Are fruit and nut trees right for you?
Many backyard fruit and nut trees are planted each year with the desire for an abundant harvest. Fruit and nut trees require extra work to maintain productivity and control pests and diseases. For serious gardeners, the rewards are worth the considerable effort involved.
Before you decide to plant fruit or nut trees, ask yourself:
- Will I have the time and interest to spray, prune, and otherwise care for these trees every year?
- Will I have the time and interest to harvest and use the possibly overabundant fruit?
- Will my garden have enough room?
- Is the soil suitable for the trees?
The space required for a home orchard ranges from 15 feet of wall for a couple of espaliered dwarf apple trees to 1⁄2 acre or more for trees of various sizes. You can plant fruit and nut trees as an integral part of your home landscape, or isolate them in a specified orchard area.
Large trees such as walnuts and chestnuts make good shade trees, but they’re more difficult to prune and spray than smaller trees.
The soil must permit rooting to a depth of at least 3 feet. It should be neither too sandy nor too clayey, although certain kinds of trees will tolerate these extremes of soil texture.
In addition to the trees and space, you’ll need an adequate sprayer, ladder, and pruning tools. If you grow only dwarf trees and keep them short by training and pruning, you won’t need a ladder.
Note:This publication doesn’t recommend specific pesticides. Recommendations and regulations change frequently. See your local Extension agent or local garden store personnel. Also, see Managing diseases and insects in home orchards.
Tree fruits and nuts not adapted to Oregon’s climate but grown elsewhere in the United States include pecans, almonds, oranges and other citrus, avocados, and pistachios. These crops aren’t suited to Oregon for one of these reasons: winters are too cold, the season is too short, springs are too cool and wet, or summers are too cool.
Many fruit trees are grafted. This means that the desired fruit-bearing variety (the scion) is joined with the trunk and root system of a different variety (the rootstock). Rootstocks are often used to produce dwarf trees that are more suitable in size for most home gardens.
The next section covers general guidelines for growing specific kinds of fruits and nuts.
Oregon growing areas
Oregon growing areas for fruits and nuts; the areas are determined largely by climate. Fruit and nut trees may successfully be grown outside of the areas outlined in the maps below. Local climate conditions should be considered wherever trees are planted. Table 1 shows which areas are suitable for various fruit and nut crops.
Crop | Areas best suited | Space per tree (ft)a | Pollenizer needed?d | Approximate years to bearing | Sprays usually required to control pests and diseases |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fruits | |||||
Apples | 1–4 | 5–40 | Yes | 2–10 | Codling mothb, scab |
Apricots | 2 | 15–25 | Some varieties | 6–7 | Brown — rot bacterial canker |
Cherries, sour | 1–4 | 14–20 | No | 3–5 | Fruit flyb |
Cherries, sweet | 1, 2, 4 | 20–35 | Yes | 6–7 | Fruit flyb, bacterial canker |
Figs | 1 | 12–20 | No | 5–6 | None |
Papaws | 1, 2 | 15–20 | Yes | 12–14 | None |
Peaches and nectarines | 1, 2 | 12–15 | No | 4–5 | Leaf curl, borers, coryneum blight, brown rot |
Pears | 1, 2 | 10–20 | Yes | 5–7 | Fire blight, scab, codling mothb |
Persimmons | 1, 2 | 15–20 | Yes | 8–10 | None |
Plums and prunes | 1–4 | 10–20 | Some varieties | 3–5 | Crown borers, brown rot |
Nuts | |||||
Almonds | 1 | 15–20 | Some varieties | 3–5 | Not known |
Butternuts | 1–4 | 30–40 | Yes | 3–5 | None |
Chestnuts | 1, 2, 4 | 20–40 | Yes | 5–7 | None |
Hazelnuts | 1, 4 | 15–20 | Yes | 5–6 | Filbertwormb, Eastern filbert blight, bacterial blight |
Hickory | 1–4 | 20–40 | Yes | 10–14 | None |
Walnuts, black | 1–4 | 30–40 | No | 10–12 | Husk flyb |
Walnuts, English | 1, 2c | 40–50 | No | 10–12 | Husk flyb, blight |
a The vigor of the variety and the rootstock, and the amount of pruning, also determine space requirements.
b Insect, if uncontrolled, causes wormy fruit or nuts.
c Hardy varieties are available.
d Some trees require pollen from another tree (pollenizer), often of a different variety, to successfully produce fruit.
