Is fruit hard to grow?

[GreenThumb]

I have grown strawberries in the past, but are other fruits difficult to grow? How do you generally care for fruit trees or fruit plants that you are growing? Are there any recommendations on the easier fruits to grow.

 

[zigs]

Hi Green Thumb,

Welcome to Gardening Forums

Bit of a broad question though.

What type of fruit do you want to grow? How much land do you have in mind to set aside for it? What is your location?

I'm sure we can help you out but need to know a bit more.

 

[maddie]

Fruit is not hard to grow but most fruit trees are going to take a while to become productive.
But this would also depend on what kind of weather you have where you live.
In hot weather condition like it is where i live banana, guava, papaya.. grow quickly and start producing fruits before the year is up.. mangoes take time...

 

[GreenThumb]

I am not sure what kind of fruit yet, I was just looking for some general ideas. I live in the south This is cool that it can only take 1 year. I have heard other fruit trees can take up to 4 years to get any fruit to grow on them.

 

[zigs]

Bear in mind you can buy 3 or 4 year old trees from the nurseries. We are also coming into bare root season, when the trees are dormant, you can buy them without containers, this usually means they are cheaper. Worth having a look to see what your local nursery has on offer. You can talk to them about what you are after too.

Some tree fruit will need another suitable tree to polinate them, some are self polinating.

With things like Apples, you'll need to decide if you want cooking and/or dessert apples, ripening times, storage suitability etc.

Then you've got pests to consider. We put grease bands around the trunks to stop things crawling up the trunks.

In the UK a late frost can wipe out the crop by destroying the blossom, I take it you get less frosts where you are?

 

[Victor Leigh]

I think you should start off by visiting some friends who have fruit trees. That's the best way to find out how to plant fruit trees.

One thing I can help you with is the placement of your fruit tree. Make sure you know how wide your tree will spread and how high it will grow. I have seen some people who plant fruit trees who did not take this into account and planted their fruit tree too close to their house.

Then after a few years and the tree is grown, they found that the branches of the tree were scraping against the roof of their house. To save their rood, they had to cut down the tree. Make sure you plant your fruit tree far enough from your house to avoid this problem.

 

[iluvmario]

I agree with the poster that said fruit trees are not hard to grow. They are around the same as any vegetable plant like tomatoes. They just have certain things they need just like tomatoes do. A little research and you will be fine.

 

[Victor Leigh]

There is one very small fruit plant that is about the size of a tomato plant. This is the Calamondin Orange plant.

The fruit is about the size of a pigeon egg and it's sweetish sour. The Chinese like to have this around during the Chinese New Year as a symbol of prosperity. So if you plant one in your house, you have a chance of enjoying prosperity the whole year round besides having some nice fruit to eat.