Thursday, September 8, 2011

Future Orchard

When we eventually own more land, I'd like an orchard. The following varieties are all from the Stark Brothers website, which is a fruit and nut tree nursery in Missouri. Before we actually plant the trees, I need to research how much fruit one tree produces. I plan on preserving a lot of it. Maybe Mom and Dad will chime in on how many blackberry canes I should start with? (Hint Hint leave a comment!)
 
Fruit trees:
Apple Trees (Granny Smith x 1, Starkrimson Red Delicious x1)
Cherry Trees (Blackgold Sweet Cherry x 1, Balaton Pie Cherry x 1)
Persimmon (Prok American Persimmon x 1)
Peach (Contender x1,  Reliance x 1)

Other fruit:
Raspberries (Heritage, Jaclyn Primocane)
Grapes (Reliance Seedless, Marquis seedless - for fresh eating, Concord for juice/jelly)

Blueberries (Northcountry x 1, Northblue x 1)
Blackberries (Arapaho Erect Thornless, Natchez Thornless)
Strawberries (June-bearing variety)

Nut trees:
Pecan (Hardy Pecan x 1, Stark Surecrop Pecan x 1)
Almond (Hall's Hardy Almond x 1)

Dreaming:
Chicago Hardy Fig x 2
Key Lime, for the greenhouse (assuming we build another greenhouse once we move, or at least have a sunroom on the house)
Meyer Lemon, for the greenhouse

I'm trying to figure out how much land we need. Assuming 15' x 15' to 30' x 30' for each tree (10 trees): 2250 sq. ft. to 9000 sq. ft. required just for trees. Probably need to lean toward the higher number so we can walk between the trees easier, and so we can mow under them...

Blackberries and Raspberries need about 4'x4' per plant. The blackberry varieties I picked from Stark Brothers come in packs of 6, so about 200 sq. ft. for blackberries (12 plants). The raspberries come in 3 packs, so about 100 sq. ft. for raspberries. I'll probably order 6 of each variety though, to have the same row length as blackberries, so bump that up to 200 sq. ft.

Blueberries need about 5' x 5' per plant, so 25 sq. ft. for 2 plants is 50 sq. ft.

Grapes spread about 5' per plant, and I'd like at least 4 vines of each variety, so 60 linear feet of grapes, with beds about 2' wide, so 120 sq. ft.

Strawberries need about 1' x 1' per plant, and I'd like a lot of them. Most strawberries are sold in packs of 25, so 25 sq. ft.

Total desired: 9000 + 200 + 200 +50 + 120 +25 = about 9600 sq ft, not including the aisles between the non-tree fruit.


I think the orchard plus the garden would need about 1/3 of an acre.

The Hubs figures we'll devote at least an acre to the orchard and garden. And the two goats. and chickens.





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