Home grown fresh fruit is one of the greatest pleasures a gardener can experience. A fruit orchard is not for every gardener. Time, labor and money are needed to produce those tasty fruit that everyone loves.
First, there is the selection of the fruit. Of all the tree fruits, apples and peaches are the best adapted to Oklahoma conditions. Other fruit trees can be expected to bear fruit in Oklahoma, such as apricot, cherry, pear and plum; however, there are more problems with these fruits. The variety of fruit is also important because not all varieties do well in Oklahoma.
If more than one fruit tree is desired, homeowner must check how many square feet is needed for each tree. If space is limited, most fruit can be grown in containers. The trees require well-drained soils with plenty of air circulation to prevent frost damage.
Avoid poorly drained areas. Deep, sandy loam soils, ranging from sandy clay loams to coarse sands or gravel mixtures, are good fruit tree soils. On heavier soils, plant in raised beds or on soil berms to improve drainage.
Fruit trees need full sunlight for best production. Inadequate sunlight delays the beginning of fruit bearing and may reduce the amount of fruit on a tree.
Pay close attention to the pollination requirements of the different fruits to avoid disappointment. Many fruits require that the flower is pollinated with pollen from a different cultivar of the same fruit. Planting only one cultivar of these fruits often results in masses of blooms in the spring, but few or no fruits. Different strains of the same cultivar will not provide proper cross¬pollination.
After planting come the pruning. Pruning and training are two of the more important growing practices for managing fruit trees. The most important reason is to thin out branches to allow light to penetrate throughout the tree. Pruning should take place each year to keep growth in check. Each fruit tree requires a different pruning shape so the gardener has to know what is required of each variety of fruit tree. There are numerous books and literature available to help homeowners prune.
Production of fruit for personal consumption allows the homeowner to decide how much cosmetic damage are they willing to accept. With the proper selection of well adapted varieties that have good resistance to insect and disease problems, application of pesticides may be reduced to provide adequate control of pest numbers while preserving beneficial organisms. Homeowners wishing to use this modified approach of pest management should understand that closer observation and monitoring will be required and some tolerance for lower quality fruit may be inevitable. Each grower should ask “What is my goal: to produce blemish-free perfect fruit, or to provide my family with an edible and safe product for consumption, canning, and preserving?” For those who desire the perfect fruit, pest control can account for 25 to 60 percent of the total cost of production.
Dwarfing rootstocks enable fruit trees to be grown in much smaller areas than standard sized trees. The term ‘dwarfing’ refers to a tree smaller than what is grown on seedling rootstocks, even if only 10 to 15 percent smaller. In general, semi vigorous rootstocks will produce a tree about 3/4 the size of a standard tree, semi dwarf about 1/2 sized, and fully dwarfing rootstocks produce trees 1/3 of standard size or smaller.
During the growing season, wind, insects and diseases will cause small fruit to fall. During heavy set of the fruit, fruit fall is a good thing because it thins the fruit enough that the tree will have enough energy to fill all the fruit. However, this can create a mess that should be cleaned up periodically.
Usually, the fruit will ripen in a two weeks period so harvest usually is an everyday job.
Jim Coe lives in Lawton.
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