Fruit Trees: The Ones You Need To Grow
Today, it’s all about Fruit trees: The ones you need to grow. When you were a kid, did you ever take the seeds from an apple and try planting them in your backyard, hoping that one day an apple tree would begin to shoot up?
Now that you are a little older, you may still have that passion to have a yard that produces all different sorts of fruits?
This may especially be the case if you’ve been blessed with baking and canning skills that your mother or grandmother passed onto you, and you don’t want them to go to waste.
As a Master Canning and Preserver, I highly recommend this canning book: USDA Canning Guide
Fruit Trees: The Ones You Need to Grow
If you are considering purchasing one or a few fruit trees for your lawn or garden, it’s good to know a little about each one before heading to a nursery. Some fruit trees are dependent upon one another and won’t thrive if there’s just one.
So let’s take a look at a few fruit trees that are not only fairly simple to grow, but will provide you with mouth-watering fruit and desserts for many years to come.
Fruit Trees
Peach
If you live in a warmer region, say between the hardiness zones of 5 and 8 or 9, and winter temperatures don’t plummet to -20 degrees Fahrenheit, then you should really consider growing peaches.
Not only do these trees provide an alluring fragrance around harvest time, but you’ll be busy in the kitchen making homemade jams, peach pies, cobblers, and muffins too.
You’ll need to plant your peach tree where it will get plenty of sunlight, and also where the soil is well-draining. Standard peach trees should be spread apart by at least 15 to 20 feet, while the dwarf peach trees should be around 10 to 12 feet apart. It’s best to prune your peach tree in late winter, to prepare it for the growing season up ahead.
When you go to purchase your peach tree, check the tag to see if it’s able to self-pollinate or if you’ll need to buy two. It will take around 3 to 4 seasons before they begin to bear fruit.
Plum
One of the easiest fruit trees to care for, the plum tree, is an excellent option to get started with. They do well in all kinds of different regions, but they do need one or two others to pollinate.
When you head to the nursery to pick out a plum tree, make sure that you choose one that’s right for your climate.
Plum trees need to be planted where there’s direct sunlight and well-drained soil. It’s best to plant them at the highest point of your garden so that when it frosts, it doesn’t settle around the base of the tree and cause damage.
The standard plum trees should be planted about 20 to 25 feet apart, and the dwarf varieties should be about 15 to 20 feet apart. You’ll also want to thin the branches that are too small to bear the weight of any fruit.
You’ll need to water a newly planted plum tree weekly, all the way until October so that it can manage its first winter with the new roots.
Around early spring, you’ll want to prune your young plum tree, and once it’s more mature, around the middle of summer each year.
Apples
Apple trees provide you and your family with an annual harvest of delicious crisp fruit. Think of all those homemade apple pies you could be making with them.
Be sure to pick out your apple variety carefully, based on the size of your garden and the taste that they’ll bring. Depending on the type of apple you choose, it can take between 2 to 10 years before it starts to grow fruit.
It’s best to plant at least two varieties so that they can pollinate each other. Without another apple tree nearby, it may have difficulty bearing fruit.
If you want to choose a tree that gives you a little variation, try the dwarf family apple that has 3 different varieties that produce on the same tree. How cool!
Cherries
Cherry trees not only produce delicious tart fruit, but also give you an extra bonus with beautiful flowers in the spring. Both the sour and sweet cherry trees are pretty easy to grow, it just depends on what you plan on making with your cherries.
Most people enjoy a sweet cherry tree by eating its fruit raw, while the sour is used for baking and making jams.
You’ll want to keep in mind that the sweet cherry tree is similar to the apple, and it needs another cherry tree close by for pollination. There is a dwarf sweet cherry tree that does not require a second tree to produce its fruit if you have limited space in your yard.
Most cherry trees take around 4 years before any fruit is produced. You may need to apply netting around your tree to keep birds from eating all your fruit.
Plant your cherry tree around the late fall or early spring. Make sure you pick out a spot that gets plenty of sunlight. Cherry trees enjoy moist soil, so adding mulch around the base of the tree will help.
Standard sweet cherry trees need to be planted about 35 to 40 feet apart, and the dwarfs only around 10 to 15 feet apart.
Standard sour cherry trees need to be spread out about 20 to 25 feet apart, while the dwarf sour cherry trees should be around 8 to 19 feet apart.
It’s best to fertilize them in the spring, right up until the first fruit appears, and then again after the harvest. Then it’s best to prune sometime during late winter, just before spring starts.
Pear
Just like with the cherry and apple trees, pear trees require two or three to pollinate. They don’t produce any fruit until around year three, but after that, you’ll be enjoying these fruit trees for many years to come.
