allowed to harvest their owncrops. This 'hogging down' principle is nowadays a majoragricultural innovation. As when hogs are permitted toharvest corn, soybeans, peanuts, etc.
Smith maintained thattree crops can also be harvested directly by animals.mulberry, persimmon, oak, chestnut, honey locust, and carobare all excellent stock-food trees. Andrew Jackson Downingcontinues to be the tree-crop giant of them all.One of his major works, FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES OFAMERICA, published in 1845, remains today an essentialtree crop reference. Resulting from the publication of anumber of his important books, Downing's influence onAmerican fruit tree culture is apparent to this day. Hefully remodeled western European fruit growing practices tofit American site and climatic conditions. One contemporarytree crop author found that fruit trees planted inMassachusetts and Michigan during the height of Downing'sinfluence (18701890) are still standing and bearing fruit.Yet thousands of trees planted in subsequent years(1890-1920) have broken down or died.
There is a refreshingsimplicity in Downing's basic principles:A judicious pruning to modify the form of our standardtrees is nearly all that is required in ordinarypractice. Every fruit tree, grown in the open orchard orgarden as a common standard, should be allowed totake its natural form, the whole efforts of the prunergoing no further than to take out all weak and crowdedbranches.The tree-men who have qualified the science of pomology arein unanimous agreement on one important aspect:interplanting is a desirable practice. Interplanting Fruit TreesInterplanting makes good sense to the homesteader from apurely economic standpoint. Where peaches, pears and plumsare interplanted in apple orchards, revenue from theiryields subsidize the apples to production. Rapidly maturing'tree crops (like dwarfed varieties) can be alternated withslowly maturing species.
Mulberry trees are an excellentchoice to interplant in a nut tree orchard. They growrapidly, bear young and are resistant to shade.
One type ofinterplanting is known as 'two-story agriculture'. Here,trees are grown on land that is cropped or pastured formutual benefit.There has already been some discussion of how sod crops benefit by the companionship of treecrops.
About 10 black walnut trees in an acre of permanentpasture improves the pasture considerably. The deep roots and thin open foliage characteristic ofwalnut trees do not interfere with a lower-story sod crop.The leaf-filtered, sunlight makes it possible for a sodcrop to continue growth throughout summer months. Walnuttrees give grass more time to get established before thesummer warm season, because their growth is primarily inthe late spring. There are numerous advantages in plantinga two-story fruit and vegetable garden.
Fruit trees bear in the upper story while brambles, grapes,bush fruit, or vegetables grow below. Long-lived fruittrees continue to bear when short-lived lower-story plantsare removed. 'Filler' trees are located between standardvarieties, to provide early bearing an short-lived fruit.Dwarfed trees can be used as fillers in a standard bearingorchard. They can be chosen as early bearing varieties of the samefruit, as when a wealthy apple is set between a northernspy or McIntosh apple.
In terms of intensive gardening, planting trees in 'square'patterns is wasteful of space. There are a number of conditions that influence the choiceof a sod crop in an orchard. The ideal sod crop is onewhich grows slowly at first, when trees need the groundmoisture, and more rapidly later in the season when treesrequire less moisture. Soybeans and cowpeas have thisquality. Alfalfa and small grains are poor choices becausetheir extensive root systems may rob the tree ofmoisture.
Leguminous sod crops—such as hairy vetch—areespecially valuable for maintaining soil fertility in a nuttree orchard. Tree crops planted in a heavy and poorlydrained soil will benefit from a lower-story permanent sodcrop such as bluegrass or orchard grass (orchardgrass is aptly named!).Grass roots help to use up soil moisture and increase thesize of air-filled pores and fractures. Aeration is thusimproved, and if cultivation can be avoided, the tree'ssurface root growth will be encouraged at the one placewhere aeration is best attained. Plowing,discing, rototilling, and cultivating around trees is aghastly practice, to be avoided at all costs: A homesteadershould realize that the greater majority of all feederroots are located within one foot of the surface.
This is the zone where the soil is most fertile and whereaeration is greatest. Mulch planting is a much preferredpractice.
Mulching Fruit TreesBesides nutrient and moisture conservation, mulch givesexcellent protection against winter root damage. Tests atthe University of Kansas show freezing soil penetration to26 inches on bare ground; snow cover reduces this dangerarea to 12 inches; straw mulch plus the snow coveragereduces it even more. A mulch cover tendsto retard spring blossoming. Which can be a desirable feature in areas where latefrosts present a danger (as in eastern Oregon, where it mayfreeze any time during the growing season).Another protection against early blossoming is to plant onthe north slope. The accompanying diagram illustrates howthis retardation principle operates.Some tree crops, like apricot, plum, sweet cherry, andalmond naturally blossom early; some apple varieties likeRome beauty and northern spy blossom late. As a general rule the blossoming of fruit begins early inthe south and moves north at about five days for eachdegree of latitude. Altitude will influence these figuressomewhat.Dangers of FrostCharts showing 'average date of last killing frost' shouldnot be entirely adhered to, because average meansthat 50% of the frost occurs before and 50% after thespecified date.The odds are just too great to follow.
