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New Orchard


 
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Dauntless



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 174
Location: Mesa, AZ

PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:37 am    Post subject: New Orchard Reply with quote

I planted a small orchard a couple of months ago that consists of the following trees: peach, nectarine, cherry, pecan, mulberry, fig, mangoes, white sapote, an orange tree, plum, pluot, apricot and apple. So far, I have wells around them, hand water 2X a week, have painted the trunks, mulched every tree with compost and have put shade cloth on the west side of all of the trees except the mulberry and fig.
My questions are, is watering 2X a week the right interval for these young trees? Do, I need to fertilize them at this young age?
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phoenixtropicals
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Joined: 06 May 2008
Posts: 1207
Location: Mesa Arizona

PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2011 8:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. Sound like a great garden. Twice a week is good for this time of year. Although we are transitioning into the hotter weather so you'll want to keep an eye on your plants and throw in an extra watering when it gets near 100. As soon as the weather starts getting over 100 regularly you'll want to to go an every other day schedule.

The citrus should be getting less frequent water than the rest. I'm still only watering my citrus every two weeks right now, but they are established. A new tree like yours should probably need it once a week this time of year. Also, when it gets hot, I recommed once a week in the summer too, but since yours is new, you might want to give it a little extra when things get really bad.

It's better not to fertilize them when they are young. I think you shouldn't fertilize anything until summer is over, late October. Then follow the recommendations on the web site for each plant.

You can follow the peach recommendations for all the deciduous plants.
White sapotes do best with no fertilizer. Mangoes with fish emulsion.
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Dauntless



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 174
Location: Mesa, AZ

PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2011 8:47 am    Post subject: Thanks Reply with quote

It sounds like I have been on the right track with most of the trees but need to back off on the citrus. It's only been in a couple of weeks so, I haven't over watered it for very long.

Good to know that they can pretty much all (except the tropicals) be treated the same. I had seen the recommendations for peach trees but wasn't sure if it was exactly the same for them all.

This is located in my horse's old turn out and stall area so the soil is pretty rich in some areas even though I dug out some of it and tried to flush the soil before planting. Hopefully, I won't lose anything to burn. So far so good for all except one of the cherry trees.

This is my experiment with an altered backyard orchard culture type of planting. The trees are planted in hedgerows (except for the pecan and tropicals and mulberry) and they will be maintained at 9'X9' each. Then too, I bought 2 to 4 of each type of tree (cherry, apple etc) in different varieties. This is supposed to help with pollination and lengthen the time that we will have each type of fruit. For example, I planted 3 peach trees, Red Baron, Tropic Snow and Desert Gold. They all ripen at a little different times so, we could have peaches over a longer period.

Now, if I can just not kill everything and figure out a way to protect the fruit from the birds so that we can actually get some of it I'll be happy.
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phoenixtropicals
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Joined: 06 May 2008
Posts: 1207
Location: Mesa Arizona

PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2011 11:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds good. I think you'll have trouble keeping a mulberry at 9 feet though, unless its a dwarf. Do you have any photos you can post of your orchard? I'm really curious on the low chill cherries. Those are still on my list to plant. I grew up in Albuquerque, a much cooler climate than here, and we had a bing cherry tree in our yard, and it was awesomely good every year.
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Dauntless



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 174
Location: Mesa, AZ

PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2011 7:48 am    Post subject: orchard Reply with quote

The mulberry is a Weeping Teas and will get about 12' tall. That one as well as some others like a Panache Fig and a Western Schley Pecan are not in the hedgerows. So, they can get bigger.

The hedgerows consist of stone fruits, a couple of apple trees and 3 of 4 of the cherry trees. There are 19 trees planted in hedgerows.

I have a Minnie Royal that is not in a hedgerow and will be allowed to get bigger because it will shade a chicken coop. That is if it makes it. It was planted where a horse pen used to be and it has a case of salt burn that I have been trying to over come. If it doesn't make it, I'll dig it out even more and flush, flush flush before I replant.

As for the cherry trees, I also have a dwarf Stella and a dwarf Lapins that I am experimenting with. I have my fingers crossed that I get some cherries because I love them.
Datropicalman's look great. Of course, lots of his stuff looks really good.

Right now, my orchard does look funny because I have shade cloth structures all over the place. I'll see if I can get any descent shots.
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ajbcirc



Joined: 13 Apr 2011
Posts: 97

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2011 10:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Love to see pics.
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