Miniature Fruit Trees Allow To Grow Your Own Fruit In A Small Backyard
Miniature fruit trees are available at your local nursery for those who only have a small backyard to allow trees to grow.
You can grow apple and pear miniature fruit trees and eat the delicious fruit hanging off the tree as soon as they ripen.
Miniature fruit trees can be placed near a small garden. This small garden can contain herbs and vegetables and use the product in your salads and side dishes to feed your family. The fresh greens in your garden will help cut down your weekly shopping bill, and you will know its a reward of your own efforts in your gardening.
Gardening is an activity that many people enjoy engaging in. It is not only relaxing but it’s rewarding too.
It’s wonderful to step back and take a look at your yard after you’ve spent hours planting and primping. Many individuals who are avid gardeners have only limited space available for planting trees and shrubs.
They may want to try growing an apple or pear tree only to find that the estimated size of the mature tree just won’t fit comfortably in their small yard. There is a solution for them and that’s to grow miniature fruit trees that yield delicious fruit without taking up too much room.
Large range of miniature fruit trees available as seedlings or bigger
Most of us also eat peaches and pears from far off places. You can actually grow your own fruit, but on a much smaller scale, if you have some miniature fruit trees in your yard.
If you already have a green thumb you’ll find it easy to help nurture these plants so they grow. You can buy them as seedlings or when they are a bit bigger.
If you aren’t terribly anxious about the fruit, consider buying miniature fruit trees as seedlings. They are usually less expensive and if you enjoy nurturing your trees along, this will afford you that opportunity.
In The Hotter Climes can Grow your own Lemon Tree and Banana Trees
The type that you buy will depend largely on the climate that you live in. Folks who live in a tropical paradise can plant virtually any type of miniature fruit trees including bananas and lemon trees.
Nectarines and peaches are best for colder climates
If you live when it snows, a dwarf apple tree is a much better choice. If the temperature where you live supports it, consider planting miniature fruit trees that produce peaches or nectarines.
These tangy fruits are delicious and you’ll love being able to walk out your door to pick a nice ripe one for a snack.
As with any tree, there are certain gardening tips musts that need to be followed. You’ve got to put some time into helping miniature fruit trees grow if you want them to remain healthy and produce delicious fruit.
Protect your miniature fruit tree with a small metal fence
If you have animals in your families, such as a dog or even an outdoor cat, consider putting a small metal fence around the miniature fruit trees. This will protect them from any harm and will allow them to hold their blossoms when the time comes.
The best fruit is fresh fruit and they are the most delicious. Remember your fruit is not covered in beeswax to make them shiny like a lot of the fruit at the supermarkets these days.
The natural taste just adds to the flavor and as long as you don’t spray or add chemical fertilizers or any chemicals to your fruit, then your product should be free from any chemical residues.
It’s best to eat chemical-free fruit, rather than fruit covered in insecticide and fungicides.
Chemical free fruit, simply taste delicious.
Fruit Trees To Pick Your Own Fresh Fruit
Fruit trees are quite popular to have in your backyard, especially miniature fruit trees that don’t take too much room.
You can place your miniature fruit trees, next to a small herb and vegetable garden and you will have your supply of fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs for your meals and salads.
When you buy your fruit and vegetables from the fruit market, you don’t know how long they have been in storage, refrigerated, what chemicals have been added to the fruit to make them grow faster.
If you grow your own fresh fruit and vegetables, you can pick your fresh fruit and vegetables whenever you need them. If you don’t use any chemicals, then your fruits and vegetables are chemical-free.
When I was a little girl, I didn’t see a lot of fruit trees other than ones that grew apples. This is because of where I live. We have short summers and very cold winters. This means that most types of trees will not survive here.
They may grow just fine, but they would never have the time to produce their fruit before the cold comes and kills the growth. However, that does not mean that there are not some fruits around that will survive, even if it means you have to move them into the house.
Some people do not want to have fruit trees growing in their home. They are large and need a lot of light and space. However, there are some miniature fruit trees that you can find in various places.
I remember a friend of my mother that had a few miniature orange trees in her house. I don’t know the proper name for them, but they were tiny and the fruit tasted great once they were ripe.
They needed sunlight and water, but they never got very big. That was not ideal for an outdoor plant but was perfect for something inside.
Apple Fruit Trees
If you live where oranges won’t grow, you still have options for other fruit trees. Apples are very common in the north, and there are all different types of apple that can be grown.
There are also pear trees. Most don’t think about growing pears for fruit trees, but you haven’t had a pear until you have had one fresh from the tree.
Ask for the Fruit Trees At Your Local Nursery
If you are looking for fruit trees, your local garden center should be able to help you find what you need. They can tell you what types of fruit trees most appropriate for your area, and how to care for them.
Some have special planting requirements, and others might need to be trimmed a certain number of times during the year. Just remember that though they are great to have, you do have to keep up with them.
If you have apples falling out in your yard, you will have to keep them picked up for mowing purposes. If you don’t mind the work, you can have your own supply of fresh fruit each fall.
