I have recently been reading and watching videos about the high density planting technique promoted by Dave Wilson nursery and really wish I had learned about it sooner! As you may already know they grow fruit trees close together, like 12-18 inches apart, then prune the trees in summer to keep them small. This technique allows one to grow many more varieties of fruit in a smaller space.
The issue I have where I am is I can’t plant directly in the ground: we have dense clay soil that suffocates roots, and if that weren’t bad enough, a very aggressive population of gophers and voles! To overcome these issues, I began by planting fruit trees in raised beds and right now have four trees, one in each 4x4 raised bed, with hardware cloth laid underneath to protect roots. But it was a big expense and quite complicated and time consuming, putting those raised beds together, getting topsoil trucked in, etc. So soon after I simply began planting fruit trees in containers. But I am now getting concerned because trees in containers of course require a lot more maintenance and attention, and I don’t want to end up in a situation where things become unmanageable.
So this got me wondering: would it be possible to grow multiple fruit trees in a single 4x4 raised bed? Based on the spacing they recommend, it seems one should be able to grow three trees in a single raised bed, but of course they are planting directly in ground, so I don’t know how this translates into raised bed growing, and I am having a hard time finding information on anyone growing multiple trees in a smaller raised bed like this!
Has anyone here done it? What have your results been? How many trees would you recommend putting in a 4x4 bed?
The other issue I face is I already have one tree in the center of each bed. A couple of the trees, at least,(citrus) are still fairly small, but they are about three years old now, so I’m guessing their root system may be fairly developed? So I don’t know how advisable it would be for me to add one or two more trees on the edges of these beds where I already have trees growing in the center.
Would it be possible to make that work if I am diligent in pruning the center tree or do you need to start all your trees at the same time for high density planting to succeed?
I am in the same situation with my soil, I have to use raised beds if I want to grow fruit trees. I grow my trees in long rows on the side of the hill. I use rocks, which I have a lot of. The hill is somewhat steep, so the bottom part of the raised bed is about 16” high, the upper part only about 8” high. I think the steepness of the hill helps with drainage.
I have planted trees as close as 2 feet apart, but invariably the trees grow at different rates, so some trees become dominant and crowd out the others. You have to be diligent in keeping the faster growing trees controlled so they don’t stunt the others.
I now use 5 foot spacing, which has worked out a lot better. I keep my trees about 8 feet tall, and a tree that is 5 feet wide and 8 feet tall can produce a lot of fruit. I have about 60 trees, so don’t want my trees to get big.
I mention all of this because I think you will have the same trouble if you plant 3 trees in a single raised bed that closely. One or two will get the most sun, and the other will grow much more slowly. A better option I think is to stick with a single tree per raised bed and graft new varieties on it. If you prune to an open center, most of the tree will get reasonable sun and air circulation. Admittedly I am biased, as since I started grafting 5 years ago I have become somewhat addicted to it. But I also think it’s a better way to go.
In my mind, if you plant that close together and some grow faster than others, the faster growers will overtake and stunt the slower ones.
My soil is all rocks and clay… everything has to be in raised beds for me, including the trees. Or at least elevated enough to allow for drainage because I’m on wetlands no longer classified as wetlands.
I have over 20 garden bed to put together including tree beds 
But I’m thinking of doing something like this as well
Since we have a ton of logs.
I think they only do that to be able to pluck them out during fall and sell them to us. I may be wrong but I don’t think they plan long term for this, only long enough for them to pluck and sell once they get big enough.
I can’t imagine any of my trees being that close together. If one catches something, everything else will too.
They do intend people to plant like that—they’ve done videos recommending that style of planting in the past and there’s still some information about multiple plantings on their website
It’s very contentious of course. And a nursery that suggests its customers plant trees at one fifth the standard spacing might have an ulterior motive…
Also, even they only recommend 12-18 inch spacing for an 8+ foot hole with has two or three trees that will grow away from the centre.
I put most of my trees 2-3 metres apart, but there’s shrubs and perennials packed densely around them. There are lots of farms here with beautiful rows of peaches and apples only 1-2 metres apart, but they’re very heavily pruned each year. In the woods I regularly see hemlock and birch intertwined, having grown up from seeds that fell only an inch apart. The fruit trees that are most productive and easiest to harvest and maintain, though, are those which are spaced at traditional distances.
Part of it depends on your climate. I am in a cloudy, humid place where trees need as much sun as possible to prevent disease and get a good crop. Someone in a sunny river valley can plant more densely than someone in the desert where trees compete for water or by the coast where they compete for light and are prone to infection. It also depends on your willingness to prune, and tolerance for dense tangles. The central trees will become difficult to access as the outer ones grow. Typically, fruit trees aren’t kept very tall, which means a very high density planting will be more like an alder thicket than a forest or orchard.
That said, the advantage of separate trees over a single grafted one is that if one rootstock dies the others might still survive. And, as long as your raised beds are set on top of the clay, rather than the soil mixed into it or a barrier put down, then the trees will grow roots into the clay as if they were in the ground, so there’s no significant difference between the beds and the ground in terms of spacing.
Heavy inkling on this. Plus where are their mature trees placed this way? Only drawn photos…
The only trees I’ve ever seen placed like that have been sitting in sawdust or similar waiting for a pickup.
