FAILURES OF FRUIT GROWERS
Six reasons home gardeners fail to meet their own expectations:
Site selection
Apparently most gardeners plant fruit trees, vines, or bushes wherever they have an empty spot.
Having a spot does not guarantee that the spot is likely to be productive. All of the color and
flavor in fruits is the direct result of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a chemical reaction
your 9th grade teacher tried to explain. It is driven by sunlight. For optimal fruit production,
select a site in full sun all day long. Anything less is a compromise.
Many fruiting plants have potentially serious disease problems. Diseases do their worst in shady
areas with poor air movement. Fruit trees should be planted away from walls and hedges, out in the
open where air moves. Ideally they will also be high on a slope – not on the top but closer to the
top than the bottom. Site selection is part of pest management and all the more important if you
don’t plan to use fungicides.
Variety Selection
Many gardeners seem to select fruits to grow based on pictures and descriptions in catalogs.
Even more important than flavor, color, size, or shape is survival . Start with fruits that are
likely to survive with minimal problems in our area. Publications on the
Fruits and Nuts page
list varieties that have demonstrated success in North Carolina. These are a good starting point.
Try others to learn what works for you here. But remember that it doesn’t matter how beautiful it
looks in a catalog produced in Kansas.
Soil preparation
Fruit production is the highest end of a plant’s growth. It makes the highest demands of a plant.
In order to produce fruit the plant needs all its essential nutrients. North Carolina’s Department
of Agriculture analyzes soil samples at no charge and makes suggestions for fertility essential to
fruit production. For guidelines on how to get your free analysis, see
Landscape and Garden Soil Management.
If the soil is too difficult for you to dig easily, it is also difficult for plants to grow roots.
Help the plant by loosening the soil for at least five feet in all directions from the trunk.
This loosened soil will provide aeration as well as a reservoir for water and nutrients.
We hope roots will grow there.
Time of planting
Fruit tree planting is often an impulse followed in the spring. Little root growth will occur as the
soil warms, and the tree will languish as the surrounding soil absorbs water away from the root ball
and temperature increases demand for water and oxygen.
Fruit trees should be planted after fall frost and before Christmas. If it’s spring when you’re reading
this, now is a good time to start your preparations for a fall planting. Spring planting is acceptable for blackberries,
blueberries, and grapes.
Pruning (or lack of)
The most frequent pruning questions I get are about trees that have never been pruned.
There are no good guidelines for remedial pruning; we can’t put scrambled eggs back in the shell.
Pruning should begin the day the plant goes in the ground and continue annually.
Pruning in the plant’s early years should focus on creating a shape and structure that will allow air
to move through the plant and sunlight to hit all the branches. The shade of the tree in summer should
still allow about 10% sunlight to reach the ground beneath. See
Training and Pruning Fruit Trees
to get started.
Weed control
Weeds (including grass) compete for water, fertilizer, and even sunlight. Allow the plant a weed free zone in which
to grow. That zone should extend at least as far from the trunk as the branches reach. As the tree
grows extend the weed free zone to keep up with the drip line.
Be cautious using tools for weed control. Hoes can damage shallow roots. Line trimmers do permanent
injury to trunks. Mulch and hand weeding are probably your best allies.
How Serious Are You?
One of my mentors (who grew up in a cherry orchard) suggests that growing fruit is more successful
when it is not a hobby but a lifestyle. Planting a tree and waiting to see what you get is about
10,000 years out of date. We’ve learned a lot since the hunter/gatherer days. We don’t have to
keep reinventing these techniques.
If you’re willing to take what you get, then the nearby woods likely have persimmons and blackberries
for the picking – well some years anyway. If you have expectations, be sure that you expect as much of
yourself as you do from your plants.
This page created Monday, August 20, 2007 and maintained by
al_cooke@ncsu.edu
Most recent update
Monday, August 20, 2007
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