Most different types of fruit ripen at slightly different times, allowing you to stagger the harvest over a month or two instead of all at once. Nothing is worse than spending a weekend on a mad scramble to harvest all of your fruit at once. You should also think about when they bear ripe fruit and how this will interact with other trees you may have or planning to install.

Pick fruits based on their compatibility (see above), how much you enjoy the fruit, and how much yield can be expected from a mature tree. Most nurseries that cater to the general public will carry smaller varieties of favorite fruit trees, perfect for the backyard orchard. Although these multi-fruits can require more maintenance, they are often worth the effort for the payoff in variety from a small space. These are usually complementary fruits (apples, pears, plums, etc.) that can also cross-pollinate to make the tree self-sustaining. These are usually started from an apple tree base onto which other fruit limbs are grafted to create as many as six different fruits on one individual tree. There are commercial grafts available that involve several types of fruit on one tree. The home grower also has one other option that is important for consideration: multi-fruit trees. On the other hand, many apple trees are self-pollinating and do not require others. A cherry tree, for instance, will likely need other trees of the same family in order to bear cherries. Be sure you know which you are getting so you know whether you need other similar trees in order to bear fruit. The important thing to know is that fruit trees are either self-pollinating or they are not. It’s also possible to plant more densely at home as the impact this has on machinery and yields is not as important to the home grower. At home, that’s not so important as is ease of maintenance and harvest. Commercial fruit trees are generally large so they’ll bear more fruit per foot – important in commercial operations. The plan is all about the growing zone and the size of the trees being used. Several acres of trees are required for commercial operations in fruit growing, but private orchards can be as little as three or four trees on a hundred square feet or so of space. Many people believe that if they do not have a fair amount of acreage, they cannot have an orchard of fruit trees.

Dahl hobby farm and orchard