What a year with a fruit tree looks like

Late winter is pruning season: an hour per tree with hand pruners while the branches are bare and the structure is easy to read. Early spring is for planting and, if you graft, for joining wood. Summer is watering, pinching back the shoots you do not want and thinning the young fruit so the branches do not snap. Fall is picking, raking up dropped fruit and checking the trunk guard before the rabbits get hungry. For the first three years you are building a framework of branches, not a crop.

Two rows of young apple trees tied to tall wooden posts, their trunks wrapped in white guards, with a mown grass alley between them — Young apple trees staked in rows, trunks in guards

Four ways into the orchard

Apple growingThe classic backyard tree, with hundreds of varieties and rootstocks that hold a tree to 8 feet. Apples need a pollination partner and draw more insect pests than most fruit.

Start here

Pick two disease-resistant varieties that bloom at the same time, because most apples need a second variety nearby to set fruit. Order both on dwarf rootstock for planting 8 feet apart.

University of Minnesota Extension: Growing apples in the home garden

Fig growingThe easiest fruit tree to keep alive, with no spraying and no pollination partner. North of zone 7 the top needs wrapping each winter.

Start here

Find the warmest spot you have, ideally against a south-facing wall, and plant one cold-hardy, self-fruitful variety there after your last frost.

Clemson Home and Garden Information Center: Fig

Nut tree growingHazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and pecans, usually planted as small seedlings. They ask for less pruning and more patience and space.

Start here

Measure your space first. Two hazelnut bushes fit in a 15 foot strip and bear in about 4 years, so start there unless you have room for a 40 foot chestnut or walnut.

Northern Nut Growers Association

GraftingJoining a cutting of one variety onto another tree, which is how every named fruit tree is made. It lets you add a second variety to a tree you already have for the cost of a roll of tape.

Start here

In late winter, cut a few pencil-thick shoots of last year's growth from an apple tree you like and bag them damp in the fridge. Practice the whip-and-tongue cut on spare prunings until the two faces sit flat, then graft onto a matching branch of your own tree as its buds swell.

UNH Extension: Grafting Fruit Trees in the Home Orchard

Open a card for the first thing to do. Its button adds that route's gear to the kit at the bottom of the page. The routes stack, so switch on as many as you plan to grow.

Free guides for each route

Look up your zone first, free

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map Free ZIP code lookup for the zone every nursery tag refers to

What you can get done in your first month

A planted whip

One bare-root tree in the ground at the right depth, watered in and guarded against rabbits.

The heading cut

The single cut at about 30 inches that decides where the tree's main branches will form.

A mulch ring

A 3 foot circle of wood chips that holds water and keeps the mower away from the trunk.

Your first trained branches

New side shoots held out at a wide angle with clothespins while they are still soft.

A practice graft

A whip-and-tongue joint cut and wrapped on two spare prunings, if you take the Grafting route.

How to choose a tree

Rootstock sets the size

The roots, not the variety, decide how big the tree gets. Dwarf trees reach 8 to 10 feet and fruit in 2 to 3 years. Semi-dwarf trees reach 12 to 16 feet and take a year or two longer.

Bare-root beats potted

A dormant bare-root tree costs less, ships easily and establishes faster than a potted one that has circled its roots. It is only sold from winter to early spring.

Match chill hours

Each variety needs a set number of winter hours below 45 degrees F to bloom. The nursery listing gives the number, and your county extension office knows what your area gets.

Check pollination

Most apples, pears, sweet cherries and Japanese plums need a different variety blooming nearby. Peaches, sour cherries, figs and most European plums fruit alone.

Buy resistance

Variety tags list resistance to scab, fire blight and other diseases. Choosing a resistant variety removes most of the spraying before you start.

Smaller is better

A 3 to 4 foot unbranched whip outgrows a larger tree within two seasons and lets you place every branch yourself.

Pick a form

Apples and pears are usually trained to a central leader, one upright trunk with tiers of side branches. Peaches and plums are trained to an open center, a bowl of 3 or 4 main branches with no trunk above them.

Thinning cut or heading cut

Removing a branch at its base opens the tree to light without triggering regrowth. Shortening a branch makes it bush out below the cut. Knowing which one you are making is most of pruning.

Spread the branches

A branch held at 45 to 60 degrees from the trunk grows more slowly, fruits sooner and carries weight without splitting. Clothespins do the job on soft first-year shoots.