Fruit tree guidelines
Apples
Codling moth is the most widespread insect pest of apple in Oregon. This pest will produce wormy apples unless it is controlled by spraying. Apple maggot is another insect pest that will cause wormy fruit if trees are not sprayed.
Apple scab is a serious disease. It requires several sprays for control. The variety Delicious is especially susceptible to apple scab. Varieties resistant to scab are available. Most scab-resistant varieties are susceptible to powdery mildew, but you can partially control this disease by regularly pruning off infected shoots.
Apple maggot is a pest controlled by spraying. Larvae infest the fruit, rendering it worthless.
You can purchase apples on dwarfing, semidwarfing, or fully vigorous rootstock. Rootstocks influence trees approximately as shown in Table 2.
The lower figures in Table 2 represent tree sizes for moderately vigorous varieties such as Delicious; the higher figures represent sizes for vigorous varieties such as Gravenstein and Newtown.
Rootstock type | Tree spread (ft) | Approximate height (ft) | Years to first bearing | Approximate yield (lb) | Rootstock numbers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vigorous | 30–40 | 25–60 | 7–10 | 300–400 | N/A |
Semidwarf (requires support) | 15–25 | 15–25 | 5–7 | 180–300 | MM-106, MM-111, M-7 |
Dwarf | 5–10 | 6–15 | 3–5 | 50–150 | M-9*, M-26*, Bud 9 |
More dwarf | 4–6 | 5–7 | 3–5 | 25–50 | M-27 |
The rootstock numbers refer to specific rootstocks that you can order from nurseries. Trees on M-9, M-26, and sometimes M-7 may require support such as a trellis system.
Moderately vigorous varieties on M-9 or M-26 roots can, with pruning, be held to a permanent spacing of feet; eventually, depending on site, they won’t require support.
Some types of certain varieties like Delicious or Golden Delicious are spur-bearing. Spur-bearing trees produce fruit on short, long-lived lateral branches. Spur-bearing types are often smaller — especially on dwarfing rootstocks. They tend to be more productive and are easier to prune than types that are not spur-bearing.
Sometimes, more than one apple variety is grafted on the same tree. The varieties often have different growth rates and are generally more difficult to prune.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Lodi | 1–4 | July | Self-compatiblea; tart, yellow fruit |
Earligold | 1–4 | August | Crisp, yellow fruit |
Akaneb | 1–4 | August | Self-compatible; crisp, red fruit |
Gravenstein | 1, 4 | August | Prefers mild climate; large, flavorful fruit |
Chehalisb | 1–4 | September | Self-compatible; fruit are large, yellow, crisp, sweet, and juicy |
Elstar | 1, 4 | September | Prefers mild climate; tart, flavorful fruit |
Gala | 1–4 | September | Red fruit are sweet, crisp, and juicy; stores well; heat-tolerant |
Jonagold | 1, 4 | September | Prefers mild climate; red fruit are sweet, crisp and juicy |
Primab | 1–4 | September | Red fruit are crisp and juicy |
Empire | 1, 2 | late September | Semi self-compatible; red fruit are sweet and very crisp |
Delicious | 1, 2 | late September | Sweet, red fruit; stores well |
Libertyb | 1–4 | late September | Red fruit are crisp, sweet and tart |
Braeburn | 1, 2 | October | Red fruit are crisp and sweet; stores well; productive |
Fuji | 1, 2 | October | Red fruit are very sweet and juicy; stores well |
Golden Delicious | 1, 2 | October | Yellow fruit are crisp and juicy; very productive |
Granny Smith | 1, 2 | October | Tart, green fruit; stores well |
Newtown Pippin | 1, 2 | October | Green to yellow fruit; flavor improves in storage |
a For self-compatible trees, a tree of the same variety can be used as a pollenizer.
bThis variety is resistant to some common diseases like apple scab and powdery mildew.
