Sweet Inspiration The Smell Of Blossoms In The Air Turns Thoughts To A Home Orchard

Maybe we all have been looking at Norman Rockwell paintings for too long, or the lure of a little farmette in the country is just too strong. But whatever it is, having a little orchard in the back yard plays well in our vision of life in the Inland Northwest.

There’s a certain appeal to the idea of going out in your yard to pick apples for a pie or cherries for homemade ice cream. Some are in love with the idea of a little backyard orchard more than the reality of picking the fruit. But it’s no wonder. This time of year, a yard filled with the fragrance of blooming fruit trees, with all the promises of a September harvest, is the quintessence of the American dream.

However, because of the special care demanded by fruiting trees, a backyard orchard takes patience and work.

Fruit trees require at least eight hours of sunlight to thrive and produce a good crop of fruit. They need well-drained soil and prefer protection from cold winter winds. If you live in a rural area, they may need added protection from pocket gophers and deer.

If this sounds like your garden, let’s go shopping for trees.

Fruit trees can be purchased either through mail-order catalogs or at local nurseries. Those ordered through catalogs usually arrive as a whip - a straight, grafted branch with side buds instead of branches, and a healthy root system. Whips allow us the opportunity to develop the tree’s framework from scratch.

Most nurseries, on the other hand, handle two-year-old trees with side branches already developed. These are a bit more challenging to train into a desired shape, but it can be done.

Correct planting is also very important. You’ll need to know if your tree is grafted or not. Trees grafted on seedling root stalk should have the graft buried just below the ground. Trees grafted on dwarfing root stock should be planted with the graft about two to three inches above the ground. If you’re buying trees though a local nursery, simply bury the tree at the same level as it is in the container.

As for the fruit:

Apples: The most adaptable fruit grown in our area are apples, with literally dozens of varieties from which to choose. Apple trees also come in various sizes and shapes.

Some produce lateral branches that grow nearly horizontal, while others have laterals that grow more upright.

There are standard varieties, which can grow up to 20 feet tall; semi-dwarf, up to 15 feet; and dwarf, a little eight-foot variety. The true dwarf trees usually require staking and extra watering due to the small root system. There is also a fairly new apple tree produced by Stark Brothers called a columnar apple. It grows eight feet tall but only two feet wide. Check with the Stark catalog, (800) 325-4180, or local nurseries for availability.

In terms of flowering, most apple trees produce blossoms on fruiting spurs which are short, compact little branches on wood that’s at least two years old.

And, there are also pollination differences. Most apple trees need to be cross-pollinated. In other words, a red delicious tree cannot pollinate itself or another red delicious tree. However, if a red delicious is pollinated with a Granny Smith, or a Jonathan or a Golden Delicious tree, for example, it will produce apples. Make sure and buy compatible pollinating varieties that bloom at the same time. A cross between an early or mid-season apple should be OK, but an early and late variety probably won’t make it.

Insects that attack apples include apple maggots, leafrollers, aphids and apple-and-thorn skeletonizers. Apples are also prone to diseases such as apple scab, powdery mildew, rust, and a bacterial infection called fireblight. Damaged leaves may not seem all that important, but it takes healthy leaves to produce the water and sugar needed for a sweet apple. By allowing insects and disease to destroy the leaves, we destroy the taste of our apples.

Pears: Pear trees are grown very much in the same manner as apples, except the branches tend to grow in a more upright position with narrow crotch angles (the angle where one branch meets another branch). To widen the angle, spread the branches with a branch spreader (a piece of wood or plastic with a notch on both ends).

Prune pears sparingly. If we become too aggressive with pruning, pears will produce an abundance of soft, succulent growth that becomes a prime target for sucking insects and fireblight.

Like apples, most pear trees require a pollinator. Even those that are self-pollinating produce better fruit if pollinated by another variety.

Asian pear: The fruit of this tree is sweet and juicy like a pear and crunchy like an apple. Most require cross-pollination, either by another Asian pear or a domestic pear. Again, the trees must bloom at the same time.

The Japanese Asian pear is susceptible to fireblight, pear psylla (an insect), and pseudomonas blossom blight. Still, it’s worth growing.

Sweet cherries: This delicious stone fruit tree has a tendency to grow straight up. Try to shape the tree while it’s young. Scaffold branches should be about 15 inches apart and at 45-degree angles. Nipping back the ends of the scaffold branches each spring will also help create lateral branching and fruit spurs.

Pollination of this tree is a little on the complicated side. Most sweet cherries require pollination from a different cherry variety. However, not all sweet cherries will cross-pollinate. There are, however, two varieties, Stella and Lapins, that do not require another tree for pollen.

