The natural first step to growing food is usually a small vegetable plot or garden. For many, the desire to expand their palate often finds them considering fruit trees or shrubs. Yet all too often, they stop short of taking that step for various reasons, including the belief that growing fruit will take too much room or require more work and extra care to battle pests and diseases. Yet with the right information and plant choices, growing fruit in a backyard of any size can be a successful and enjoyable experience, without all the work or chemicals you thought you might need.
In this episode, we visit Stark Brothers Nurseries, the oldest fruit nursery in America, to learn expert tips we can use to successfully grow fruit in our own backyard orchards.
About Joe Lamp'l
Joe Lamp'l is the Host and Executive Producer of the award winning PBS television series Growing A Greener World. Off camera, Joe dedicates his time to promoting sustainability through his popular books, blog, podcast series, and nationally syndicated newspaper columns. Follow Joe on Twitter
I watched this episode today. I bought two apple trees from Miller Brothers Nurseries in 2013. One is a Spitzenburg and the other is a Northern Spy. My Spitzenburg is from Thomas Jeffersons stock, however, the bark looks like it is peeling back and it is traveling up the tree. I don’t know what it is or how to treat it. Anyone know? I grow organic and don’t use chemicals nor pesticides.
This is an interesting episode but I believe it to be a rebroadcast of one done in 2012. I started building my own backyard orchard a few years ago with my first purchase of 4 citrus (eureka lemon, meyer lemon, key lime, persian lime) trees from my local home depot. It has since expanded to over 40 fruit trees and includes apples, oranges, pears, peaches, plums, guava, apricots, guanabana, fig, mango, and cherries (low chill cultivar). It is not clear how successful these cultivars will be in my USDA zone so I decided to hedge my bets and try an eclectic mix of low chill and medium chill cultivars. I live in Central Florida so the citrus varieties have had no problems and are in fact already producing fruit. The others like my Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Tropic Sweet apples I have high hopes for but no significant fruit as of yet. Ditto for the low chill pears Flordahome, Hood, and Baldwin. The other apples and stone fruit (plums, peaches, and apricots) I am unsure about. The primary problem with growing fruit trees is the patience and effort required before you can get your first harvest. However, growing up as a child we also had fruit trees in our backyard. Lately I have been of the opinion that anything taking up space in my landscape has to pay for itself in the form in some type of edible or help with the pollination of my edibles. If it doesn’t meet that simple requirement it won’t be long before I rip it up and replace it with something that does. In my landscape there is no such thing as a *free lunch* as it were.
When I planted my fruit trees, I did not keep all of the bulges above ground. They are about four years old, have not borne any fruit, and need pruning. Do I need to replace them or can I salvage them?
Thanks.