Our family enjoys the fresh apples we get from our apple tree. We also have a miniature orange tree, but the oranges are quite small and only come out during a short season. But we always enjoy our fresh apples and oranges when they are available.
Our vegetable and herb garden seems to thrive during the summer, but in the cold dark winters, the soil is bare.
We grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans and some parsley in our garden. We always look forward to the summertime when we can have salads and side dishes with our products from our vegetable and herb garden.
In the last few years, we have planted a lemon tree and it has lemons all year round. Anytime we want to add some lemon to our soups, salads, or meats, we just pick a lemon from our lemon tree. Even our neighbors come and ask for some of our lemons.
TREE-FRUIT PEST MANAGEMENT
Monitoring is a way of assessing the presence of pests and the size of their population. It is a very useful part of integrated pest management. Various important tree-fruit insects can be monitored by the home gardener.
Visual traps, one type of monitoring tool, are available for some of the important tree-fruit pests. For example, both red sphere traps and yellow sticky-board traps are available to monitor the apple maggot fly. The visual traps can be used to find out when adult flies are active near the apple tree. Obviously, one must know what the adult apple maggot looks like to use these traps for monitoring the pest.
This type of monitoring will help in the development of specific pest management programs for the pest. In some cases, red sphere traps may be effective in controlling the apple maggot by trapping most of the females before they land on the real fruit and lay eggs. Synthetic apple volatile lures are now available, which greatly increase the efficiency of these sphere traps. The black cherry fruit fly, cherry fruit fly, and blueberry maggot fly emergence can also be monitored with the use of these traps. White rectangle traps are used to monitor the tarnished plant bug and European apple sawfly.
In addition to the visual traps, there are pheromone traps. Pheromones are chemicals produced by insects and released into the environment to influence the action and behavior of other insects. Sex pheromones in traps attract male insects, and the trap captures them. These traps are useful in determining the first emergence of males and also the peak flight times.
The placement of traps for any of these monitoring tools is critical.
Manufacturers should supply complete directions with the purchase of traps.
Apple
Fire blight: Most serious on highly susceptible varieties (Idared, Jonagold, Lodi, Mutsu, R.I. Greening, Paulared, Rome, Sir Prize, Spygold, 20-Ounce, York) and trees are grown on dwarfing rootstocks.
Practice plant sanitation, 3 cuts at least 6 in. below obvious signs of infection. On these varieties or where blight has been severe in the past apply a 2-6-l00 Bordeaux mix or a commercially prepared mix containing copper at bloom.
Powdery Mildew: Prune out infected terminals as they develop, improve air circulation.2 Add sulfur to the multipurpose spray if growing a highly susceptible variety (Baldwin, Cortland, Idared, Jonathan, Monroe, Paulared, Rome) or if mildew begins to develop. The time for mildew control is from tight cluster until shoot growth stops in midsummer. Early season sprays are particularly important, as are those during periods of warm, muggy weather. Sulfur may cause leaf injury when applied at temperatures above 80!F. Benomyl can be substituted during periods of warm weather for control of mildew and all other diseases except rust.
Rust Primarily a problem in locations where cedars (Juniperus spp.) grow. If rust has been a serious problem in previous years, substitute mancozeb for captain in all sprays applied from pink until 3 wk after petal fall. Eliminate red cedars (Juniperus spp.) in and around the orchard. Avoid highly susceptible varieties (Golden Delicious, Jonathan, Lodi, Prima, Rome, Summer, 20-Ounce, York) in regions where rust is prevalent.
Apple Scab
Clean up in autumn, improve air circulation, plant resistant varieties (Red free, Prima, Liberty, Freedom, Jonafree, Mac free, Sir Prize). Apply captan, mancozeb, according to schedule. Do not apply captan with or near an oil spray early in the season, for leaf injury may occur. The most critical time for fungicide applications to prevent scab infection is from a tight cluster (when flower buds first show the cluster) until about 3 weeks after petal fall. Additional sprays indicated in the spray schedule may be needed during wet seasons or if completely unblemished fruit is demanded by the gardener.
Sooty blotch & flyspeck Improve air circulation. During wet portions of the summer, apply the multipurpose spray as necessary every 2 wk after the fruit is formed until l month before harvest.
Aphids: Apply MP mixture at pink if l colony is found per l0 terminals. After bloom, malathion is needed.
Apple Maggot
Pick up all drops in late Aug. through Sept. 6. Use visual traps for monitoring and/or control of one or a few dwarf trees. Spray with MP mixture or carbaryl every l0 days, later June through Aug.
Codling moth: Band to trap. 5 Pick up all drops in late Aug. and Sept. Apply MP mixture in 2d, 3d, and 4th spray following petal fall.
European apple sawfly: Pick up all drops in early June. Apply MP mixture in petal fall if 6 adults are caught per whiteboard trap.
Plum curculio: Pick up all drops in early June. Jarring 4 is sometimes helpful. Apply MP mixture in petal fall plus last cover.
Redbanded leafroller: Apply MP mixture at petal fall, l0 days later, and late July if 2-3 larvae are found per tree.
Roundheaded appletree borer: Ring bottom l2-24 in of trunks with oviposition barriers 7 in May. Apply multipurpose sprays in mid-June and early July containing methoxychlor or diazinon. Remove by hand.
