Grow Fruit in your Backyard!

The growing season is in full swing here in the Northeast and you may be totally obsessed with growing vegetables, but if you have a little extra space in your garden you can also grow some fruit! You don’t need a huge amount of space. I have a blackberry bush and a grape vine growing in a space that is about 3 feet by 15 feet. I also have a dwarf apple tree growing in the front garden.

Here are some tips for growing fruit in your backyard:

1. Choose a variety suited to your area (check the growing zone recommendation as well as the cold tolerance of that variety if you’re in the Northeast).
2. Consider overhead wires and pathways before planting. You don’t want your new tree to get tangled up in overhead cables or grow into walkways. If the tree will grow 8-10 feet tall x 8-10 feet wide, plant it at least 5 feet away from a walkway.
3. Look for a self-pollinating variety, a variety that will flower and set fruit without needing a second plant to cross pollinate. This will help conserve space.

Apples:

There are a ton of dwarf varieties to choose from. If you have cedar, hawthorn, or juniper trees nearby be aware that your apple trees may be bothered by fungal infections (otherwise known as “rusts”) that originate on these trees. You can spray them with fungicides on a schedule or opt not to grow them at all. Frankly, I see evidence of cedar apple rust on my tree each year but it has never been severe and it has not affected the fruit, so I don’t spray my tree.

Another important part of growing an apple tree is pruning. It’s important to start shaping the tree when it’s young. I have a small garden so it was important for me to keep the tree compact instead of letting it splay out. For this reason, I chose a leader (AKA a main branch in the center of the tree to “lead” the tree upwards) and each winter I prune the tree lightly. I am definitely no pruning expert, but there is a ton of information online like this apple growing guide from Stark Bros and I also refer to books like Fruit for Every Garden and The Fruit Gardener’s Bible. One of my favorite things about pruning trees is finding praying mantis egg cases on the branches. I leave those branches near the tree to honor the praying mantis mama that chose that location; she had her reasons to put it there.

My last tip about apple trees is: don’t forget the water! I have come to realize that apple trees need constant water. My apple tree is surrounded by native plants that I never water so for the first few years I didn’t water it regularly and I didn’t get many apples. Last year, I got just one apple and the FedEx guy laughed at me! This year, I got smart and started using a large wine bottle to keep the tree watered. I simply dug a small hole at an angle about a foot away from the trunk and I placed the wine bottle (filled with water) in the hole. The butt of the bottle sticks up and the water trickles down slowly. This buys me time between watering. So far so good, this year I have about 20 apples growing!

Blackberries:

Apache and Arapaho varieties are thornless and produce lots of large, juicy berries. I have an Apache blackberry bush in my backyard and I have noticed that it does tend to want to spread. I used two large bendable metal panels that I had laying around to enclose the plant and keep the branches up. If you let the branches run along the ground, they will root everywhere and produce more plants. This can be great if you have a large space to fill, but I don’t so I’ve been strict with this berry plant. On the plus side, this propensity to root means you can take cuttings and easily grow more plants.

Grapes:

There are several grapes native to North America. Cultivars derived from Vitis labrusca are popular in the Northeast because they are cold hardy and more disease-resistant than other types. Some of these include: Concord, Niagara, and Reliance. I have ‘Reliance’ growing in my backyard and it is growing like a beast. I knew that grapevines could get really long, like 10-15 feet long, but I figured I would trellis them and trim them and keep them contained. I was wrong and I realize now that I need a larger support system for them. I originally supported the grape vine with three T-posts and some coated wire. I placed the T-posts in a kind of a triangle shape and placed the young grape plant in front of the middle post. That way, I could train the vines up and to each side as they grew. This worked great for the first few years; the vines never grew more than 6 feet on each side until this year. The vines are currently about 10 feet long on each side (and growing!). In early spring, I will to prune the vines down, so a long unruly vine is not the end of the world. There are several ways to train grapes and prune grapes. I use the methods mentioned in this guide from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chemung County, NY. One thing to take note of with grapes is the age of the grape plant because pruning techniques will be different each year for the first 4 years.

Some other great fruit to grow that I haven’t tried yet:

Raspberries:

Rubus occidentalis is native to Eastern North America and produces red and black berries. There is a popular variety called ‘Heritage’ that grows up to 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and produces fruit in summer and fall. This variety is thorny but the delicious fruit is worth it and it is a native species, so it is extra beneficial to bees and other wildlife.

Blueberries:

Blueberries are native to North America and there are several varieties to choose from. The main distinction between blueberry plants are that some are high bush (grow up to 6-12 feet tall) and some are lowbush (grow up to 2 feet tall). Blueberries need acidic soil and the blooms need to be removed the first year to encourage root growth and establishment. Here is a great guide on pruning high bush blueberries and here is a guide for growing low bush blueberries.

Cherries:

Cherry trees are usually very large but luckily there are dwarf and mini-dwarf varieties that bring the size down to a more manageable height. The Stella Dwarf Cherry tree reaches a height and width of 10-12 feet and the Romeo Dwarf Cherry tree grows 6-8 feet tall and wide, and is a great choice for a small space. These dwarf varieties produce large cherries, are cold tolerant, and the best thing is that they are self pollinating, meaning you only need one plant in order to produce fruit.

Peaches and Nectarines:

When I think of peach trees, I think of Southern states but did you know there are some dwarf varieties perfectly suited to the Northeast? The Dwarf Elberta Peach grows 8-10 feet tall and wide, is self pollinating, and grows in zones 5-9. Same thing goes for nectarines. There are several dwarf varieties like the Dwarf Hardired that grows 8-10 feet tall and wide. Here is some information about growing peaches and nectarines as well as a list of recommended varieties for the Northeast. Simply search for the variety name + dwarf to find varieties that match the size and cold tolerance you need.

There are dwarf varieties of other fruit like plums and pears but I didn’t include them in my list because most are not self-pollinating and they require more than one plant to produce fruit which can be a problem in small spaces.

Things to keep in mind:

Some fruit like blueberries have specific soil PH needs. It is possible to grow blueberries in any kind of soil but you won’t get flowers or fruit if the PH is not right.

Keep the watering consistent. If you know you won’t be able to water every day, use the wine bottle method mentioned above to water the tree through the week. Refill the bottle more often in the summer.

Fruit trees and shrubs usually need to be fertilized each year. I don’t go crazy looking for specific fertilizer ratios, I prefer to use organic fruit tree fertilizer spikes like these. I put in 1-2 spikes (way less than the package recommends) near each fruit bearing plant and that seems to be enough.

Finally, be patient. Fruit plants take years to start producing but it’s well worth the wait! I planted my apple tree 5 years ago. It was probably about a year old when I bought it and this is the first year that I’m getting more than 1 apple. So it has taken 6 years for this apple tree to produce. My blackberries have taken about 2-3 years to start producing. Don’t be discouraged. Just keep watering, pruning and fertilizing, and there will be a sweet reward in the future.