Apricots
Because they bloom early, apricot crops frequently are lost to spring frost. In areas of high spring rainfall, they don’t set fruit regularly and are subject to a host of diseases.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Puget Gold | 1, 2 | July | Produces west of Cascades |
Rival | 2 | July | Mild flavor |
Royal (Blenhelm) | 2 | July | Self-fruitful |
Moongold | 2 | July | Cold-hardy, pollinized by Sungold |
Sungold | 2 | July | Pollinized by Moongold, hardy |
Chinese | 2 | July | Resists frost |
Cherries
Sour varieties
Sour cherries, sometimes referred to as pie or tart cherries, are often preserved as jams or made into pies. The principal variety, Montmorency, doesn’t require a pollinizer. Trees are smaller, bear earlier and have fewer disease problems than sweet cherries.
Sweet varieties
In spite of the hazards of rain cracking, bacterial canker, bird depredation, and cherry fruit fly infestation, sweet cherries are popular home garden fruit trees.
New dwarfing rootstocks for sweet cherry are available from some nurseries. Gisela rootstocks are the most popular dwarfing rootstocks for sweet cherry.
Bacterial canker often girdles and kills sweet cherry trees with a low graft height. You can avoid this problem by (1) planting mazzard F-12-1 root and trunk stock or mazzard seedlings, and (2) budding or grafting the varieties 12 to 18 inches out on the limbs a year or two later. It’s practical to graft several cherry varieties onto the same tree.
The three principal varieties (Bing, Lambert, and Royal Ann) won’t pollinize each other. Corum, Sam, Van, Bada, and several others are good pollinizers. Stella, Sweetheart, and Lapins are self-fruitful and therefore don’t require pollinizers.
Sweet cherry trees don’t tolerate wet or clayey soils. Birds often eat much of the fruit on isolated cherry trees. You can protect fruit by placing plastic netting over the tree or just around the lower limbs.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Sour varieties | |||
Balaton | 1, 2 | July | Dark skin and flesh |
Montmorency | 1, 2 | July | Michigan strain best |
North Star | 1, 2 | July | Dwarf variety |
Sweet varieties | |||
Van | 1, 2 | Early | Black, pollinized by Bing, Lambert |
Royal Ann | 1, 2 | Mid | White, pollinized by Corum |
Bing | 2 | Mid | Black, pollinized by Van, Corum |
Lapins | 1, 2 | Mid | Black, self-fruitful |
Bada | 1, 2, 4 | Mid | White, semidwarf, pollinized by Royal Ann, Bing, Lambert |
Stella | 1, 2, 4 | Mid | Black, self-fruitful |
Compact Stella | 1, 2, 4 | Mid | Smaller than Stella |
Sweetheart | 1, 2 | Mid | Black, self-fruitful |
Kordia (Attika) | 1, 2 | Late | Black, pollinized by Regina |
Lambert | 1, 2, 4 | Late | Black, pollinized by Van, Corum |
Regina | 1, 2 | Late | Black, pollinized by Kordia |
Figs
A few varieties such as Lattarula, Brown Turkey and Desert King often will mature a crop in Oregon. Temperatures around 0°F will kill parts of the trees. Especially if you grow them in a bush form, they’ll grow back to producing age in two or three years from the lower stem portions. Plant fig trees in sunny spots, preferably on a south wall.
Fig trees require no sprays and deer don’t eat them. Prune them in late winter to keep the height below about 8 feet.
Figs are sometimes grown in large pots in regions of Oregon with cold winters and warm summers (Area 2).
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Brown Turkey | 1 | August | Large, brown |
Desert King | 1 | August | Green, large, sweet |
Lattarula | 1 | August | Green, golden inside |
Papaws
Most varieties of papaw are hardy enough to survive Oregon winters. Early ripening varieties may be most suitable for milder regions such as western Oregon. The fruit is sometimes 5 to 6 inches long and 2 or 3 inches thick; the skins are green until ripe, becoming yellow as they begin to ripen and bronze or brown when they’re ripe enough to eat. The soft, ripe flesh is creamy and yellow.
The papaw is sweet and has a resinous flavor and odor that some people enjoy. There are large brown seeds in the flesh.
Isolated trees generally are unfruitful because of the lack of cross-pollination, so plant two trees for pollination. These trees are slow-growing and slow to come into bearing, but they live a long time.
Peaches, nectarines
A nectarine is nothing more than a fuzzless kind of peach. Peaches are ill-adapted to rainy climates. They bloom early in spring when weather is too cool and wet for good pollination, and when clear weather frequently brings frosts.
