Welcome to the 7 Easy Steps to Growing Fruit Trees! I’m Tyler, and after years of trial and error growing fruit trees, I found these 7 steps are what gave me the most success. So, sit back, grab your notebook, and join me in this free 7-part guide.
Step 1: Selecting
In this first step, your goal is to find the best fruit trees for your site. We recommend matching your fruit trees to your climate. For example, if you live in a tropical climate, grow tropical plants such as banana, citrus, and avocado. It seems simple enough, but we often forget this basic idea and make growing fruit trees much harder on ourselves.
See The Guide to Selecting Fruit Trees
Step 2: Planting
Next, it’s time to locate an ideal spot and plant your fruit tree. Every fruit tree has different preferences of soil, shade, sun, and spade, and where you plant it makes a big difference in the end. We recommend spending at least 30 minutes observing your site before planting your fruit tree.
See The Guide to Planting Fruit Trees
Step 3: Watering
You’ve planted your fruit tree! Now it’s all about the care. To avoid both under and over-watering your fruit tree, we recommend only watering when the top 2-4 inches of soil is dry. Aim to water down to 2 feet deep as 90% of the tree’s roots are found here. Don’t forget the compost and mulch to improve water retention.
See The Guide to Watering Fruit Trees
Step 4: Nutrients
Now you can focus on giving your fruit tree the best nutrients to support it’s growth. You have three options: chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers, and compost. While chemical fertilizers have nutrients in quantity, the typically lack quality and can damage soil. Because of this, we recommend organic fertilizer and even compost.
See The Guide to Fertilizing Fruit Trees
Step 5: Pollination
By this step, it’s just a matter of time before your fruit tree is mature enough to care for itself. Now, you can encourage your tree to provide more regular and larger fruits. Even self-pollinating trees benefit from cross-pollination. We recommend strategies such as companion planting and planting two or more trees to attract pollinators.
See The Guide to Pollinating Fruit Trees
Step 6: Pruning
Now, you can train your fruit tree to have reduced pests and diseases, as well as faster growth and fruiting. To start, we recommend pruning the flowers and fruit from young fruit trees to encourage canopy and root growth. For mature trees, we recommend pruning excess, crossing, or dead branches to maximize fruit yield.
See The Guide to Pruning Fruit Trees
Step 7: Troubleshooting
You’ve done it! Your fruit tree now has the best chance of growing and fruiting! The steps you’ve completed dramatically reduce the rates of pests, diseases, and growing issues. However, your fruit tree is not invincible. Whether your fruit tree is showing yellow, brown, or dropping leaves (or another issue entirely), use this guide to troubleshoot and treat your tree.