Prune in late winter, tidy in summer

Winter cuts spur growth, and summer cuts slow it down. Use summer to remove upright water sprouts and keep the tree at picking height.

Thin the fruit

Once the tree bears, thin clusters to one fruit every 6 inches in early summer. The remaining fruit grows larger and the tree does not skip the next year.

Keep blades sharp and clean

A dull blade crushes bark. Wipe the blades with rubbing alcohol between trees so disease does not travel with you.

What trips beginners up

Expect to wait

The first two summers look like nothing is happening, because the growth is underground. Dwarf trees fruit in year 2 or 3, standard trees and most nut trees in year 5 or later.

Expect losses to wildlife

Rabbits and voles chew bark under snow, and squirrels and birds take fruit. A trunk guard does nothing against deer, which need fencing well beyond this kit.

Expect an off year

A late frost on open blossom can take the whole crop, and the tree is fine.

Planting too deep

Burying the graft union lets the variety root on its own, and a dwarf tree becomes a 25 foot one.

Feeding the hole

Compost and fertilizer in the planting hole keep roots circling in the rich spot. Plain native soil sends them outward.

Skipping the first cut

Leaving a new whip unpruned feels kind and produces a tall tree with its first branch above your head.

Watering little and often

A daily sprinkle keeps roots at the surface. One slow, deep soak a week draws them down.

Before you dig, cut or spray

Calling 811 before digging is the law in every US state, and it is free. Keep young trees pruned to a height you can reach from the ground: most serious orchard injuries are falls from ladders. Dormant oil is one of the mildest sprays there is, but the label is still the rule for how much to mix, what to wear and what temperature to spray at. If you move scion wood or trees across state lines, check your state's plant quarantine list first, since some areas restrict stone fruit and nut wood to stop the spread of disease.

Get your lines marked, free

Call 811 Free utility marking, required before digging in every US state

A cluster of red apples hanging from a leafy branch against a blue sky — Red apples ripening on a branch

Where to learn

Your state's Cooperative Extension service publishes free variety lists and spray calendars written for your climate, and many county offices run winter pruning workshops.
Local scion exchanges, held in late winter by fruit clubs, hand out cuttings of hundreds of varieties and teach grafting on the spot.
North American Fruit Explorers is the long-running club for amateur growers who test unusual varieties.
Tree care companies give away wood chips, and a chip delivery service will route a free load to your driveway.

Free places to start

The tree is the cheapest part and the only thing here that cannot be replaced later, so buy it from a fruit nursery that names the rootstock. Everything else exists to get it through the first three years: a shovel to plant it, pruners to shape it, and a guard and stake so it survives winter and wind. A watering bag makes the weekly soak hands-off. The saw and limb spreaders wait until there is real wood to work on. Mulch is missing on purpose, because arborist wood chips are free and better than anything bagged.

Fill the orchard crate

The first line, the tree itself, is not something you buy online, so it has no products under it. For the rest, compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the crate list. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The apple, fig, nut and grafting lines stay out of the kit until you switch that add-on on.

Bare-root fruit tree on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock

Essential · The tree

The tree is the hobby. A dormant bare-root whip on a named rootstock is the cheapest way to buy one and the easiest to train from the first cut.

Not sold on Amazon · order from a fruit nursery

Not sold on Amazon. Order in winter from a mail-order fruit nursery or a local nursery that lists both the variety and the rootstock on the tag. Look for a 3 to 4 foot whip rated for your hardiness zone. Expect to pay $30 to $60 per tree.

Round-point digging shovel

Essential · Planting

A planting hole is 2 to 3 feet wide and cut through sod. The pointed blade breaks ground a flat spade or a trowel cannot.

budget

Round Digging Shovel Garden Shovels Spade 58 inches for Gardening

4.6(32)

$34.19

Fruit Tree Growing

What a year with a fruit tree looks like

Four ways into the orchard

Plant your first tree

How to choose a tree

Training: the skills that shape the tree

What trips beginners up

Before you dig, cut or spray

Where to learn

Why the kit looks like this

Fill the orchard crate

Bare-root fruit tree on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock

Round-point digging shovel

Bypass hand pruners

Tree trunk guard

Tree stake and tie kit

Slow-release tree watering bag

Dormant horticultural oil spray

Fruit protection bags

Codling moth trap

Burlap for winter wrapping

Bird netting

Tree shelter tubes

Grafting knife

Grafting tape

Folding pruning saw

Limb spreaders