Numerous serious diseases infest peach trees in wet weather: peach leaf curl, coryneum blight, and brown rot. Without frequent spraying, peach trees in cool, wet climates soon will die. Varieties Frost and Rosydawn are resistant to peach leaf curl.
Peaches also require heavy fertilization and pruning. They’re one of the most difficult fruits to grow, yet many home orchardists grow them successfully.
Plant them in a sunny spot with good air movement.
Nectarines bloom earlier and are more sensitive to diseases than peaches.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Nectarines (fuzzless peaches) | |||
Harko | 1, 2 | early August | Vigorous and heavy-bearing trees may need fruit thinning; red fruit are clingstone |
Red Gold | 1 | early August | Vigorous trees; red-blushed fruit are freestone |
Fantasia | 1, 2 | mid-August | Vigorous and productive; red-blushed fruit are freestone |
Stark Red Gold | 1, 2 | mid-August | Performs best in warmer regions (for example, Southern and Northeastern Oregon); red-blushed fruit are firm and freestone |
Genetic dwarfs | 1–4 | August | These small trees can be grown in pots and taken indoors in winter. |
Peaches | |||
Red Haven | 1, 2 | early August | Vigorous, heavy-bearing trees may need fruit thinning; red-blushed fruit are semi-freestone |
Harken | 1, 2 | early August | Red-blushed fruit are firm and freestone |
Frost | 1, 2 | mid-August | Resistant to peach leaf curl; yellow, semi-freestone fruit |
July Elberta | 1, 2 | mid-August | Red-streaked fruit are firm and freestone |
Improved Elberta | 1, 2 | late August | Red-blushed fruit are firm and freestone |
Rochester | 1 | late August | Old favorite |
Veteran | 1, 2 | late August | Vigorous, early bearing; red-blushed fruit are firm and freestone |
Genetic dwarfs | 1–4 | August | These small trees can be grown in pots and taken indoors in winter |
Pears
Trees are available on vigorous rootstocks on quince roots, which are semidwarfing. Quince isn’t winter-hardy, so don’t plant trees on this root in Areas 2 or 3 (Figure 1).
Since pear trees are more upright and smaller than apple trees, they don’t make good shade trees. Pears tolerate clayey or wet soils better than most other kinds of tree fruits.
Especially in Southern and Eastern Oregon, pear trees are subject to fire blight, a particularly virulent bacterial disease. Control of fire blight requires frequent spraying and pruning to remove infected twigs. Bacterial blossom blast and codling moth infestation are problems in all regions.
European pears are harvested unripe and ripened off the tree. Asian pears ripen on the tree and are crisp like apples.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
European varieties | |||
Bartlett | 1, 2 | Aug 15 - 30 | Pollinized by Anjou, Fall Butter |
Seckel | 1, 2 | Aug 20 - Sept 10 | Pollinized by Anjou, Bosc, Comice |
Anjou | 1, 2 | Sept 5 - 20 | Pollinized by Bartlett, needs 45 - 60 days of cold storage before ripening |
Bosc | 1, 2 | Sept 10 - 30 | Pollinized by Comice, best in southern Oregon |
Cascade | 1, 2 | Sept 10 - 30 | Red blush, good flavor |
Comice | 1, 2 | Sept 20 - 30 | Pollinized by Bosc, best in southern Oregon, needs 45 - 60 days of cold storage before ripening |
Red varieties | |||
Starkrimson | 1, 2 | Aug 1 - 15 | Pollinized by Bartlett |
Red Bartlett (numerous strains) | 1, 2 | Aug 15 - 30 | Pollinized by Anjou, Fall Butter |
Reimer Red | 1 | September | Pollinized by Bartlett |
Red Anjou | 1 | September | Pollinized by Bartlett |
Asian pear varieties (Plants at least two or three varieties for cross pollination) | |||
Kosul | 1, 2 | August | Yellow - bronze fruit with slight russet |
Shinseiki | 1, 2 | August | Yellow fruit |
Hosul | 1, 2 | September | Brown russetted fruit |
Chojuro | 1, 2I | September | Brown russetted fruit |
Nijisseiki (20th century) | 1, 2 | September | Yellow fruit |
Persimmons
Some seasons in Oregon, there aren’t enough warm days for persimmons of either the American or the Japanese species to mature their fruit. American species, which are smaller and have seeds, will mature more often in our cool climate. Two or more varieties or seedlings of American persimmon must be planted for pollination.