Personally, I’m doing 18-20ft apart. I like to be able to walk around my trees and give them ample lighting but i have room to be able to do so. When i didn’t, i had them on rollers and had them just enough apart to where they didn’t touch that season. If i were to plant in ground at the time, it would still be at least 10ft apart. No less
It’s doable, check out “Zone 10a Backyard Orchard” on YT. Every time I watch any of his videos, I think to myself that I can squeeze in more trees! He is growing his trees in raised beds close together and in planters.
I have a tiny yard but big aspirations, so went ahead and planted very close together, some 3 or 4 in a hole, leaving maybe 30-50cm of space between them. Then I kept on adding more and more fruiting bushes between the trees. They are all extremely crowded, and I suspect would be happier with more space. I’m OK with slower growth and lower fruit production if that is the cost to more variety, and I am grafting even more varieties on the existing trees.
I also had to plant along a hedge of arbovitae, which luckily have shallow roots. Like others said, with pruning you ensure no one tree overpowers the others.
While I did not plant in raised beds, I am sharing this to say that very close planting is possible. And it is less heart breaking if a tree does not make it for whatever reason.
I am keeping all my trees at a height that I can reach the top without a stepping stool and they are mostly on dwarfing and semi dwarfing rootstock, so the roots don’t need as much space.
I would suggest to do this only with spur type trees. They are way easier to keep small. If you prune at the end of a spur that branch will no longer grow. You can prune the new branch that cones from the spur or let it grow. Peaches and nectarines as an example flower on last years wood only. It would be very difficult to keep them small espeacially if planted close together.
I wanna piggyback on this:
If you’re getting apples, make sure they’re spur bearing and not tip bearing or you’ll be pruning off all your fruit each year.
Some fruits tip bear while others spur bear. For close plantings, i would look into only spur bearing trees
Thanks for linking to that diagram - I hadn’t seen that before and what’s interesting is that the type of planting recommended in the Dave Wilson diagram is a lot more conservative than what Tom Spellman himself seems to be doing with his planting arrangements!
The first diagram recommends 2 trees 18" apart in a 8’ hole. So essentially even though you’d be pruning to keep an open center, the trees would have a nice amount of space to grow outwards on both sides. But I’ve been looking at videos with Tom Spellman where he is planting 1 tree in a 2x2 raised bed, or three trees in a prepared space that looks like it can’t be anymore than 3’ on any side!
Here are the youtube videos where he demonstrates these techniques, if you’re curious (the forum won’t let me include the links for some reason):
“Plant 3 fruit trees in 1 hole”
“Elevate your fruit tree planting”
Thanks for telling me about that channel. I had never seen it before, and after just one video I’m totally fascinated and can’t wait to find out more about his backyard orchard.
Yeah, I’ve seen those videos before.
They’re pretty old, I wonder if the recommendations on their website are because they started suggesting slightly more conservative spacing over time.
Yes, of course they want you to plant trees 18 inches apart, but they have to be Dave Wilson trees for that spacing to work (tongue in cheek 
).
I think it can be done, but why not plant less trees and then just graft what you want onto the tree? It’s cheaper and less trees to take care of. 
Anyway, I know you didn’t ask about that, so here’s a great video that Spellman dropped a few months ago:
If you summer prune laterals it will still create blossom. I have 4 apples trees and once I learned this it so easy to keep them small. I heard this said so much that my experience tells me it is not always true. It is true that it creates blossoms at the tips but summer prunning laterals helps keep them small. Here are my tip bearing apple trees with pruned laterals with small apples. Someone posted this video already. I did this 3 years ago and it was one of the best things I learned. I suggest you watch this video. This is part 2 so search for part one.
I didn’t think about summer pruning. Good catch
Absolutely because some of the ones I’ve gotten elsewhere in the past… the root mass is much more than all 3 of those trees together 
My pleasure! He should have more followers. His videos are so informative and motivational.
Thank you for sharing this video!
This is what I’m planning on doing- the DWN multi plant approach and summer solstice pruning. “How to grow a little fruit tree” is a great super easy read teaching how to do it and keep your fruit trees small and manageable. From what I gather, rootstock matters but only so much as the multi planting needs to all be on the same size- don’t put dwarf with standard, etc…
I’ve learned from chatting with nurseries that some are appalled by the idea, and some are familiar. I was given the idea by Steve Cummins, who is a big fan of it.
Yes, if you graft, it’s a little weird to consider. But, as a newbie, it made sense to me to just plant duo and trio and or single with 4’ spacing and then prune and shape. I’m artistically minded and I like pruning. It’s a new creative art for me. You start them small from the start- heading cuts at 24” or knee high. I had some grafts starting 8-9” up rootstock, so I went for 24” which is between knee and hip. Everything is growing nice, new, low scaffolds now. I did this for all the trees I ordered except the genetic dwarf nectarines. Will make container life easier for the ones that don’t win a ground spot.
Grafting was hard for me, I have neck pathology and could not figure out a way to move the knife that didn’t set it off. (Better knife and sharpening next year!) But, since my first attempts took, I will of course graft onto my trees as well. I see having multiple trees in the ground as a bonus because of being able to pick and choose where to graft for better disease resistance. But, if I were to do traditional planting and letting the trees go, I would have one. Total. Instead of 4 in the ground already and adding 9 this fall. I think, if you have space, multi planting is really unnecessary. But, summer solstice pruning sounds totally key regardless of how many trees are in one hole.
