10 Keys for Success Growing Healthy Fruit Trees, Delicious Fruit

This video provides 10 tips and keys to success for how to grow healthy fruit trees and delicious fruit. Topics covered include, sun, soil, water, climate, cross pollination, size, fertilizer & mulch, pruning, thinning, and integrated pest management, as well as sunscald or southwest winter sun damage as a bonus tip.

The video is shot all around our foodscape showing a variety of our fruit trees including apple, pear, peach, nectarine, plum and pluot. Some of the trees are free form and kept small using summer pruning and some are managed on espalier fruit fences.

BLOOM TIME: One topic mentioned is the bloom time of different types of fruit trees. When growing fruit trees in areas with spring frosts and freezes, a late spring freeze can wipe out a crop. In these cases, a late blooming tree may avoid freezing weather and be more likely to yield a crop. For example, almonds and apricots bloom very early and apples bloom relatively late. So in a place with lots of cold late in the spring, an apple would likely be more successful. Also, different varieties will bloom at different times, so you can look for late blooming peaches, for example, to have a higher chance of success. In general, the sequence of bloom is almond, apricot, Japanese plum, peaches/nectarines, Asian pears, European plums, cherries, pears, and finally apples.

Here’s some footage of our trees in bloom to see how their bloom times differ:

For lots more on growing fruit trees, including more info on pruning and espalier, check out the ‘Fruit Trees & Grapes’ tab: https://foodscapingutah.org/category/fruit-trees-grapes/