The Japanese varieties that will mature in Western Oregon, such as Fuyu, bear seedless fruit and don’t require another tree for pollination. Until they’re soft-ripe, most persimmon fruits are extremely astringent; Fuyu is much less so.
The Japanese persimmon has few pests in Oregon and is considered an attractive tree for ornamental plantings. Usually, persimmons are eaten fresh, but they can be dried.
Place unripe persimmons in a box in a clean, dry place (such as a garage) for ripening.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Early Golden | 1, 2 | November | American, small |
Fuyu | 1, 2 | November | Japanese, seedless |
Garrettson | 1, 2 | November | American, small |
Hachiya | 1, 2 | November | Asian, large |
Plums and prunes
There are three general kinds of plums and prunes: European, Japanese, and hybrid. Prunes are European-type plums that are suitable for preservation by dehydration. Japanese varieties bloom earlier than European plums, and they frequently fail to bear because of frost or cool, wet weather.
Brown rot, which infects the blossoms and fruit, is the most common disease of plums.
The Brooks and Italian varieties of European plums are among the easier fruits to grow in the home orchard.
Japanese plums usually are eaten fresh, but most European varieties are good fresh, canned, or dried.
The Parsons European-type plum and all Japanese plums require pollinizers. All hardy hybrid plums require another variety for pollination.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Cold- resistant varieties | |||
Mount Royal | 3 | September | Self-fruitful |
Superior | 3 | September | Pollinized by Pipestone |
Ember | 3 | October | Pollinized by Superior |
European varieties (prunes when dehydrated) | |||
Parsons | 1 | Sept 1 - 15 | Sweet, pollinized by Stanley |
Stanley | 1, 2 | Sept 1 - 15 | Bears but brown rots |
Italian | 1, 2 | Sept 10 - 30 | Tart, "purple plum" |
Brooks | 1, 2 | Sept 20 - 30 | Bears regularly, large |
President Plum | 2 | Sept 20 - 30 | Pollinized by Stanley |
Moyer Perfecto | 1 (south only) | Oct. 1 | Best dried, sweet |
Japanese varieties | |||
Early Golden | 1, 2 | July | Apricot - like flavor |
Shiro | 1, 2 | August | Pollinized by Red Heart |
Burbank | 1, 2 | August | Pollinized by Elephant Heart |
Red Heart | 1, 2 | September | Pollinized by Shiro |
Nut tree guidelines
Almonds
Almonds are susceptible to spring frost. They should only be planted in areas with low spring frost risk, such as the Willamette Valley. Almonds also require good drainage.
It has not been established which pests are common for almond in Oregon, but they may be susceptible to other stone fruit pests like stinkbugs or borers.
Butternuts
The butternut is a species of walnut that is most similar to a black walnut. It’s the most winter-hardy of all nut species and the most likely to succeed in poor soil. It’s an attractive landscape tree because of its gray bark and interesting tree form, but these trees can grow big and require a large planting space. The nut is pointed and oblong with deep ridges. Except for selected varieties, the kernel is thin and difficult to remove from the shell.
While many nut trees are hardy enough to survive winter conditions across Oregon, spring frosts may damage flowers and result in little to no nut production except in Oregon's mildest spring climates.
Chestnuts
The chestnut grows into a large, attractive shade tree that bears an abundance of fragrant, creamy white flowers in spring. Nuts are enclosed in golden-colored prickly hulls and are ready to harvest in fall. The nuts are delicious roasted fresh, but they mold easily in storage.
Since some nursery-grafted chestnuts die from delayed graft incompatibility, it’s safer to plant either seedlings or own-rooted trees.
All Chinese chestnut trees are highly resistant to chestnut blight, which has almost completely killed the American chestnut. While they’ll bear some nuts with their own pollen, nut production and size often is increased by pollen from a second tree.
