Putting a master list of all I have planted starting in ‘15 has added up to a whole lot. It all started with 8 or ten to plant too. Now 23 plums and 29 apples and 12 pears later… no wonder my wife is complaining. Now I see raintree has superfin pear available. Not gonna do it no mater what. I’m going to graft. So how many of you started with and where’d you stop?
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I started with about 4 trees in 2016 and I am in the neighborhood of 50 trees now. I think I am done adding anything that needs regular spraying. I may add persimmon or more pawpaw. I will start replacing existing trees that do not thrive, but 50 is enough (too much?).
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St. Lawrence Nursery used to sell T-shirts that said “Plant until you are planted”
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Depends on your goals. My goal is to provide a steady variety of fruit through the growing season for my wife and I and maybe a bit extra we can share with others. You can see my bio what I’m growing and I think that what I have now is “enough”. Well… that and I have also about ran out of space to plant anything else.
I’ve also learned that growing a wide variety of species does not come without a price, namely having to deal with unique pests and diseases. Unless you have a ton of time and energy to put into each species needs at a certain point you begin trading off quantity for quality.
I honestly have no idea what people like you with more than 5 trees of a single species do with all that fruit. I’m guessing either the trees haven’t entered full production yet or the varieties have low productivity but some other redeeming characteristics?
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We started with 45 standard apple trees and about that in stone fruit and pear trees combined…almost 100 trees. That quickly expanded to include a nursery with dwarf apples for a trelis. This year we planted a row of 63 cherry bushes, and a planting of over 50 persimmons.
There are also 9 English walnuts, and plans to add Hickories. The dozen or so Pecan trees were already here.
I don’t know when it will be enough. I need to find a place for a few Asian pear trees in the nursery…next year we are expanding the cherry hedge.
It is hard to have too much good food.
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I started with 5 trees and now have 25 I believe.
This was the first year I have had a “bumper crop” of one type of fruit. I had 6 pear trees with 13 varieties grafted on. Three of those pear trees produced this year, Bartlett, Hosui, and unknown Euro Pear. I think I got around 200 pieces of fruit between them. They have filled my fridge and our bellies for weeks now and given a bunch away and we haven’t even made a dent. We made pear sauce and I will can some when things slow down. This begs the question, what to do if all 6 trees produce? I would have more than I could use. Because of this I am changing my plan going forward.
So…
The Harrow Sweet died when it was ripped out of the ground by the guys removing an old oil tank. I will not replace it, but will graft it on the Bartlett next spring.
The Ubileen will be given to a neighbor who was interested in it. This will open up space for 2 Apricot trees.
I will NOT buy anymore pear trees just because I want to try a variety. I WILL be happy with what I have and work to make that even better.
I plan to add 2 apricots and one persimmon and that is ALL (unless something dies).
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I got 150+ trees right now but going to reduce it to about half due to time constraints. I am definitely going back to that number later once the kids are gone from the house haha. And yes my wife is also complaining but over the years she got used to it a bit. I mean she was complaining when I reached my first 20 as well, she built up tolerance over the years…
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I had 15 grape vines in 1980.
And 20 apples in 1992.
Got way lower than that…due to divorce and various other reasons…
but now, I don’t think 100 is enough!
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More.
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I think if we could go to some huge sampling event and try every variety of fruit that would grow in our area, we would discover that many are very similar. But we keep reading about all the fabulous finds on here and just HAVE TO try them! I was quite content with just a few varieties for many years, but then the Internet came along. At least this year I have now had success in grafting, which helps curb things a bit.
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How many is enough? All you can plant, plus one
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I don’t know how many trees is enough. I keep packing them into my small space. I have about decided that the person who passes on with the most trees wins.
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Looking at the buckets of the peaches coming in and coming in and coming in… I would say 1/4 of the tree will be enough 
.
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I have 12 trees as of today. But the number changes monthly as I keep buying and killing them. I don’t have much fruit coming in yet so I don’t feel this is enough. I might add 2 more trees this coming spring. I have to figure out a way to keep them alive or else I’ll forever have a young orchard and be waiting for fruit.
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My wife bought me a shirt that says, “How many plants are too many plants?”. Never too many, I say! 
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In Feb 2016 we had nothing, now we have 17 apple, 5 pear, 4 peach, and 3 pluot trees, and 2 tart cherry. Add to that, we have 9 varieties of raspberry, 5 of blackberry, 3 of gooseberry, 3 of strawberry (25 plugs each when planted). I think I’m done. Oh, and I also have 6 potted bench grafted apples that will need to be planted soon.
I weeded 7 apples last week, have a lot more trees to do, even though my arms got eaten up by chiggers (still itches), and my new found weed allergies are messing me up. Plus, while weeding them it looked like 5 of them have some kind of rodent or insect damage to the rootstocks. Not good. Seems like a gargantuan task to clean all the rest of my trees and berry runs up.
At least five of my apple trees and one pear finally bore some fruit this year.
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When you have plenty of acreage, it’s tempting to space the trees out. But, that may add to your work load, especially the mowing? I wouldn’t plant anything farther than 18 feet in row…and much closer for dwarfs.
Sounds like your ‘fruit farm’ is off to a great beginning!
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I spaced my dwarf apples at 12ft, all the others at 15ft. Stone fruit I try to give them about 18ft, and pears around 20ft.
Due to my bad stone fruit tree shaping, resulting with them being more upright than usual, they are prob too far apart. I think my dwarf apples are the proper spacing, but the others may be a bit too spread out too.
Fifteen of my trees are down below the barn, where the soil is more fertile, and I’d like to put some of these potted M7 apples down there, but that would take out a good garden spot. So, I’m going to have to maybe put these in the front yard somewhere. When would be a good time to do these transplants? It’s been awfully warm and dry here this summer.
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Know what you mean…not going to be planting anything the rest of September I don’t think.
But, if you’re up to digging holes (or have augers), you can plant containerized trees successfully anytime. If you give them the water they need in dry weather
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I’m starting to ask this same question. I’m at this awkward stage where I’m accumulating trees, vines, etc. but everything is so young I haven’t gotten hardly any fruit. By the end of next spring I’ll have 10 full size apple trees, 55 dwarfs in trellises, and a smattering of stone fruit, pears, persimmons, and jujubes. Even with a family of five eating, saucing, preserving, and juicing my eyes may be bigger than our mouths will ever be.
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