As you can see, it runs approximately east to west. Red line is measuring the stretch I plan to plant, pink scribbles are the home. I haven’t yet decided whether to plant one side or both (which would give me 640’ to play with) Either way, the existing trees along the red line will be removed so shading won’t be a problem.
I have always loved the look of a fruit or nut lined driveway and the convenience of being able to check on them every day whenever leaving for work or checking the mail. I am excited to create my “promenade of pomes”, but am curious about spacing recommendations.
I currently have a few Ayer’s, Kieffer and Korean Giant, as well as medlar, all on Provence quince. It was probably a bad decision, but I wanted a rootstock that could take pear or medlar. I’m not sure if I’ll actually use any of those on the driveway though as I’d rather have full size trees there and have heard of problems with quince. I may give it a try since I do have them, and replace later if issues arise. My goal is to eventually have a row of pomes ripening throughout the whole season. In my area, that could potentially look like 5-6+ months of snacks on the way to the mailbox. I don’t anticipate space being a huge issue, but I don’t want to be wasteful either. I wouldn’t mind having a few other fruits in the space as well if I end up with room. I want to be low-spray, so disease resilience is a bigger deal than space. I’m willing to sacrifice a little space to give better airflow, but I’m sure there is a point of diminishing returns. How far apart would you recommend planting the pears?
The apples I am almost certain I am going to plant somewhere else and start again this spring as I mostly used G11. I have AR Black and Wm’s pride on M111 and am planning to graft everything else on to M111 or Antonovka rootstock this spring. Haven’t decided and ordered yet. I don’t mind the driveway trees being various sizes, that’ll happen anyway due to varietal differences, but I don’t want permanent trellises, poorly anchored trees or drought stressed trees on it. Fruit trees aren’t usually beautiful to non-fruit people anyway. No need to add issues.
Southern Va, piedmont, zone 7b. Acidic clay soil.
I love the idea. Also, pears are the thing I spray the least (north of you in VA). Apples I have to spray or they look terrible.
Pears get really really huge on Bartlett, BET and OHxF97 (I believe all would be considered standard size). I have a couple that are 15+ years old and you’d probably want them 20+ feet apart.
I know @alan has planted apples along a driveway, maybe he can chime in. I think you’d want them well back from the actual driveway too - otherwise the driveway could end up quite narrow.
That’s main thing that’s attractive about pears to me. At least some varieties seem bulletproof. This morning I ate fried pears from a neighbor’s tree that has had little care for years. I was the second neighbor to raid the tree, got a full bushel, and probably left nearly another bushel or so. There are also old pears on my grandfather’s farm. They still live and produce, though a bit ugly after nearly three decades of neglect.
That said, I also like pears at least as much and maybe more than apples. The plan is to plant a few disease resistant apples for the wife, a few medlar for something late season, maybe a couple cherries for early season (if I can find a pollinator for my lonely no spray cherry,) but have mostly pear.
I know standard pears get really big. My neighbor’s pears are 25’ apart and the two old trees nearly touch, though his are also short and squatty for pears. Most I’ve seen are taller and less wide, I assume his late father trained them to be wide on purpose. I was actually thinking 30’ might be better for airflow long term. That said, that may be overkill. 25’ might be fine with pruning.
Definitely planning to set them back a bit from the drive Don’t want them to be a nuisance and I know branches will droop with fruit. Probably will set back about 15’+. I want them close enough to watch the fruit mature and far enough to prune for health not traffic. I’ll need to leave space for farm equipment.
Thanks for the input! I’ll have to look into that rootstock. I definitely don’t know enough about rootstock yet to be settled on what to get. I know just enough to realize I made mostly wrong decisions last order. Do you have a recommended vendor for doglo rootstocks? I’m planning to do a wholesale rootstock order this year so I can graft plenty for me to plant and sell off the extras to help fund the addiction.
Disease resistant and long lived are big for me. I’m in my late 20s so I’d prefer something that will last 50+ years. I may not need it that long, but I like to be optimistic. If nothing else I have kids who could enjoy them for 50-60 years.
Just keep branches hanging over the driveway quite high- or the trees at least 10’ from the border of the driveway and space them at least 15’ apart although I believe, in the long run, 20’ is preferable on 111 if you have plenty of space. Most often I plant them 15’ apart in rows separated by 20, so I suppose 17-18’ spacing would be similar. The distance from the driveway is important unless you want to keep the trees quite tall. Branches loaded with fruit will permanently droop.
You might try to figure out what varieties are resistant to Marsonnina leaf blotch if you don’t want to do summer fungicide sprays to keep leaves on the trees. .
I need to be able to get a box truck and farm equipment down the driveway, so definitely will go with spacing back rather than relying on pruning that high. I’d like to have at least a branch or two in arm’s reach. I appreciate the experience on M111. I should be able to do 20’ on the apples if that will be best long term. My main concern is to have few problems ahead
I’m not familiar with Marsonnina, though after googling pictures, I may have had a bit of it on my apple this summer. There are so many potential diseases with apples, and so many varieties out there. I think I’ll probably end up testing grafts of many varieties before settling on the winners.
If nothing else I have kids who could enjoy them for 50-60 years.