Because of blight, chestnut trees may not be shipped to Oregon from eastern nurseries.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Chinese seedlings | 1–4 | September | Pollinizer for Layeroka |
Colossal | 1–4 | September | Large nut |
Layeroka | 1–4 | September | Reliable producer |
Okei | 1–4 | September | Pollinizer for Colossal |
Hazelnuts
Unless you remove suckers from the crown of a hazelnut tree every year, it grows as a bush. You can propagate hazelnut trees from rooted suckers, but nurseries usually can supply better trees. Every hazelnut variety requires another variety for pollination.
A single mature hazelnut tree, occupying a space of 20 feet or more, will produce only 15 to 20 pounds of dried nuts. Especially if blue jays and squirrels get half the nuts, the hazelnut doesn’t produce much for the space it occupies. To increase a tree’s productivity, prune out the older, more downward-hanging wood.
Eastern filbert blight, caused by a fungus, is killing many trees in the Willamette Valley. For this reason, it’s inadvisable to plant hazelnut varieties that are susceptible to EFB in Western Oregon. For more information, see OSU's Eastern filbert blight help page.
Hickory
Selections of the shagbark hickory and of some other species are desirable for home planting as fruiting ornamental trees. Some varieties from the northeastern United States are winter-hardy. While many nut trees are hardy enough to survive winter conditions across Oregon, spring frosts may damage flowers and result in little to no nut production except in Oregon's mildest spring climates.
The nuts are small to medium in size, with thick shells. The trees are very large.
Walnuts
Black walnut varieties
Black walnut trees grow rapidly into very large shade trees. The nuts are delicious but hard to crack. Like English walnuts, they’re subject to infestation by the walnut husk fly. Named varieties available from nurseries usually have larger kernels and are easier to crack than seedlings.
Black walnuts, in their hulls, are large and heavy — don’t regard them lightly when they fall from the top of a tall tree!
English walnut varieties
Trees make good nut-bearing shade trees in Western Oregon, but they’re subject to several serious problems. English walnuts grafted on black walnut roots often die at age 15 to 25 or older from a graft union disorder known as blackline.
Walnut trees in housing developments established in old walnut orchards frequently die from the combined effects of root disturbance and the blackline disorder. To avoid blackline, plant walnut trees on Manregion or Carpathian roots.
If the walnut husk fly is present, you’ll need to spray to prevent infestation. Mature walnut trees are so large that they’re quite difficult to spray.
Early fall and winter freezes frequently damage or kill walnut trees. Early-blooming varieties are subject to spring frost. Hardy Carpathian walnut varieties can be grown in Area 3 (Figure 1). They resemble commercial English walnuts but are somewhat smaller.
Variety | Areas suited | Approximate time of maturity | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Black varieties | |||
Thomas | 1, 2 | October | Seedlings interior |
Ohio | 1, 2 | October | |
Myers | 1, 2 | October | |
English varieties | |||
Carpathian | 2, 3 | Late October | Cold - hardy |
Chandler | 1 | Late October | Pollinized by Franquette |
Franquette | 1 | Late October | Standard variety, limited hardiness |
Hartley | 1 | Late October | Harvest is 10-14 days before Franquette |
Howard | 1 | Late October | Medium to large nuts |
Spurgeon | 1 | Late October | Late bloomer, hardy |
Planning your home orchard
There’s no need to align all the fruit trees in a row as in a commercial orchard. With a little thought, you can fit fruit trees well into your overall landscape design. You can use them in at least six different ways:
- Single specimen trees
- Trained vertically against a wall or fence (espalier)
- A fruiting hedge
- Shade trees
- A row of individuals defining the limits of the landscape
- Several rows of windbreaks
Use the showy flowers and bright-colored fruit to complement your landscape. When you grow small fruits or vegetables underneath the trees, you must consider the possible incompatibility of the spray schedules—but with groundcovers, flowers, or mulches, there’s no such problem.
Dwarf apples, pears, and some plums are espaliered easily, but most other kinds of fruit trees are not.
Even in urban areas, vertebrate pests such as deer may eat ripening fruit. Depending on the severity of the problem, the following measures will protect your trees:
- Deer repellent
- Fencing individual trees
- Fencing the entire orchard
Don’t plant fruit trees over the drains or on property lines. Plant them far enough from property lines so branches don’t extend into your neighbor’s yard. Plant fruit trees where there’s ample space so that excessive pruning won’t be required to contain them. Don’t plant trees where fruit will drop on walks and patios.
