Hit the Dirt; Fruiting Trees

Hello again I hope all those listening are marking on a wonderful Thanksgiving Day to celebrate the bountiful harvest of this past year. Perhaps as you sit down to the big meal today you will be enjoying among other things delicious cold apple cider stuffing made with chunks of fruit and for dessert a good old apple pie or maybe a heaping serving the peach cobbler. Well to make a good meal even better you might try raising some of your own tree fruit next year. As noted last week such a move would open your world and taste buds to a variety of types and flavors not available in even the best stock markets. But to ensure success a fruit tree planting needs careful planning. Quoting Robert Couric from his book Designing and maintaining your edible landscape Naturally since trees are virtually permanent additions to your edible landscape take time to consider your options more than most elements in an edible landscape. Fruit and nut trees should be what I call design intensive. Most of the effort should be spent in study planning and design before planting. And now is a good time to do that planning so you can make some decisions in time to order your

trees for spring planting. Among the important decisions to be made are the location for the orchard the kinds of fruit the varieties within each kind and the size of the trees. Each of these decisions involves a number of factors and considerations. Let's look at each in turn. Location. Think long and hard about just where where you would like your orchard be. Just a couple of trees or a couple of acres of trees. Unlike a planting of broccoli which can be moved from one year to the next or even strawberries which are moved every few years trees will be there to stay for anywhere from 15 to over 100 years. Assuming your lot is big enough that you have much of a choice it will be a good idea to walk around now with a critical eye or soil type is an important consideration. As with most other plants fruit trees will greatly benefit from fertile well-drained soil with a good tail. So a rich loam is better than a heavy clay with little topsoil. Some folks who go to great pains to lavish their vegetable gardens with nutrient Laden on

compacted soil fig. trees are tougher and can make do. So they stick the young sapling in the worst soil reserving the good stuff for other plantings. This is a mistake. While a tree may be able to scrounge and survive in less than ideal conditions it will grow and produce much more if given the same considerations for good soil. And considering the cost in money and time of buying and planting a fruit tree is a foolish waste of an investment. Scrimp on the soil. A second factor is the topography of the orchard site. That is where the orchard sits in relation to the surrounding land surface features. This can be particularly important with marginally hardy varieties of which there are many in our climate. Try to avoid cold pockets where frost settles the tops of hills are also often not ideal due to high winds which can cause a good deal of winter kill. The best is a protected slope with good air drainage. If the slope faces north east all the better since the south facing slope can cause early blossoming in some fruits

like peaches whose blossoms are sensitive to frost. A north facing slope will help to delay the breaking of dormancy until it is more likely that all the real cold weather has passed for the year. The topography determines the microclimate which in our neck of the woods can mean the difference between whether or not any variety of piccies can survive and how many cherry varieties you will have to choose between. The third major factor regarding location to consider is the size of the area you will need assuming you don't have an unlimited amount of space for the orchard. If you want to go out and measure the size of the area you're considering for that orchard. This will be critical in helping to decide on the kind and number of trees you can fit in. So get outside and check out those potential orchard sites and if the ground isn't frozen yet bring a shovel to do a little subterranean investigating Downeast. You never know what kind of dirt lies between beneath your feet unless you check it out first hand. Next week I'll continue with Part 3 of this series and getting started with the orchard. This is Keith Goldfarb. If you have any

comments questions or suggestions I'd love to hear from you. Please write to me care of you or you. The hen house. Blue Hill Falls Maine 0 4 6 1 5. See you next week on the radio.