An injurious wintertemperature can also be influenced by a water-temperingeffect. There is more danger of winter injury to tree cropsin the Mississippi Valley (latitude 38 degrees) than in Nova Scotia (latitude 45 degrees). An orchardplanted on the leeward shore (usually south or east) ofwater gains significant temperature advantage. Thisassumes, of course, that the water remains unfrozen.
No protection is offered from frozen water.Water-filled soil supplies more latent heat on a frostynight than dry soil.An ideal tree crop site is one thatlies higher than surrounding land. Trees planted in anatural draw receive cold air drainage. Even on a gradual slope, when cold air drainage meets atree crop obstacle, it may engulf it and cause frostdamage. Air drainage can be facilitated by correct plantingpractice, as accompanying sketches depict.Trees planted on the contour or in rows across a slope mayalso impede essential air drainage. Wind protection is anessential consideration in any homestead tree crop program.A following chapter will give ample consideration towindbreak planning.
Mainly, the fact that winds are usually accompanied byheavy ground-saturating rains make trees vulnerable totoppling over. Choosing Dwarf Fruit TreesThere are various reasons for choosing dwarf varieties offruit trees in preference to standard varieties. For onething, site and climate problems can be tolerated betterwith dwarf varieties. The ground-hugging feature of closely planted dwarf treespermits them to receive more warming radiation from groundheat.
There is a type of 'creeper' dwarf apple tree thatgrows as far north as Siberia. Having little height it can stand the cold better and beprotected in the wintertime by a snow cover. Otherconsiderations for tree choice besides site and climateshould be mentioned: hardiness is certainly one. Atree that is hardy in its environment is certainly moreresistant to disease.In California, for instance, English walnut trees arecustomarily grafted onto black walnut root stock. As aresult of long years of experience it was found that blackwalnut roots are less susceptible to fungus attack andsurvive California temperature extremes better. Rootstock grafting is also done to attain a deeper rootsystem. A valuable consideration in areas of limitedirrigation or rainfall.Fruit Trees that Require Less WaterProper tree choice is also essential in moisture-scarceregions.
Cherries, gapes and olives require less moisturethan oranges, apples and pears.In Tunisia, olive trees are planted as much as 100 feetapart in order to gain the extra moisture advantage thatcomes with increased spacing. Commercial, monocultureorchards are invariably overcrowded, overtilled,overfertilized, overpruned, and of course,overdiseased. But to be commercially 'economic' a money-based orchardcould hardly be operated otherwise! Tree crop foodproduction is one area where a homesteader can maintainmajor advantages over the commercial farmer.
Thehomesteader can engage in all the 'uneconomic' practices,like two-story, intercropped, mulch-planted varieties, andproduce better tasting, nutritious, disease-freecrops.To remain competitive, a commercial orchardist muststimulate large-and-early, colorful crops. Of the numerousshot-in-the-arm methods for attaining these ends,fertilization is probably the most used.
Darwin was one of the first to point out thedangers of fertilization.In his VARIATIONS OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDERDOMESTICATION he quotes Gartner in the statement thatsterility from soil fertilization is especially common withcereals, cabbage, peas and beans. The concentration ofsalts found in farmyard manure as well as chemicalfertilizer will destroy tender feeder roots. Many newly plantedtrees die because the grower was too eager to 'give thetree a good start' by filling massive amounts of fertilizeraround the root zone. A mixture of damp peat moss and loamysoil around newly planted roots would be better thanfertilizer in any form. Also, the planting hole should not be water-saturated asthe tree is planted.
Moisten the soil after thetree is planted, to prevent the formation of clods and tofacilitate tamping. Plant Fruit Trees in the FallFall planting is considered best for tree crops. However,where severe winters prevail, spring planting ispreferred. With a fall-planted tree, some root growth will take placethrough the winter months if the tree is heavily mulched.Be sure to direct the newly planted tree slightly into theprevailing wind. This encourages root development on thewindward side, as the most vigorous branch always liesdirectly over the most vigorous root.Dioecious trees—those having male and female organsborne by different individuals—should be grown as;one would raise a herd of animals. One male tree(staminate) planted with a group of female trees(pistillate). Commercial nurseries charge exorbitant pricesfor grafted tree stock.Traffic bears this cost mostly because of the mystiqueassociated with 'grafting'.
