How much fruit are y'all actually harvesting?

General Fruit Growing
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Hey everybody!

I’m early in my fruit tree journey, so i’ve been putting plants in the ground like a mad woman to get things going. Mostly dwarf/semi fruit trees and fruiting bushes to really maximize my varieties in my suburban backyard.

So my question is this, how much fruit are y’all actually harvesting every year off of how many trees/bushes? It can be hard to gauge how many plants are enough fruit for our family of two, since yield amounts in plant descriptions seem to be based off of optimal production and several years down the line.

Any practical knowledge you have would be so appreciated! (Now i’m off to buy another dwarf peach tree, because why not!)

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Me and my freshly purchased 5 blueberry bushes, 75 strawberry crowns, and 13 raspberry and blackberry canes feel this deeply, and are also curious :joy:

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It’s so funny how plants just multiply like that! :wink:

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A four year old nectarine tree produces > 1 bushel (could be two) for me, that’s enough fruit for my family of 5 for 2-3 weeks, @ about 3 fruits per person per day.

I’d say it is the same for plums and apricots, assuming good fruit set.

Apples will depend on the rootstock and tree size/age, but it usually starts at 1-2 bushels for mature (4+ years old) dwarf trees. Could be much more for a big tree on a semi dwarf rootstock.

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This is very helpful! Have you had any years on your fruit journey where you expected more fruit than the plant gods gave you? Due to weather/bugs/nutrient problems?

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Most of my plants are young but… I feeze about 1 gallon of black current per bush (guessing that will double this year), about a gallon of strawberry per bed 3x8’, few gallons of raspberries from my 65 foot row. I eat all my gooseberries and blueberries off the bush. I get about 1/3 pound of grapes per linear foot of trellis (but varies greatly by vine and some dont do well in my location). I get about 5 five gallon buckets of apples off a mature semi dwarf tree.

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As of 2 days ago my orchard is 90% filled out with 36 trees. Nearly half are peaches. They other half is apple and pear. Range from 4 years old to just planted. Of the 4 year old peaches I would probably get a bushel from each, but spring frosts are a killer hear. Last year 6 peaches from 2 trees out of 6 mature enough to fruit. -13 took most blooms in January this year. I have about 100 blooms swelling, hope to keep em all. Lost all pears blooms on 2 trees last year to blossom blight. They’re loaded and looking better this year but down to 25 next week. Fuji and Granny lost all their blooms to late frosts last year as well. However, the 4 year old Honeycrisp came through with about 50 apples. That lasted us 2 weeks, but we are a family of 8…so.

Your location and zone is probably much better for some of those issues.

The journey is not for the impatient or faint of heart, but it’s well worth it!

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All my trees are semi-dwarf btw

We also have blueberries, but they’re young. 10x15 black raspberry patch and a 4x15 strawberry bed is not able to keep up with the demand. I’ll be doubling those this year.

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We have 3 Red Haven peach trees. Six tart Cherry trees just planted last year

The peach trees produce 400 to 500 peaches each tree. That’s about 100-120 per scaffold. Of the nine years in the ground;

First two years a lot of buggy fruit until I learned to spray
two of the nine years with less than 100 peaches in total due to hard frost or winter sudden deep freeze.

Peaches are fast growers and will get results in two to three years. We got two peaches the year we planted our 2 ft tall trees! here they are bug magnets and we have to spray every two weeks

here are 2 of the 3 trees, started pruning/thinning the thousands of blooms

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Can I ask what sort of spray regiment you have them on? I have a nectaplum that has been giving me grief. Thrips last year, and this year INSANE amounts of green aphids. It’s like the plagues of Egypt over here.

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Albuquerque weather can be pretty erratic in the spring, but I am hopeful that our yard is protected fairly well to have at least something to harvest every year. Thank you so much for chiming in with your insight! I’m learning alot!

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I’m organic. I would check out Scott’s 2019 spray program if you want to go the organic route. I follow it pretty closely.

