We did some research on this when we were first drawing our future orchard.
If you use dwarf fruit trees, you can plant them closer together, and therefore plant more trees in the same space.
However when viewed in a square-foot context an orchard of dwarf trees will produce 60% of the fruit harvest that you would get from full-sized fruit trees. So for planting, watering, and pruning more trees you get less harvest.
We decided to go with full-sized trees. Granted you end up planting less trees, but your harvest is much more.
First we planted 16 apple trees.
I planted our apple trees in raised beds due to the high moisture in our forest.
I selected our apple trees first by harvest season; one group of trees that ripens mid-fall, and a second group that ripens in late fall to early winter.
Secondly we selected one variety in each group that produces an apple known for high sugar content, and two varieties noted for tart or acid content.
Our hope being to spread out the harvest a bit, so as not to over-load us with apples all at once.
And also to provide two different blends of apple juices for fermenting.
Following is the list of what apple trees we are planting. The number of trees, and then a description of their fruit.
We avoided all of the summer varieties, and tried to avoid having all apples coming into harvest all at once.
4- 'Sweet 16 Apples': harvested Early Fall.
Whenever anyone eats a Sweet 16 for the first time, you know they will be surprised. Fine-textured crisp flesh contains an astounding unusually complex combination of sweet nutty and spicy flavors with slight anise essence, sometimes described as cherry, vanilla or even bourbon. Truly excellent fresh eating, although it is too sweet for some pallets. Round-conic bronze-red medium-sized fruit, striped and washed with rose-red.
2- 'Prima Apples': harvested Fall.
Medium-large roundish fruit has rich yellow skin with a striking orange-red blush. Mildly subacid juicy white flesh provides excellent eating and makes good cider. Keeps a couple of months.
4- 'Minnesota 447 apples': harvested Fall-Winter.
Developed at the University of Minnesota before 1936, but never introduced. This massively flavored dessert apple—not for the faint of heart—provides a whole new level of culinary experience. Likely the most distinctive and unusual apple I’ve ever tried. Astonished friends have described its flavor as strange, molasses, olives, fabulous, sweet, complex and sugar cane. The roundish fruit is medium-sized and entirely covered with dark bluish-purple stripes. The aromatic crisp crystalline flesh is an apricot-orange color with occasional red staining, so juicy it’ll run down your hand. Years ago David Bedford of the University of Minnesota said they would never release it because it didn’t taste like an apple. Joyfully they changed their minds.
2- 'Cortland Apples': harvested Fall-Winter
Medium to medium-large slightly ribbed dull red fruit with a purple blush. Excellent eating and cooking. Slow-oxidizing white flesh is very good in salads; fine-grained, crisp, tender, juicy. Produces a surprisingly delightful cider, fresh or fermented, in a mix or even on its own. Vigorous tall upright spreading tree with reddish bark. Annual producer of heavy crops.
2- 'Esopus Spitzenburg apples': harvested Fall-Winter.
Without peer in flavor and quality. A choice dessert and culinary apple, mentioned in nearly every list of best-flavored varieties. Slightly subacid, crisp and juicy. Famous for being Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple. Medium-large bright-red round to mostly conic fruit, covered with russet dots. Excellent acid source for sweet or fermented cider.
Then the next year we planted the rest of our orchard:
1 Black Walnut; Juglans *****, Their husks yield a rich brown dye. Husks, leaves and roots all have anti-fungal properties. Deep taproot. Prefers moist well-drained soils.
1 Cape Rosier Basket Willow Salix If you’re looking to make a basket, pruned heavily will produce long whips for basket-making. Prefers sun and moist soils.
1 Northern Pecan Carya illinoensis 70'x70' Although they may be plenty hardy in much of the north, they do require summer heat and a warm fall to fill the nuts. Very large tree likes lots of room and clay or sandy soils rich with organic matter. Will take 3–4 years to establish a taproot. Then the trees should grow rapidly. Taproots do not like ledge!
1 Ginkgo biloba Slow-growing, can be extremely long-lived. Unique fine-cut fan-shaped foliage turns sparkling golden-yellow in fall, then all at once the leaves drop and within hours the tree is bare. Edible seeds, produced on female trees. Leaf tea used to enhance circulation to the brain and extremities. Prefers moist sandy neutral soils but is very adaptable.
