Planting a new orchard

[Newtothis]

Hi, I'm very new to gardening and getting ready to plant a new orchard. I ordered several trees from Stark Bro's that should be here any day. All of the trees that I ordered are dwarfs except one semi-dwarf. This is causing me to question the layout of the orchard. Where should I plant the semi? I don't want it to shade and stunt the dwarfs. Any help/advice would be more than appreciated. Thank you

 

[Smart Red]

You will want to keep like fruits closer together -- that is all the apple trees are adjacent. Start with placing the semi-dwarf. Then plant the other like fruits -- properly spaced, but with no other trees between them.

I have all dwarfs. They are arranged like this.

plum- - - -pl- - - -apple- - - - ap- - - -persimmon

pl- - - peach- - - pe- - - ap- - - ap

pl- - - pe - - - - pe- - - ap- - - ap

apricot- - - cherry- - ch- - - pr- - pr*pear

apr- - - apr- - - ch - - - pr - - - pr

I also have all the pit fruits near each other and the pip fruits (apple and pear) close. The American persimmon is not a dwarf so it is north of the orchard where it shouldn't shade the other trees.

My first orchard was semi-dwarfs (also from Starks). They did well and gave a lot of fruit, but IMHO grew way too big for easy harvesting while I was otherwise busy with life. Now I am hoping to find a relative who will severely prune them back this year.

 

[baymule]

Welcome to TEG!!!!