How to Choose Fruit Trees

Use beautiful fruit trees to enhance your landscape and feed your family with varieties of fruit more delicious than you can buy. Choose your orchard to suit your climate, soil and personal tastes.

Things You'll Need

• Fruit Trees

Instructions

1. Know your zone - both USDA Hardiness Zone and AHS Heat Zone - so the fruits you choose will get the necessary chilling hours and growing weeks to produce for you. Investigate the fruits your average climate can sustain, including the sometimes obscure but delicious local favorites.

2. Expand your fruit horizons to include both popular fruits (like apples and peaches) and the less well-known (from persimmons to loquats). Understand which of your fruit choices can fruit alone and which ones need pollinators - two trees may take up precious space, but may be necessary for fruit to develop.

3. Get vital information on spray regimes fruit trees demand in your area - insects can devastate vulnerable crops without either organic or inorganic intervention methods. If you will not spray, choose fruits that do not require it - often native or locally adapted varieties.

4. Consider growth rate, the size of a mature tree and pruning demands when choosing a fruit tree. A fast-growing selection may grow too large for your garden without regular, laborious pruning; choose a smaller or even dwarf variety where space is a constraint.

5. Match your fruit tree choice to your soil type, available sunlight and your ability to supply water and fertilizer to the planting site. Be realistic in sorting out all the factors - get fruit trees that meet your needs and those of your landscape.

6. Shop for fruit trees for planting while they are dormant - look for trees 3 to 5 years old and be sure the supplier can make timely delivery in your area. Be aware that more unusual varieties may be available as bare-root plants, but may take another year or two to bear fruit when compared to container-grown trees.

7. Use fruit trees in all parts of your landscape unless their needed sprays will harm nearby plants. Fruit trees can provide shade, create a fence and grace the patio in big pots.

Tips & Warnings

• Use specific plant names, including variety and hybrid titles, when asking for fruit trees to be sure you get the one you want.

• Worried about global warming? Choose fruit trees at the lower end of your area's chilling requirements.