2 Cherry; Stella Cherry Mid-summer. The first hardy good-quality self-fertile sweet cherry. Large heart-shaped black-skinned fruit has juicy medium-firm black flesh. Self-pollinating.
2 Garfield Plantation Cherry Heirloom pie cherry grown for generations on an Aroostook County farm. Hardy, disease resistant, productive and extremely long-lived.
1 Witch Hazel Hamamelis virginiana A small tree or large shrub of irregular rounded form and interesting crooked branches. Witch hazel extract, from leaves, young bark and roots, has astringent and antiseptic uses. Said to be the preferred wood of dowsers. Full sun or shade. Prefers moist acid soils; avoid dry spots. No pests or diseases, does well with very little care.
2 Chestnut; American Chestnut is a vigorous fast-growing tree, with delicious, sweet kernel nuts. It is also adaptable to different soils and climates. If a large crop of nuts is desired, several trees should be planted to insure good pollination. Trees begin to bear when only a few years old.
3 pear;
Luscious Pear Early Fall. Produces annual crops of delicious medium-sized fruit. Bears so heavily that it’s apt to break branches. The soft fine extra-juicy off-white flesh is sweet and flavorful with almost no grit cells. Thin yellowish skin is covered with small tan dots.
Seckel Pear Late Summer. Usually considered the best-flavored of all pears; even the skin is delicious. Small obovate fruit is yellowish-brown russeted with slight red blush. Juicy, spicy, distinctive and aromatic. Very productive annual-bearing large tree, easy to grow. The most reliably bearing fruit tree I have. Scab and fireblight resistant.
Stacyville Pear Late Summer. Medium-sized obovate obtuse-pyriform pears are light yellow with a beautiful orange to greyish-red blush. The sweet fruit has a delicious citrusy aftertaste. it produces large crops of fruit annually. self-pollinating. Disease resistant, extremely hardy and very vigorous.
5 Plum;
American Plum Prunus americana produces very decent red, yellow and orange 1" fruit, suitable for fresh eating, canning and freezing. Spectacular white bloom in spring. Red fall color. Extremely hardy.
South Dakota Plum Late Summer. Small to medium-sized fruit has tough yellow skin with bright red blush. Medium-firm yellow flesh is meaty, juicy, sweet. Freestone. Vigorous tree.
Superior Plum Late Summer. Very large conical dark red plum with a heavy bloom and ‘superior’ dessert quality. Firm sweet yellow flesh is smooth textured, extremely juicy and clingstone. Very good fresh eating. Precocious production, vigorous tree.
Toka Plum Late Summer. Rosy red fruit, up to 1-1/2" in diameter, mottled with darker purply red and covered with a faint bloom. Sweet, distinctive, meaty and flavorful. Not real juicy. Extremely vigorous tree blooms heavily every year. Diligent pruning may be required to keep it from becoming a bit of a monster.
2 Fig;
Chicago Hardy Elsewhere
Violette de Bordeaux Small to medium size purple-black fruit with a very deep red strawberry pulp, a distinctive sweet rich flavor. Medium eye. Excellent fresh or dried. hardy.
1 Mulberry; Pakistan Fruiting Mulberry Long (3 inches), firm, red to black, sweet syncarpous (like a blackberry) fruit. Non-staining juice. Month-long early summer harvest. Fruit used fresh and for pies, jams and jellies. Large, vigorous, disease-resistant tree.
2 Hazelnut / Filbert; Corylus americana Very good 1/2" nuts. Highly resistant or immune to filbert blight. Native to eastern North America.
2 apricot; Jerseycot Medium-sized fruit (approximately 1-1/2") round to round-oblong in shape. Light-orange with a slight green suture in some years and generally with no blush. The orange flesh is usually mild but can develop a melon-like quality. Very good eating. disease resistant and good cold hardiness. Self-pollinating.
2 Almond;
Hall’s Hardy Almond large, excellent quality nuts have thin, papery shells that are easy to crack. a very hardy strain that will thrive anywhere peaches can be grown. Self-fertile.
2 Elderberry;
Sambucus canadensis Adams No. 1 Vigorous strong productive bushes. Large berries and fruit clusters.
Sambucus canadensis Goodbarn Elderberry unusual hardiness, vigor and apparent self-fertility. It blooms heavily and produces large crops annually. What it lacks in commercial fruit size it makes up for with its impressive productivity.
Good luck now