Cherry
Leaf spot: Clean up in autumn.1 Apply captan or sulfur every 7-10 days during wet weather between petal fall and harvest. If the disease has been severe, spray once after harvest in wet years.
Cherry maggot: Use visual traps for monitoring. Apply MP mixture l0 days, 20 days, and l month after bloom.
Plum curculio: See Peach, nectarine, & apricot.
Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot
Brown rot Clean up fallen fruit before and during harvest; remove and dispose of all unharvested fruit from trees during the dormant period. Apply captan to apricots during early bloom; apply to peaches and nectarines during early bloom only of the weather is above 60 degrees F and wet. Apply the MP spray according to the indicated schedule. The critical times to manage brown rot are the first 3 wk after petal fall and the last 3 wk before harvest.
Cytospora canker
- practice plant sanitation
- Prune between bloom and petal fall, improve air circulation
- Remove all weak or dead twigs during pruning; do not leave pruning stubs. Train new trees to promote wide angles between the major scaffold branches and the trunk. Promote winterhardiness: fertilize only early in the season, withhold water late in the season, and paint tree trunks with interior (water-based) white latex paint before winter. Remove old cankered peach trees before planting new peach trees.
Peach leaf curl (not apricots) lime sulfur, Bordeaux mix, or a commercially prepared dormant spray mix (containing copper) either in the fall after leaf drop or in the early spring BEFORE the buds swell. This is especially important if a regular fungicide program has not been followed during the summer.
Oriental fruit moth: Apply MP mixture in the last, 2d, 4th cover sprays following petal fall. Alternatively, plastic ties impregnated with sex pheromone are now available. They are hung in the trees after bloom to disrupt mating and prevent the production of the injurious larvae.
Plum curculio: Pick up all drops in early summer. Apply MP mixture at shuck split and l0 days later.
Pear
Fire blight: See Apple. Most common pear varieties, except for Seckel, are extremely susceptible to fire blight. Repeat sprays every 3-4 days throughout the bloom period if the weather remains above 65 degrees F and humid or rainy. Bordeaux mixture applied at green tip improves the efficiency of the blossom sprays and is recommended following years when fire blight was severe.
Scab & fabraea leaf spot: Clean up in autumn. Seldom a problem on Bartlett. Apply captan every 7-10 days from the time flower buds show in the cluster until 3 wk after petal fall. Additional summer sprays may be needed if the weather is rainy.
Aphids: Same as for apple.
Pear psylla: Apply oil at the dormant stage to disrupt egg laying as soon as adults are present and temperatures exceed 50 degrees F. Apply MP mixture at the white bud, at petal fall, and as needed.
Plum & Prune
Black knot: Practice plant sanitation3 before bud break; cut at least 8 in. below the knot. Then apply captan every 7-10 days from bloom until small fruit is formed. Repeated sprays of captain may injure Stanley plum; substitute benomyl during bloom if multiple captan sprays are planned.
Brown rot: See Peach, nectarine, & apricot.
Lecanium scale: Prune severely infested branches and discard. Apply dormant oil spray; insecticidal soap or MP spray for crawlers in mid-to-late July.
Plum curculio: Pick up all drops in early June. Apply MP mixture when shucks start to split, plus at last and 2d cover.
1) In the autumn or as leaves or fruit drop in the summer, rake and dispose of all fallen or diseased leaves and fruit.
2) Prune in early spring o thin the trees and allow air to circulate and fruit and leaves to dry quickly after rains.
3) When the trees are not wet, carefully remove and dispose of infected branches or fruit. Dip pruning shears in rubbing alcohol between cuts to disinfect them.
4) Jarring is a mechanical method of control. Results with this method vary. If a tree is suddenly jarred with a padded mallet, the plum curculio beetles loosen their hold, contract their legs, and fall to the ground. Jarring should be done in the early morning. Place sheets on the ground to collect the beetles and then destroy them.
NOTE: Young trees can be severely damaged if hit too hard.
5) To create a substitute location for the codling moth larvae to spin their cocoons and pupate, band the tree trunks and large branches by tying 6-in. strips of burlap or cardboard around them. Check in the fall for larvae and kill those you find.
6) Picking and destroying fallen apples at weekly intervals from early Aug. through harvest destroys the larvae within the fruit and reduces pot the initial for maggot injury the following year. This is most practical where trees are isolated and wild or abandoned trees are not nearby.
7) Oviposition barriers may be wire mosquito netting, hardware cloth, or several layers of newspaper. Barriers should be loose except at the bottom (cover with soil) and top (tie with cord). Remove barriers at end of the season (Oct.)
8) Borers can be removed from trees with a knife and a piece of wire with a hooked tip. Clear litter away from a base of the tree to help locate borers. Young borers can usually be cut out; older ones can be probed for with a wire. Cut carefully, taking care not to remove any more wood than necessary. If cut carefully, wounds usually heal without noticeable injury to the tree. Keeping trees healthy and vigorous by proper cultivation, fertilization, pest control, and watering will help the infested trees overcome the effects of borer injury.