Actually, as tree-crop writerslike Downing point out, grafting is a simple, basic skillthat can be mastered by anyone who takes the trouble tounderstand a few basic principles.First, the seedling must be raised. Smith describes oneinteresting method: four plaster laths are nailed togetherto form a tube of earth one inch square and three feetlong. The seed is placed near the surface of this tube, and asthe plant grows, roots cling to one lath previously soakedin a nitrate of soda solution. The four-inch-high seedling with three feet of roots canthus be planted deep into the ground using nothing morethan a crowbar to prepare the hole. Grafting, Budding and LayeringBefore germination is possible, some seed (notably nuttrees) must undergo a certain amount of freezing. The treeraised from seed is not apt to develop true to thecharacter of the tree it came from. For this reason ascion—or branch of the producing tree—isgrafted onto the root stock.
Both scion and stock should be about the same diameter,about 1/2 inch. Grafting should be done early in the springso that the wound will not be exposed long before growthresumes. Budding and layering are othermethods of multiplying the progeny of an especiallydesirable tree.In layering, a part of the parent plant is induced to growroots or shoots before separation from the plant. All ofthese grafting processes (grafting is the healing in commonof two wounds) are best accomplished by the homesteader ontrees and seedlings already planted in their finallocation on the homestead. Even dwarf fruit varieties can be started in this manner. Adwarfed tree is nothing more than a strong growing sciongrafted onto a weak-growing root stock.A quince rootstock will dwarf a pear scion; but a pear thatis thus grafted on a quince root will tend to grow largerand faster than the quince tree. The weak-growing quincerootstock takes a little from the soil and requires smallamounts of carbohydrates for growth, whereas thestandard-size scion will accumulate carbohydrate at thecost of protein assimilation.
The high proportion ofcarbohydrates to protein results in dwarfing and earlyfruitation. The northern spy dwarf apple bears in 4 yearsas against 15 years for standard varieties.Apple, pear, cherry, peach, plum and apricot trees can allbe successfully dwarfed, and they all certainly have aplace on the homestead. As mentioned earlier, due to theirlow profile, dwarf 'creeper' apple trees can be grown in aSiberian weather zone.
In general, a low, spreading treeform should be encouraged. It maintains maximum sunexposure and offers least resistance to wind.
Shade overthe immediate soil area helps to conserve soilmoisture.Some tree experts even claim that a low-growing tree offersless drain on soil fertility. The greatest vigor in a treeis located near its top, so by pruning the top this vigoris spread to other parts of the tree.Pruning Fruit TreesOf pruning, someone once said: 'There is no horticulturalpractice concerning which there is a greater diversity ofopinion or in the application of which there is a greaterdiversity of procedure.'
According to the IllinoisExperimentation Station (Bulletin 376) pruning contributesto the death of more trees mistakenly attributed to'mishandling' than to any other single factor. The main purpose of pruning is to remove injured anddiseased growth. Without the protective outer cover thatbark offers, dead limbs are attractive to parasites andsaprophytic fungi.Another equally purposeful reason for pruning is to trainthe young tree structurally. So it might better resistwind, snow and ice damage at a later, more mature stage.The 'central leader' and 'modified leader' patterns are incommon usage, along with the somewhat less popular 'opencenter' pattern. An open center tree has a structuraldefect, but does receive more interior sunlight.
As the tree matures, so too does the purpose of pruning. Ona mature tree one finally limits pruning activities tomaintaining a balance between vegetation and fruiting, andbetween the root system and the vegetation system.mostly by thinning out top growth. When transplanting, topgrowth should be removed to balance the remaining rootsystem. Downing recommends summer pruning in preference to winterpruning, as wounds heal more rapidly while the tree remainsin active growth.
The old adage that advises pruning duringthe dormant period, 'when the sap is down', is ratherfoolish, as wood is just as sap-laden in winter as it is inspring. In spring, mineral saturated water from the soiltravels upward through sapwood to the leaves. Inthe leaf the water is converted into starches and sugarsand then travels downward through the inner bark,feeding the tree en route.With practice and clear advice grafting can soon become oneof the rewarding 'fun things' that one can do on thehomestead. The art of plant propagation is never reallylearned or mastered. But at the outset one receives asatisfaction that comes from cooperation with plant growthprocesses.Super-trained tree specimens—like espalier—canbe created, not without great patience and skill. Or exoticconversation pieces can be displayed.
As with thefive-variety apple tree or tomato-producing potato plant.Some have even chosen to deal in an illicit graftingpractice. One that in current legal cases has evenjurisprudence bemuddled: a hop (Humulus lupulus) sciongrafted onto a marijuana (Cannabis sativa) rootstock willproduce a hop leaf suitable for psychedelic usage. 50 Years of Money-Saving Tips!At MOTHER EARTH NEWS for 50 years and counting, we are dedicated to conserving our planet's natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources. You'll find tips for slashing heating bills, growing fresh, natural produce at home, and more.
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