You Can Grow a 'Micro Orchard' in Your Garden

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I have a problem: My garden is a finite size. It will hold only so many trees, though I’ve been trying for years to squeeze in more. The solution might be a micro orchard, which provides distinct benefits. First, all the fruit on your trees is reachable (because nothing is as frustrating as a peach just out of your reach) because the trees are kept small and fruit is encouraged to grow close to the ground. That small stature of tree means you can pack more into a smaller space. Being able to have many trees instead of one allows you to diversify your harvest, or improve the pollination of one kind of fruit tree by having a few trees of the same kind instead of just one. 

With trees this small, you can more easily control pests and viruses. A tiny tree is much easier to spray than a fifteen-foot tree. To make this easier, there’s an ever increasing amount of cross breeding in fruit to make trees more compact and to create hardier breeds of fruit. You can now grow olives and citrus in the cold, or apples in the desert. 

Start by choosing the right root stock

Something you might not know about fruit trees we buy today is that almost none are grown from seed. Instead, a young branch from a fully grown fruit tree (a scion) is grafted to the young trunk of a completely unrelated tree (root stock) known to be particularly disease-resistant or weather-resilient, or very tall or very small. The scion will grow instead of the root stock, and you end up with a fruit tree that has the fruit of the scion and the characteristics of the root stock, like a dwarf nectarine. The most common reason people choose root stock is the height. To achieve a micro orchard, you’ll want to choose fruit trees grown on dwarf stock trees that won’t grow taller than ten or twelve feet, and there is a difference between dwarf and semi-dwarf, which is 12-15 feet and likely too tall for a micro-orchard. You’ll prune the tree to be even smaller than the full 8-12 foot height, but you want to start with a tree that is already primed to grow as small as possible. 

The taller of my dwarf peach trees still wasn't as tall as my shovel. Credit: Amanda Blum

How to choose your fruit tree varieties

I spent this weekend at One Green World, a national retailer of fruit trees, shrubs, and vines. They have the deepest catalog of fruit trees I’ve seen, with almost a hundred varieties of pomegranate alone. I spoke to Matt Voedisch, a crew member of One Green World, about how to choose trees for a micro-orchard. I had room in my front yard for four trees to start. I’ve been studying mini or micro orchards for the last few months, and there seemed to be some common trends. Apples and pears were common, and given the variety available on stock, that made sense. Plums were popular, as were peaches. However, the truth is that any fruit would be appropriate, so long as it is available on dwarf root stock, and that variety is noted for your growing zone. This could include mulberries, cherries, olives, and even citrus.

Voedisch encouraged me to consider medlar and persimmon, both excellent ideas, but I was focused on peaches and pomegranates. He guided me to an Eldorado and Bonanza peach, both of which are available nationwide. I couldn't get over how small these peach trees were—less than three feet with roots, but full of branches and buds. I chose two pomegranates of the Hydranar x Goulosha variety, and was able to see what they’d look like grown up, as one was planted on site.  

The Hydranar x Goulosha pomegranate, full grown, only stands five feet or less tall. Credit: Amanda blum

When to prune fruit trees

In some videos, I’ve watched micro orchard gardeners march out of Home Depot with 8-foot fruit trees, and lop them to hip height in the parking lot to fit into their car and get started on the pruning. I appeared at One Green World with pruners, steeled to take this drastic step, but Voedisch encouraged patience. Particularly for stone fruit, spring is too wet for big cuts, he said. He suggested waiting for dry conditions this summer. 

Generally, plants are pruned while dormant, after fruiting or flowering. So the end of summer would be an appropriate time to prune your stone fruit and quince. For apples and pears, the appropriate time is fall or winter. Medlars get pruned in late winter or early spring.  While these are general rules, it’s always a good idea to check in with a local nursery for guidelines on when to prune, given local weather conditions any particular year. 

How to start prune fruit trees

Understanding how the nuances of pruning—particularly, the angle and location of the cut—affect tree growth will be the success of your orchard. As a general rule, never take more than a third of a plant or tree at once. In almost all cases for a micro orchard, your first cut is going to be to lop the plant at hip height, regardless of what is growing above that cut. You want cuts to be at 45 degrees, so the branch grows up out of that cut. Think of the cut like it is forming an elbow. 

Each cut creates branching, with new branches forming from the nearest growth point (spur) on the branch you cut. By cutting the main trunk of your tree, you’ll force the tree to form branches at that junction, which will grow horizontally, not vertically, and they will each grow more branches—and now the fruit that grows on those branches will be much lower to the ground. 

How to prune fruit trees over the long term

After the initial lopping, successive years will be about helping your fruit tree maintain its shape and balance. You always want the center of the tree to be open and airy, allowing air flow, sunlight, and pollinators to move through. There’s a greater likelihood of illness when trees or plants have a lot of leaves or branches in crammed quarters, and the less fruit you produce, the bigger and tastier that fruit should be anyway.

The first cuts each year should be to remove any branches that are directed inward, rather than outward. All the branches should be moving up and away from the center. Next, you’ll want to consider branches that cross other branches, which should be removed. Any small, dead branches should be cut away. Finally, on each tree, you want to establish three to four strong lead branches (leaders) that leave the tree balanced, with that big airy center. There are excellent videos on how to prune using this method. During the first few years, you’ll want to limit your fruit by plucking blossoms from the tree (so they can’t develop fruit), so the tree has time to develop strong roots and branches.

Concerns about micro orchards

There are some concerns about keeping trees this small, and they should affect where you plant and how you maintain your micro orchard. Dwarf stock often doesn’t have the same disease resistance as taller or regular stock. This can be negated somewhat by staying on top of spraying your trees with the appropriate treatments for your area. In the wet northwest, we treat stone fruit with copper to prevent leaf curl and other diseases, and this is made much easier by keeping the plants small. Another problem is that the roots will not be as deep and this will affect the stability of the tree. Micro orchards shouldn’t be used as wind shields in your yard, and you should consider staking the trees for stability. You’ll want to be diligent during pruning about maintaining balance in your trees to help with this problem.

Good luck, trees. Credit: Amanda Blum

On Saturday, I dug holes roughly three times the width and depth of the tree roots and plunked my new mini trees into the front yard. These trees are so small they won't need that initial hip height cut, but next year, I'll be pruning them to keep them petite and, hopefully, in two years, I'll be harvesting fruit from them.