Building the Fruit Tree Foundation
We're going to do something extremely drastic, but before we do, a short
recap for the benefit of late-comers who found their way to only this page.
We're establishing a mini orchard in a back yard, in a space that's normally
taken up by one regular standard fruit tree. We're planting several
varieties of fruit trees very
closely together and keeping them pruned so that every part can be reached from
the ground. The fruit matures successively and our objective is a few pounds of fruit each week during the growing
season, rather than a truckload of fruit all at once in mid-September.
Establishing the Framework of Your Fruit Trees
It's the fruiting and leafy branches that get pruned every year. The scaffold and
side branches are built at the very beginning and they're usually not pruned
again. That's what we're going to do next.
Doing Something Drastic
Take a deep breath...
Grab your pruning shears or your lopper and cut the
trunk of your newly-planted tree eighteen inches above the ground.
Yikes! That's drastic, all right. I paid good money for this tree
and now you want me to just cut the trunk in half? Just like that? And that low?
You bet. Just like any structure, your house, a bridge, or even a
tractor, all things need a structure to build on. Fruit trees are no
different. A trunk supports the main branches, called the scaffold,
which in turn support the side branches, which in turn support the
fruiting branches. But there's no need to have the scaffold branches start at
five or more feet of height above the ground. We do it that way
because we've always done it that way because that's the way
it's done in the commercial orchards so the machinery fits under
them. There's no reason the entire
leafy and fruiting part of the tree has to start up there, it can start
just as easily a foot above the ground.
Time for a qualification. It's unlikely you'll run across this,
but some trees have an 'interstem,' which usually is dwarfing
material grafted to vigorous rootstock. Those three-part kinds of
trees are expensive and you can tell them apart because they have
multiple graft unions at the trunk. Always cut above the topmost
graft union. This technique also will not work on multiple-in-1
types of fruit trees where several varieties are budded or grafted
on one trunk.
 Here's a picture we've borrowed from
Dave Wilson Nursery to help
explain our fractured prose. That's Mike, tending to his tree. If
you were to add a five foot trunk between the ground and the start
of the canopy, this tree would be ten feet high. Neither you nor the
tree needs that extra five feet of trunk, and a tree this low is
so much easier to prune, takes less spray, is easier to wrap netting around, and
still easier to harvest, and
all without having to climb around on ladders. Notice also that the
canopy is maybe eight feet wide. That means that you can plant these
trees five or six feet apart.
 Here's
another picture from Dave Wilson Nursery, and that's Tom with his
orchard. Looks like he's got a bunch of trees in the same
space as a single standard tree.
"Yeah," I hear you say, "but you don't get much fruit off these
things if they're kept that small." Exactly! We never wanted a truckload of
fruit all at once. Keeping the trees this small and low to the
ground does not affect the size or quality of the fruit, only the
quantity. By using the space of a standard fruit tree and planting instead a half dozen trees whose harvest matures at
different times we can keep the family in fruit from August through
December and maybe even put some apples in cold storage for the
remainder of the winter.
Planting Time
 After
lopping off the top of the tree (Figure 2A), encourage the growth of
side branches (Figure 2B) by rubbing off those that wander off in
the wrong direction. After the new side branches are a couple of
inches long, place wooden spring clothespins at the trunk/branch
junction to force these branches to extend horizontally instead of
upwards (Figure 2C).
After the spring flush of growth cut the new growth back by half. In
late summer cut the new growth back again by half.
Not to worry if there are no branches when you cut the
trunk, they automatically show up anytime a tree is beheaded. Don't
like the way it's turning out? Behead the tree again next year and
start over.
First Winter After Planting
 Chop off everything that's going in
the wrong direction and take out the leader. You are building a
scaffold for the side branches and shouldn't worry about fruiting
branches yet.
Prune the ends of the scaffold branches, especially if they try to
reach for the sky. Let the side branches develop.
Just like the first year, cut back new growth by half in spring and
again in late summer (if you have a very vigorous variety, pruning
three times may be the easiest, once in the spring, again in early
summer and last in late summer.)
Beginning the second season, thin to an open center. Prune trees to
the shape of a vase.
Winter pruning is for removing undesirable branches and cutting the
ends off branches to encourage branching. Early June is meant for
summer pruning. Read on!
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