Growing Dwarf Fruit Trees and Nut Trees
(Page 2 of 5)
March/April 1986
By Robert Kourik
THE FUTURE OF DWARFED FRUIT TREES
RELATED CONTENT
A HANDCRAFTED, NUTS-AND-BOLTS November/December 1985 CHESS SET If there's a chess player on your Ch...
Dwarf Fruit Trees October/November 1996 Issue # 158 - October/November 1996 Fruit trees don't grow ...
With its 2010 calendar filled with garden recipes and vibrant photos, the Seed Savers Exchange deli...
Whether you purchase trees and shrubs from a local nursery or from a mail-order company, this exper...
Miniature fruit trees are the wave of the future. At the 1980 North American Fruit Explorers conference at Stark Brothers Nursery, Paul Stark Jr. stated that he sees the miniature tree as the predominant commercial tree in the years to come. (When the company responsible for introducing the nectarine as a major crop says something like that, I listen!)
THE VIRTUES OF DWARF TREES:
Early Bearing
Miniature trees fruit earlier than do standard varieties. Flowering the year of planting is common. In fruit tree talk, miniatures are "precocious."
High Yields
Miniatures produce an amazing density of bloom, which is just a preview of the fruit to come. The yields of miniature peach trees are being tested at the Kearney station of the University of California Cooperative Extension. And, so far, the results are astounding.
With trees four feet apart in the row, the yield per acre was a fantastic 13.4 tons in the first year. Standard peaches don't produce comparable yields until the fifth or sixth year (the average yield for mature standard peaches is 10 to 15 tons per acre). Of course, you probably won't be planting an acre or needing 26,800 pounds of fruit, but the yield per tree ranged from 14 to 17 pounds! In the sixth season after planting, the per-tree yield was 37 to 120 pounds per tree (or 168 tons per acre)!
The high yields are due in part to the high number of trees that can be planted in a given area and in part to their more efficient use of sunlight. The shorter internodes allow for a greater fruit density per volume of canopy.
In these trials, the fruit averaged between 2.75 and 3 inches in diameter. The researchers state, "Clearly, the gene that dwarfs tree stature does not adversely affect fruit size." Though I find genetic peaches to be on the small end of the peach spectrum, the catalogs always list "full-size" or "large." Two more of life's relative terms!
Another advantage of the dwarfing effect is an abundance of flower. While standard peach trees need yearly pruning to encourage flower bud formation, almost every bud on the new growth of miniature trees is a flower bud. Each spring the branches are laden with bloom. No pruning is required to stimulate flower and fruit production.
To borrow an expression, "The future belongs to the efficient," and miniature trees insure an efficient future.
Page:
<< Previous 1 | 2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Next >>