Tart cherries are self-pollinating and are capable of pollinating sweet cherries - but they aren’t always in bloom at the same time. If you are looking for a hardy sweet cherry, you might try Black Republican, Rainier or Van.

There are a number of diseases and insects that these trees may face, but their worst enemy is the cherry fruit fly. These tiny flies emerge from the ground toward the end of May and begin piercing and laying eggs in the young cherries. Without being on a proper spray schedule, tiny white maggots will form in the fruit.

Apricots: This beautiful flowering tree is the first fruit tree to bloom in the spring, which makes it more susceptible to late frost. The buds are also quite susceptible to drying from cold winter winds. It’s best to plant apricots in a protected area of the garden. Prune to a modified central leader system. For general pruning care, try to hold off until after they’ve bloomed or after all danger of frost has passed.

Most apricots require no other pollinator, except for Moongold and Sungold, which should be planted together. Hardy varieties for this area are Tilton, Harcot, Goldcot and Hardy Iowa.

Plums: This easy-to-grow fruit is usually broken down into three categories: European, Japanese and Japanese-American. Sometimes a fourth category is added, the American plum, though the fruit of this variety is usually made into jelly.

European varieties are broken down even further: Prune plums (all prunes are plums, but not all plums are prunes), Gage, Blue, Lombard and Yellow Egg.

Most European plums require cross-pollination. European and Japanese varieties don’t really help each other out, because they tend to bloom at different times.

Prune these trees moderately. Plums produce fruit on old spurs and year-old wood. If you notice old spurs that aren’t producing fruit, cut back limbs to the vigorous lateral branches and remove the old spurs.

Plumcots and Pluots: These are crosses between apricots and plums. Plumcots are 50-50, plum and apricot. Plucots are 75 percent plum and 25 percent apricot. Both require an apricot or a Japanese plum for cross-pollination.

Peaches: This fruit tree is the shortest lived of all the fruit trees. If we’re fortunate, we might get 15 years out of it. Our cold winters usually kill these trees before they reach old age.

Prune peach trees to an open center, leaving only three or four scaffold branches around the trunk. Prune these branches back to two or three buds each. From this point, prune peach trees moderately and not too early in the spring. Peach trees tend to bear heaviest on new wood. Automatically thin the fruit by pruning the new growth back. Count 10 buds on the limb from where the new growth begins. Snip off the remaining portion of the branch. These ten buds should produce fruit. Eventually thin the fruit to four inches apart for healthy, sweet peaches.

Peaches and apricots are also susceptible to a disease called coryneum blight. It is easily identified by a black gumming and canker around the bud, spots on the leaves which eventually fall out and spots on the fruit. We need to control this disease by pruning it out and/or spraying in the fall with a bordeaux mix and again at shuck split with captan or ziram.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Warren Huskey

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:

1. GREEN BLUFF IS BLOOMING It’s apple blossom time in the Inland Northwest. But we don’t have to drive to Wenatchee or Yakima to experience the incredible beauty and fragrance of these trees. Just north of Spokane, at Green Bluff, the cherry and apricot trees are in full bloom and given a couple of days of warm sun, acres of apple and pear trees will burst into delicate white balls of cotton candy. So, pack up the kids and head for a weekend afternoon at Green Bluff. Take the Newport Highway north past the turnoff to Mount Spokane and follow the signs. Several of the farms will be serving up slices of pie. And although it’s too early for much Green Bluff-grown fruit and vegetables (rhubarb will be available), it’s worth the trip just to take in the ambience, and perhaps even become inspired to plant your own back-yard orchard.

2. SPRAY TO AVOID INFECTING OTHER ORCHARDS Phyllis Stephens Correspondent The Inland Northwest is rich with commercial fruit orchards, even near the city. While they spray to control insects, home orchardists must also control pests to avoid infecting commercial orchards. This is especially important in the case of apple trees, which are easily infested with codling moth (which in an early stage is the worm in the apple). Moths lay eggs on the blossom end of the apple a couple of weeks after the blossoms drop. The worm tunnels in and around the core, eventually tunneling out after it gets its fill. Begin spraying for this insect two weeks after blossom drop and every two weeks until two weeks before harvest. Imidan is the best spray, diazinon would be next. The apple maggot is of greater concern to the commercial orchardist. Those of us with backyard trees can deal with the codling moth worm by eating around it or cutting it out of the apple. But the apple maggot is a whole different problem. It makes applesauce out of the apples, rendering them inedible. It is a threat not only to the apple itself, but to the apple industry. That’s why we still have a quarantine on transporting homegrown apples out of or within our area. The law states we cannot give home-grown apples away unless they have been preserved. A single tree produces a lot of apples, and unless you’re going to eat all golden delicious, for example, you’ll need more than one tree. Since you can’t legally give away the apples because of the apple maggot law, think about what you’re going to do with all those apples.