Here’s our next planting program. We’ve chosen to do a three in one planting here which we’ll explain in just a minute. But, what we’ve decided to do is a mounted planting. So, we’re actually planting these roots right at soil level. We know we have a drainage problem here so we’re going to mound the soil up around them as we plant them.
Today, we’re demonstrating the option of multiple planting. Sky is the limit on this; you can really do just about whatever you want. We’ve chosen a three in one planting today, three trees in one hole at about 18inches apart; eighteen, twenty-four, whatever works best for your situation. There really aren’t any rules. The main thing is do what works for your particular landscape needs and have fun with it.
There are lots of reasons to consider multiple planting. Number one here today, we want successive ripening. We want to have more than one variety of fruit coming out at this area. So, we have an early season variety, a mid-season variety and a late season variety. So we can harvest fruit over an extended period. Number two, no cross pollination is used. We have plenty of varieties that are going to bloom simultaneously, so we’ll get a bigger, better set of fruit on each and everyone. Number three, we want to make good use of our space, we don’t want one great big overbearing tree that’s going to have too much fruit for our family to use. So, by planting three trees in this space, we make much, much better use of our fruit season.
So I have my trees in on there final spacing, I’m happy with the way that they look. Now, I’m going to bock the soil. Make sure that you’re getting your trees the level that you want, make sure that the spacing is the way you want. This is your final decision, so you want to do it right.
I’m going to come in now and make sure that they’re nice and straight. I’m going to tamp a little bit to get the air pockets out. We’re going to check our soil level; the one in the front here is still a little too low so we’ll add some soil. Create a little bit of a wall for irrigation. Our first two trees are already cut for their final height, so that they will develop a good low branching structure.
On this third one here, you can see the amount of nursery growth that we have but we don’t really need that. We’re not going to be relying on that. This is already too big for our situation. So, we’re going to bring this tree also back down to knee high, and we’re going to allow the branching to start here down lower on the trunk. This is going to give us a nice low canopy, so that we can keep the tree to a mature height to about eight feet and everything is easily harvestable from the ground. All of our maintenance, all of our pruning work, anything we need to do to the tree can be done from ground level.
One of the things that makes multiple planting really fun is being able to select the varieties that you want. You can choose anything that is compatible to grow together. You could grow peach, plum, nectarine, and apricot all together in a three in one or four in one planting like this. You can choose the season that you want your fruit to ripen. early season, mid season, late season so you can stagger your harvest from a multiple planting like this.
When choosing varieties for your combination you should take into consideration varieties that have similar requirements for pests and disease control. When selecting plant material for your multiple planting combinations, it’s always a good idea to try and find plants that are as uniformed as possible. All three of these trees have similar caliper sizes. That is not always possible to do in the retail nursery, so if you have a plant that is weaker than the others, you always want to make sure that you’re giving that plant the consideration of the south or southwest face. You do not want that plant to be shaded out by larger growing material on the backside.
When it comes to maintaining your multiple planting combination the first couple of years are the most important. You want to make sure that you are not letting any one variety dominate the combination. So, the most vigorous variety needs to be kept in check with the weakest variety in the combination.
Summer pruning is very important. After a couple of years of working the combination, keeping vigor in check, allowing the weak variety to catch up, you’ll have a nice balance system and it’s very, very easy maintain in the future.
To finish up this multiple planting, we’ll come in with a good wood product, compost or mulch, and we’re going to lay that in so that we can spread it all around the combinations, so that we have a two or three inches thick.
Mulching is going to do several real important things for us. Number one, it’s going to keep the weeds from germinating. Number two, it’s going to keep the soil temperature, an average of 15 to 20 degrees cooler than unmulch soil during the hot summer months. It’s going to make much better use of our irrigation water, and it’s also going to increase the vital activity in the soil. It’s going to bring back earthworms and michorizza, and beneficial insects and fungi that help the trees to fit into a more natural way.
Water management is a very important issue when it comes to growing fruit trees successfully. It’s not how much water you use. But, how little water you can use to keep your fruit trees growing healthy. You have to consider water management as your personal responsibility. You should research your soil type and your climate and make sure that you’re irrigating when necessary and not putting too much water on your trees.
The number one reason that people lose fruit trees is over-watering. It’s your responsibility to consider the needs of your fruit trees in your specific geographic area and your specific soil type. So, don’t over-water, mulch right, irrigate right, and consider it your personal responsibility.
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