Advice planting fruit trees in the Midwest US

[Carolyn]

Good Morning Everyone, assuming it's morning where you live. I need some advice on planting fruit trees. I would like to get them in this fall although I should have planted them years ago. I'm not sure about spacing I would like to have peaches, apples and maybe cherries or apricots. Any advice on how far apart to space them from someone with real time experience? I know what the books say, I would like to know what some of you say about that. I only have about 1/4 or less acre available so I know I can't have a lot.

 

[Chuck]

Good Morning Everyone, assuming it's morning where you live. I need some advice on planting fruit trees. I would like to get them in this fall although I should have planted them years ago. I'm not sure about spacing I would like to have peaches, apples and maybe cherries or apricots. Any advice on how far apart to space them from someone with real time experience? I know what the books say, I would like to know what some of you say about that. I only have about 1/4 or less acre available so I know I can't have a lot.

I have a small peach orchard of 20 trees and they are of 4 different varieties. They are more or less about the same size and age. I planted mine 20' apart and have found the distance just about right. The canopy of each of my trees are about 16' so that leaves about 4' between them, just enough to get my mower through with a little to spare. These trees are all about 10 -12 years old and are reaching their life span. I think you could probably get by with a spacing of 16' if you are not lazy like me and do a bit of pruning each year.