It’s best to choose any fire blight resistant varieties so that your pear trees don’t suffer from the disease.
Most pear trees should be planted around 20 feet apart from each other, while the dwarf pear trees need around 15 feet spread apart. You’ll need to provide your trees with a small amount of ammonium nitrate each year. (Around ½ a cup the first four years and then 2 cups every year after that.)
It’s also important to prune your pear trees annually so that they are able to produce the most fruit.
Please Check Out What To Plant Each Month:
- What To Plant In January
- What To Plant In February
- What To Plant In March
- What To Plant In April
- What To Plant In May
- What To Plant In June
- What To Plant In July
- What To Plant In August
- What To Plant In September
- What To Plant In October
Garden Gloves
These are my favorite garden gloves: DIGZ Garden Gloves They come in different sizes, that’s what I love the most. These are the best rose bush gloves: DIGZ Rose Bush Garden Gloves I have to get the large size for my hands. These are awesome!
Final Word
Even if you don’t consider yourself to be blessed with a green thumb, these types of fruit trees will do most of the work on their own and you’ll be left reaping the rewards. Have you ever grown fruit trees in your yard in the past? Did you have the benefit of several growing seasons of delicious fruit? I’d love to hear about it. Isn’t it great to know about fruit trees: the ones you need to grow? May God bless this world, Linda
Copyright Images: Apple Tree Deposit photos_5530935_s-2019, Cherry Tree Deposit photos_83963668_s-2019, Pear Tree Depositphotos_1542670_s-2019, Plum Tree Depositphotos_11418923_s-2019, Peach Tree Depositphotos_12087313_s-2019, Apples in Basket Depositphotos_14134540_s-2019
Linda, I planted a Gala Apple tree last year, as it’s self polinating.. this year I planted a Kieffer Pear, also self pollinating. Both are full sized trees, not dwarf varieties.
To keep the trees from growing so tall, I put a coffee can or soda can on the very top. The tree will still grow in height, but more slowly and will grow more sturdy branches instead of shooting up in height. Learned that from gardeners in Philippines and Hawaii, when they planted fruit trees.
Saw my very first tomato bloom last night. Got to cover new potato plants this morning. Adding 3 more rainbarrels this week.
God Bless!
Hi BDN, three more rain barrels, wahoo!! Oh my gosh, you know I love hearing about your Gala and your Keiffer pear trees! AND you just saw your first tomato bloom, life is so good! Oh my gosh, I love hearing this! The coffee car or soda can is a great tip! Love it! Linda
This was great info but I am going to be 71 y/o in may 2020 and I wonder if my age is too late to expect to enjoy fruit tree bounty. I have no one to pass it on to so I am not sure. I would have to hire someone to pick them up and plant them and treat them. So the expense of the trees, and the labor are a financial committment. What do you think? We have prepared two recipes I think were from your site and plan several more. The two we had were big hits! Thank you for your sharing and taking the time with your busy schedule.
Hi Beverly, I totally understand, I turned 70 this year. This is my idea for writing about things, I hope that someone in the world, can plant a tree or two. It may not work for you and I but I know God wants me to teach the world about growing our own food and so much more. I do not have a big enough lot to plant trees but I know there are others that can physically plant them. I planted fruit trees for years and canned the food with my family for many many years. Thank you for your kind words on my recipes. I love to cook and share easy recipes. Right now I’m working on writing a post about how to make a sourdough starter and natural yeast starters. Yeast is hard to find, making sourdough starters and natural yeast is so easy. I hope it helps a family or two save money, it’s awesome to make! Stay well, Linda
Linda ~
I am in sort of the same boat as Beverly! I am 67 but on top of that, I live in an apartment!! I grew up in apple country in eastern Washington state and know the benefit of having apples! My mother packed apples every fall and oh the smell of apples – takes me right back to my childhood. Where I grew up, we had what mom called her “pie” apple tree! These apples got so large that one apple (maybe 2) would fill a pie! As soon as mom saw one apple on the ground, we were picking apples like crazy. Then the work began! We peeled, sliced and froze apples for pies. Mom had a technique that worked so well: She put a plastic open end bag in a pie plate, filled the bag and the pie plate and bag of apples went into the freezer. When the apples were frozen, she took the pie plate, minus the bag of apples, out and started over. That way, the frozen apples had the shape of the pie plate. She could make a pie in minutes that way – not having to wait for the bag of apples to thaw! We probably put up 20-30 pies worth in the freezer. These apples also made good apple sauce so a lot of that was made and canned. The only other fruit we grew on our place was berries (strawberries, raspberries, black caps). We were high enough in elevation that fruit trees didn’t do well with all the cold and snow in the fall/winter/early spring.