Planting and early care
Before you buy online, try your local nursery dealers. They’re likely to carry trees adapted to your region and they can give you advice based on local experience. You can go back to your local nursery if you have problems with their trees.
Fruit trees usually are shipped bare-root. If the trees arrive before you’re ready to plant, cover the roots with damp sawdust, bark chips, or loose soil to keep them wet and protected from cold. Learn more about selecting bare root or potted trees.
Planting and pruning
Plant as soon as possible in winter or early spring. Dig the hole 1 1⁄2 to 2 feet wide and about 1 1⁄2 feet deep. Plant so that the uppermost root is no more than 2 inches below the ground level. With dwarf trees, be sure the graft union is at least 2 to 4 inches above the ground level. Spread the roots out in the hole, trim off dead parts, and tamp topsoil around as you fill in the hole.
It is neither recommended nor necessary to put fertilizer or compost in the planting hole.
Loss of newly planted trees usually is caused by:
- Roots suffocated by too deep planting
- Water standing in the hole
- Top growing before roots (late planting)
- Insufficient water or weed competition
- Fertilizer placed in the hole
Mulching newly planted trees with several inches of sawdust, bark dust, gravel, or with plastic will help in establishment and early growth. Don’t apply fertilizer or herbicides at planting or during the first year.
Many roots are lost from trees as they’re dug from the nursery. This results in a tree that has too much top for the remaining roots to supply with water and nutrients.
Prune the top immediately after planting (Figure 2) to restore the normal ratio of roots to top — usually, you should prune away a fourth to a half of the treetop. Trees you prune this way soon will outgrow trees you didn’t prune at planting time.
Remove branches that compete with the leader or that are over or under another branch.
Irrigation
Young trees, with their limited root systems, need irrigation, even on sites where mature trees do well on rainfall alone. About 3 to 5 gallons of water per tree every week should be enough.
Irrigate one or more times a week during hot weather. However, excessive irrigation can bring on root and trunk rots.
Protection against weather and pests
On windy sites when the soil is wet, trees will lean unless staked.
Paint trunks of young trees with white tree trunk paint (especially near the ground) to prevent sunburn and reduce the risk of freeze injury.
Some vertebrate pests like voles or gophers may cause damage to trees, such as feeding on bark or roots. Severe vertebrate damage can kill trees.
Severe infestations of such insects as cherry slugs, pear slugs, aphids, leafrollers, or skeletonizers reduce the growth rate of young trees—you need to control them. See your local garden store or Extension office for current control measures.
Fertilizing
After the first season, your trees may need a little nitrogen to hasten growth. About 1⁄8 lb of active nitrogen per year of age is a good rule of thumb. This equates to about 1⁄4 lb of urea, 1⁄2 lb of ammonium sulfate, 1⁄3 lb of ammonium nitrate, 3⁄4 lb of 16-16-16, or 1 lb of 10-10-10.
Peach and hazelnut trees require more fertilizer than other fruits and nuts. Trees in grass sod will require much more nitrogen than where ground is mulched or clean cultivated. Generous application of lawn clippings or compost often will supply all the fertilizer required for good growth.
Scatter the fertilizer under the branches, away from the trunk, after leaf fall and before bloom.
Stimulating blossoming and fruit set
Limbs bent and tied out or spread 50° to 90° from vertical will bloom more than upright limbs. See Figure 3.
To increase fruit set in Anjou and Comice pear trees that are blooming but not bearing, prune 2-year shoots back to a flower bud at bloom time. Fruit set also is stimulated by removing the tips of rapidly growing shoots in May or June.
Many fruit trees will set more fruit than is desirable to produce large fruit that ripens in a timely matter. Still, there are sometimes issues with pollination, such as cool or wet weather and low abundance of pollinators. Setting a beehive near trees may help with poor pollination and fruit set. Avoid using pesticides — particularly insecticides that are lethal to pollinators — during the bloom period.
Care of bearing trees
Fertilizing
In Western Oregon, full-sized bearing trees often benefit from 1⁄2 lb of borax every three years, in addition to nitrogen, mulch, or compost.
Occasionally potassium also is required. If leaves are small and pale, and the problem isn’t corrected with nitrogen, the tree may be deficient in potassium. Symptoms of potassium deficiency include brown, dead areas on margins of oldest leaves, smaller than normal fruit, and early leaf fall.
