Reddit reviews Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees

Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612120547/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.5RLBbJEEGVV8

I put in 9 trees last year and still learning all of the mistakes I made. I don't have room for full-sized trees (15' or taller/wider) so started with dwarf and semi-dwarf. This may have been a mistake based on a couple of books I've been reading. If you do have limited space, or want to keep your trees manageable (a good point by /u/pecantrees about professional trimming and ER costs), then I highly recommend Grow a Little Fruit Tree by Ann Ralph. One of the things that she covers extensively, and I've heard stressed by others, is proper pruning. It won't answer several of your questions but I think it's a good resource to learn about pruning young trees and maintaining size without overly limiting fruit production.

And because Imgur won't let me edit anything in my post via mobile, I will add more info here! I spent about two months researching container growing fruit trees/edible tree/bush before deciding to start with a blood orange and my favorite, lemonade. I'm hoping this helps someone else who might think they can't have a fruit tree due to space.

Although I bought trees on dwarfing rootstock (often called flying dragon rootstock, as that's the plant used to give it stunted growth), you do not need a tree marketed as dwarf. Using a container will naturally impede the process of growth, in addition to pruning.

This is very important because each type of rootstock will give different qualities to the root health. Pick the rootstock that works best for your growing conditions. The book Grow a Little Fruit Tree was invaluable for its information on rootstock alone, although it's geared towards deciduous trees and not evergreens like citrus.

Another helpful book for container gardening that helped me jumpstart my information search was The Bountiful Container. It's American oriented, not Aussie, but lots of helpful principles and ideas all the same.

Another great read, and useful, is this write-up on Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery about using bags (containers) to restrict tree growth in order to net better fruit production. Size restriction can help to produce more per hectare than just letting a tree go (which would be suicide to a home orchard anyways).

Hey OP, I'd also suggest you look at the book, "Grow a Little Fruit Tree". It's a super handy book and it shows you how to keep fruit trees of any variety really short! :) If you want to see any pages from the inside lemme know and I can snap some pictures for you when I get home tonight.

Fruit trees can definitely be grown in a small back yard or even a large (10-15 gal) container. You just have to prune them heavily and on a regular yearly schedule. There's some pretty good techniques and advice in this book:

Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612120547

I went to a local nursery and Costco neither had cherry trees. I think Stark Bros. is my best option at this point. So you get the trees bareroot and then have to put them in the ground right away?

What do you mean 3 60' raised beds? sq feet or 60' long. You have a picture of them?

Is this the book your talking about? It looks pretty good. I just bought The Fruit Gardener's Bible yesterday though. Maybe I'll pick up this one too.

Here is my favorite book I have found for starting new trees and taking care of them: Grow A Little Fruit Tree

A good place online to read about varieties and order apple trees for shipping is Stark Bros Nursery.

Typically, you get them during the early winter when they're dormant and they come "bare root" so there's not a root ball. Your nursery can help you with planting times. If you don't know your USDA Hardiness Zone it can help with looking that up, too.

A surprising thing to me was that you need to worry about pollination! Some trees require a cross-pollinator tree of another type. Both that book and that site and your nursery have information on that too.

It will take a few years for the trees to mature and produce fruit, so start sooner and have fun!