It was always a dream of mine to have a piece of property large enough (and in the right location) to grow my own little orchard! A dream unfulfilled!! Now at my age, I am not in the best stage to fulfill that so I still just dream about it!
Hi Leanne, oh my gosh I’m so glad you shared this story. I bottled apple pie filling dozens and dozens and dozens of quart jars. I wish I’d thought of the pie plate trick! It’s so fun to work as a family picking, peeling (luckily we had an apple corer peeler) and preserving our bounty. I think you and I had the same dream, a little orchard. We always had three to four fruit trees but I have always wanted a “hobby farm”, Mark not so much. LOL! That phase of my life has passed, but I hope the next generation still has the desire to grow and preserve food. Stay well, I hope your shoulder is still healing. Hugs, Linda
Linda ~
We did not have a apple corer peeler when I was growing up!! All done by hand. Dad could peel an apple with the peeling intact and oh so thin! No apple was wasted! Mom made apple butter out of the peels and cores as well! For that we did have a food mill!
My shoulder is doing really well. I had my last follow up (3 month) with the surgeon via teleconference on Mar 30, 2020. He was impressed with how well I have recovered based on how much damage there was to my shoulder. He was not concerned, therefore, that I was not able to continue with physical therapy. (Hey, a single girl has to do what a single girl has to do!!!)
Yesterday I received a call from the physical therapy office that I could continue to progress to weight training for my shoulder. Thursday I pick up resistance bands so I can do the exercises that they emailed me. So, progress I shall do!!
Hope and pray that you, Mark and your family are all staying sane and healthy. Praying this resolves itself very soon.
Hi Leanne, good news on your shoulder! You are one tough cookie! Stay well, Linda
Hi Linda,
Hope you are staying well and safe.
I turned 82 in January. I have gardened since I was a child and followed my mother around the garden helping her wherever I could. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t get out into the dirt and do my planting and harvesting.
I grew up in a large family (6 children) in Ohio. Mom had two cherry trees and one fantastic apple tree. These all produced mounds of fruits. I remember helping mom pick the fruits and then can them. We had lots of apple sauce, apple and cherry pies. Good memories.
We are renting and so can’t plant fruit trees. However, last year as soon as we moved where we are, I planted 3 fig trees and 2 blueberries in large planters. There is nothing in in our back yard except lots of grass and 1 lonely Rose of Sharon. Plus a large expanse of ugly grey fence.
I built 2 – 4’x4′ 12″ raised bed planters and 2 – 2’x6’x12″ raised bed planters. I also have “Lots” of black grow bags to plant my tomatoes and other things. I’ll be using the “three sisters” method for corn/beans/squash in some of the grow bags.
I got most of my tomatoes planted yesterday. Had to stop when it started to rain. I’m going out again in a few to do some more planting.
I belong to the Arbor Day Foundation and every year for a pittance they send you trees to plant. So, I have about ten ornamental/shade trees that I plan to plant out back – with the owners permission. I may not live long enough to enjoy their future beauty and shade, but someone will appreciate it.
Well, my dear, I must go. This reminds me of the days when I wrote many letters to family and friends and couldn’t wait to get a reply. I guess this method is today’s way of writing letters, and of course, it is much faster.
Take good care of yourself. Stay safe.
Hi Suzanne, it’s crazy but I love watching for comments. I love hearing stories and I try to visualize your yard with the fig trees and blueberries in the pots. I think you are right it’s like getting a letter or card in the mail to see how a friend is doing. I LOVE it! Keep them coming, Linda
I have several apple trees (mostly old varieties), three peach trees, and a couple of cherry trees. Almost more than we can use. Almost! Also two quince trees–quinces are all but inedibly hard when raw, but as jelly, or chunked and canned, they are delicious. Generally hardier than apples, too.
My cherries ought to bear this year (I did see one wee cherry last year, but a bird got it!) However, I’ve also added a couple of mulberry trees–supposedly the birds will go for the mulberries first and give us a chance with the cherries. Chickens are also supposed to like mulberries. I remember my mother telling me how she used the almost-too-sweet mulberries to add to all sorts of things, when sugar was rationed and hard to get during WWII.
Love the pie-planning using the plate itself for freezing! I put up mostly dried apple slices and applesauce, but if I get enough apples this year, I may try cider. Made myself a home-made press a couple of years ago, but the squirrels got most of the apples (and peaches)!
Hi Rhonda, you are so lucky to have so many fruit trees and food sources on your property! How fun to have such a big variety! I love hearing about them! Linda