Usually at least 10 lb muriate or 12 lb sulfate of potash per tree, banded around the drip line of the branches in a strip less than a foot wide, is required to correct a deficiency. Potassium deficiency can be brought on by poor soil drainage; in that case, fertilizer won’t correct it.
Fruit and nut trees don’t need phosphorus from fertilizers, but it won’t hurt them if your fertilizer mix has some phosphorus in it.
Pruning
Annual pruning will help maintain tree vigor and control size. Yearly dormant-season pruning is essential. See Training and pruning your home orchard.
Fruit thinning
Fruit thinning often is required to obtain satisfactory fruit size and maintain annual productivity of apples, pears, peaches, and some plums. Many varieties of apple will produce a crop only every other year unless they’re thinned within three to four weeks after full bloom.
Thin apples and pears to one fruit per cluster and space clusters 6 to 8 inches apart, three to five weeks after full bloom.
Space peaches 6 to 10 inches apart, depending on the number set.
Peaches and plums can be knocked off with a piece of garden hose on a broom handle or with a length of PVC pipe.
Thin fruit within 45 days of full bloom for apple and Asian pears and 60 days for peaches.
Irrigation
Mature fruit trees in eastern and southern Oregon need periodic irrigation — even in Western Oregon, an occasional irrigation may be helpful. Water long enough to wet the top 2 to 3 feet of soil, which may take as long as 12 to 24 hours with a drip irrigation system.
It’s not necessary to irrigate more than half of the tree’s root system if you supply water often enough. Usually, every two or three weeks is enough.
Controlling insects and diseases
Many insect pests and diseases affect fruit and nut trees in Oregon. It is not a reasonable expectation to plant the most common types of fruit and nut trees without having to spray for pests.
Timely and thorough spraying is required to control the diseases and insects mentioned in Table 1. Occasionally, other insects such as aphids, tent caterpillars, mites, slugs, fall webworm and leafrollers become numerous enough to warrant spraying.
Some pests can be controlled once signs of damage are spotted. For the most significant pests, such as codling moth, spray applications should be made before damage is seen, at which point it is too late. See Managing diseases and insects in home orchards.
Harvesting and storage
Apples are mature when they easily separate from the tree when twisted upward, and when they taste good. Pick them before the core gets areas with a glassy appearance known as water core
Sweet cherries, apricots, figs, plums, prunes, and peaches taste ripe when ready for picking. Ripening will continue after harvest. For canning or drying, leave them on the tree until completely ripe. Sour cherries are ready when they come off the tree easily without stems.
European pears should be picked when still green, but when they separate easily from the tree. Most varieties other than Bartlett require a month or more of cold storage before they will ripen properly. Pick Asian pears when they’re sweet and juicy.
Figs are ripe when they’re very soft and droop on their stems.
Persimmons ripen late in fall when they become soft and lose astringency.
Nuts fall to the ground when mature. For best quality, gather chestnuts and walnuts and dry them as they fall.
Store fruit where it’s cool but won’t freeze. A good fruit storage room is insulated against daytime heat and freezing night temperatures, and can be opened at night to let in cold air.
Green pears will start to ripen if stored with ripe fruit. Keep the humidity high to prevent shrivel. Watch for and remove rotted fruits.
Golden Delicious apples will remain in better condition if they are stored in plastic bags with a few small holes punched in them, rather than in paper bags or boxes. Late-maturing apples such as Braeburn, Fuji, and Granny Smith are best if left on the tree and harvested just before they are consumed.
For more information
- Pscheidt, J.W., N. Bell, J.L. Olsen, and S. Castagnoli, Managing diseases and insects in home orchards, EC 631.
- Stebbins, Robert L., Training and pruning your home orchard, PNW 400.
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Trade-name products and services are mentioned as illustrations only. This does not mean that the Oregon State University Extension Service either endorses these products and services or intends to discriminate against products and services not mentioned.
¡Use los pesticidas con seguridad!
- Póngase ropa de protección y equipo de seguridad según las recomendaciones de la etiqueta. Báñese después de cada uso.
- Lea la etiqueta del pesticida—aunque lo haya usado antes. Siga al pie de la letra las indicaciones de la etiqueta (y cualquiera otra indicación que Ud. tenga).
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