Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
another tree of the same or different species to the produce pollen needed for fruit pro-
duction. The same flower cannot pollinate itself, nor can another flower on the same
tree pollinate it, and thus a pollenizer tree is necessary. For this reason a single tree
may not be able to produce fruit if no pollenizer is close by. To avoid this problem a
pollenizer is included in the planting. The pollenizer will, in many cases, also
produce fruit or nuts, and so the plant is productive in terms of providing food.
As with other food items only commercial production is counted when reporting a
county's or an area's production, although total production may be significantly higher
if single trees or small plantings of several trees are included.
Many fruit trees come in both a regular and a dwarf size, size being determined
primarily by height with the dwarf being, typically, less than half as tall as the regular
size tree. Dwarf size trees are the same variety as the regular size, producing the same
size, taste, nutrition, and the like as the regular size trees. Two advantages of dwarf
trees are that they tend to start producing earlier and fruit is easier to harvest.
For some varieties there are also semidwarf varieties, which are in between in height.
Unfortunately, dwarf varieties usually do not live as long as standard height trees.
6.3.4 Plantings
Fruit trees are often produced by grafting or budding a particular, usually a named tree
type, onto a specific rootstock, chosen because it is from a disease-resistant tree of the
same type or the roots impart some other desirable characteristic such as dwarfing.
These grafted plants will be grown for several years in a nursery before transplanting
into an orchard. This process is particularly important if one wishes to be assured of
a high-quality crop with known characteristics. Planting seed will often produce
plants with varying characteristics and will bear fruits with different characteristics.
To have an orchard that will produce the desired fruit of the specific type needed or
wanted, grafted plants are necessary. This applies primarily to tree fruits and nuts
but not to other types of fruit-producing crops.
However, tropical fruit trees are commonly grown from seed. Black walnuts are
also commonly grown from seed. This approach may be used when the nuts to be pro-
duced are not intended to be the major crop or the characteristic of the nut is not import-
ant. In the case of black walnut the wood of a mature tree is highly valuable and so the
planting may have the primary purpose of producing wood rather than nuts.
6.3.5 Required Area Characteristics
As with any tree fruit orchard, as shown in Figure 6.5, plantation or plantings are long-
term commitments because the trees live and produce for a long time. There is typically
a 5- to 10-year period before trees bear fruit in sufficient quantities to be economical.
Thus, care must be taken in selecting a suitable site. Soil, rainfall, climate, water avail-
ability, and drainage all must be suitable for the trees that are to be planted (additional
information about the soil requirements for tree plants is given in Chapter 9). When a
suitable site is found, land is cleared and suitable tree stock is planted.
Trees are planted equal distances from each other, the distance depending primar-
ily on the nature size of the trees. The larger the tree the farther apart they are planted