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Apples keep — sort of. I save them in a cold room. Some are for eating out of hand, but I’ll take a carload to a custom press in late autumn for apple juice. I pressure-can most of the juice, but I freeze as much as I have room for. There are apples that are too badly damaged (bruises, insects, squirrels) to keep. These I’ll cook for canned applesauce and jelly. What I have to spare I give to the neighbors, so the crop mostly all gets used up. There is waste, however. A lot goes bad before I get to it, and the squirrels seem to steal a lot. Fruit that I’m looking forward to is gone by the time I expect it to be ready, and the squirrels spoil a lot, too, tasting some and knocking down quite a bit. I salvage what I can for sauce. There are other things I could do with apples such as baking and drying I suppose.

There’s a big difference between trees of how much each will bear. A big tree may bear as much as a bushel. I may or may not eat a bushel of apples a year, but I can easily press six bushels, yielding as much as 40gal of apple juice.

I ought to point out as others have that crop load varies enormously from season to season. You have to be flexible to take both advantage of abundance and disappointment with dearth in stride. Last year was a bad year for some reason. I thinned the crop, but what was left didn’t size up, and I think the squirrels took most of it. I didn’t have enough for a cider run, but I’m again determined to make the most of this year’s crop.

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Sounds about right, planted like 3-4 dozen trees/bushes in past few years and have twice as many in pots.

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I have … I think 33 fruit trees… adding a couple more mulberries and persimmons this spring by grafting.

Only a small part of those are fruiting now.

I planted a lapins cherry in 2018 and mt royal plum … that look to be bearing first crops this year. Some just take some time.

This year I should have 3 mulberry trees producing fruit. 2 that are too young… that should produce next year. Adding 2 more.

I have 2 CHE… one that is bearing.

I have 3 apples and 3 pears… in year 3 but only 1 of those is bearing (did last year). It is on b9 rootstock, espellar.

I have a dozen or so persimmons… about half of those are in year 3 this year… and might produce some fruit.

I have 5 wild persimmons on my place that are producing fruit and I harvest from a few others roadside finds… and frim my sisters tree… rich tooie.

In the next few years the production from my fruit trees should go way up as many will start bearing.

I have 3 goumi bushes now … they make thousands of berries. Close to 100 raspberry canes… 2 varieties of blackberries 9 crowns. Loganberry 2 crowns, 3 strawberry beds. 2 gooseberry, 2 crandal clove, a large crown of elderberrry.

7 blueberry bushes… 4 of which produce several hundred blueberries. The others are younger and produce small crops.

1 fig that produces 400 or so figs yearly… i ate the last of the dehydrated figs today.

We eat lots of fresh berries and figs and I make low sugar jam out of the rest we dont eat fresh.

I have a concord grape vine in production and 2 muscadines in year 2 this year… that I should get first good crop from next year.

I grow enough leaf lettuce to supply 2 families all fall, winter and spring. Grow mostly tomatoes, okra, squash, peppers in the veggie garden.

I probably left out a few things.

TNHunter

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Here’s a link to an estimate of our harvest from one semi-dwarf apple a few years ago:

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Here’s another shot from that same year, I think:

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Point being that in a good year and with a good tree you can end up with an awful lot of fruit to deal with! (But don’t worry - there’s years where everything goes to pot and you end up with nothing. Last year we got no pears , thanks to the squirrels, and just a few dozen apples. No plums, no apricots anywhere in town.

But this year will be better …

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I get about a peck total from my 9 fruit trees and squirrels, raccoons, and possums get about 5-15 bushels depending on season. I get anywhere from 2 pecks to 1.5 bushels of citrus fruits because wildlife is uneducated around here.

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WOW. Thank you for adding photos and for linking your prior post! I’m amazed at your haul! We are supposedly due for a good monsoon season here in Albuquerque this summer, so here is hoping my bounty is as fruitful as yours!

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Be careful what you wish for! I can only imagine how hard it is to maintain more than a few trees and their production - I’m glad my apple is so generous but there’s times when I’m glad that it has an off year. In a good year I give away (neighbors, food bank, random people walking down the street) as much or more than we eat.

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