Tree spacing distances.

[pigsinpingle]

Hi all,

I have just received my first six trees from Deacons on M26 rootstock,
would a 10' spacing between trees be sufficient or should it be around
13'?

I want to plant the trees tomorrow . Maybe I could post some info on
your new site about my new mini orchard Stephen?

Cheers

Glenn

[jez....@btinternet.com]

Glenn,

I went for 12' between trees - 6 in a row, MM106 for 3 of them and M26 in between each.

However, if they are all on M26 I would think your spacings are fine... subject to Mr Hayes disagreeing with me of course!

Jez

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

[Rich Anderson]

For a M26, I think more like 5 feet apart. Some of this depends on what kind
pruning plan you use and the vigor of the soil and tree; some varieties have
a hard time filling a 5' space others can be very domineering. What you are
looking for is good sun penetration on two sides. Your commercial bush
orchards are a good example of this although I think they are on a larger
rootstock perhaps M111?. M26 is bit larger than a M9 but both are considered
dwarf rootstocks. My own small orchard was planted 5' apart with 12' alleys
on a mix of M9 and M26 rootstocks and for the most part it works well.

[Stephen Hayes]

Great stuff Glenn

Tree spacing is one of the hardest decisions to make. All I will say is that
I have got it wrong more than once and needed to remove alternate trees as
trees which had seemd plenty far enough aparts at planting were now
impossibly crowded at maturity. I beleive Andrew had to grub out some of his
trees for teh same reason, and Raymond Bush, one of my greatests
insipational writers, wrote of this problem. I recently restored a neglected
garden orchard where the main thing that needed doing was removing half of
the trees, having said that they were barely 6 feet apart.

the following statements, I am sure are true

-If you have plenty of space, farther apart is better. Easier to mow
between, better air circulation, better light penetration, less likely to
grow into each other, easier to prune and spray.

-Modern orchards generally consist of more smaller trees closer
together-this leads to all sorts of management problems BUT gives a heavier
crop quicker. If you plant more trees closer together, you will reach the
maximum number of fruit buds the area can support sooner, remembering that
it the end it is all about fruit buds.

-trees growing into each other is a pain

-trees grow bigger and faster in better soil

I think 10 feet apart will probably be fine, but if you have space I would
go for 12 feet

I would be keen as I said to put up 6 pictures and a bit of text of anyones
fruit tree plantation in the 'other people's orchards' section of my
reconstructing web site, but having said this, why not blog your own
orchard? Blogging for those who haven't tried is SO easy. just go to
Blogger, sign in, and load up-its free, quick, easy and the beauty of it is
we can link to each other's orchard and cider weblogs and make a web ring,
which is already happening. So why not blog your new orchard, from the very
start of breaking the ground? A lot more people are wanting to plant a
little backyard orchard and sharing our experiences can help them.

regards

Stephen

----- Original Message -----
From: "pigsinpingle" <glenn.s...@btinternet.com>
To: "Cider Workshop" <cider-w...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 24, 2009 10:03 PM
Subject: [Cider Workshop] Tree spacing distances.


>

[pigsinpingle]

Thank you.

I have worked out that I can get 16 trees within the site spaced 12
foot apart. Unfortunately I cannot plant a Quincunx arrangement, that
would look great and aid management but I would need to lose a couple
of trees.

I will loook into starting a blog, I'm not that hot with computers,
much rather be pressing apples, so it could take some time to
'launch' I will take pics from pre plant onwards.

Stephen, let me know when my four trees are ready for re planting from
your orchard to mine.

Glenn