The way that my house, garage, alley access, and rv parking is situated I dont really have much room for fruit trees. I’ve already espaliered 2 plums, 1 nectarine, 2 apple, and 2 pear in my backyard around the fence line. I want to espallier some more trees in my front and side yard fence, however it is only about 4-5 feet from my sewer drain line. I DO NOT want to mess that up as my house is 80 years old (the sewer is currently ok, as of 2 years ago when I bought my house)
Stupid idea or are there any fruits trees/bushes you’d recommend? I can’t find any data on how far roots on fruit trees go.
brambles like raspberries usually have pretty shallow root systems (maybe 10-20 inches deep?), though they do sucker and spread a bit. Easy to control by mowing over them too
There are dwarfing trees that have shallow roots also eg. Quince but i cant recommend it because we dont know the depth of the line… If the pipes are 10’ down (they are in our area due to cold weather) there are a host of things you could plant eg bush cherries, blueberries etc…why not play it safe and make it a garden area for strawberry in raised beds etc?
What material are your sewer lines? Back in '06 I was renting an apt in Killeen TX, and the sewer lines starting backing up because the drought dried out/cracked the clay pipes. If your sewer lines are fragile, I would not plant anything that makes roots more than 6 inches deep.