Zone 6 Orchard Plan Feedback request + pics!

[PHorchard]

Hi all! New member here and I’d love to get some feedback on our home orchard plan for spring 2024 - species I’ve chosen for zone 6, spacing, maintenance, lighting, literally anything you can suggest! I’ve spent quite a lot of time researching the forums and gleaned some GREAT info, so thanks in advance.

We essentially have a blank slate with turf grass, full sun on a slight slope in zone 6, Kansas City. Pictured are a google aerial view with plans, as well as a picture from the south end of the orchard near the edge of the perimeter. The white premier line is the edge of the west end of the property. Every tick mark is 5ft, with the total area being roughly 2,500ft sq.

The two snaking lines through the orchard plans are “paths”, that I plan to keep clear over time, filling in the other areas with orchard complementing species, possibly berries given enough room. To the east of the east path, closest to the house, will be landscaped selections of natives for all the amazing reasons we plant natives.

We’re starting the orchard spring ‘24 with 5 bareroot trees. Despite being a bit more difficult to handle in zone 6, I’m really wanting stone fruit - Shiro + Hollywood plum, one Redhaven peach are on the plans. The other two blank trees I am undecided on and could use recommendations. Those two locations have the most sun being away from houses, but not by too much.

Goals:
-grow fruit most years
-pretty trees
-great “walk through” experience
-fill in orchard over time (more on the “permaculture” end of the spectrum vs. trees plugged into turf grass)

Currently, the only things we have planted in the orchard section are clove currant, Missouri giant currant, and two Japanese Honey Berry varieties. These are located on the north part of the orchard up against the sidewalk (small circles on the plan). I wanted them to act as a hedge on the orchard perimeter and use the sidewalk as easy picking territory.

Any/all feedback is welcome, especially as a newbie to orcharding!

[PHorchard]

Here is a picture from the south end of the orchard, basically at the perimeter. The soccer goal is the start of the neighbors property.

[Richard]

Hi there Josh, welcome to GrowingFruit! I’m sure other zone 6 growers will be chiming in.

[poncirusguy]

fruit that ripens early are able to ripen well in the high solstice sun. Late ripening fruits need to be place so that they get lots of sun when it is lower in the sky

[Olpea]

Hi Josh. Welcome!

Redhaven is a good choice for this area. It’s hard to tell from the pic, but your property looks pretty flat. If so, that could mean you have a water drainage issue, you may need to solve, before planting your peach tree.

I’m sure you’ve probably read that peach trees need well drained soil. But many people around here don’t realize what is well drained soil. Most of my customers who want to start growing their own peaches seem to think if they never see standing water, that soil is well drained, but that’s not the case.

There are many ways available online for folks to test the drainage of their soil. One of the most practical (and easiest) ways I tell people to how to test is simply wait for one of our deluge rains. We just had one of those south of KC last week when it rained about 6" in two days. Wait for a really heavy rain, when you see ditches full of water. Wait about 30 min after the rain, and walk out to area you are planning to plant your peach tree. Push your foot really hard into the ground. If you see any water sponging up around your foot, that means that soil is completely saturated with water. That is not well drained soil.

Water saturated soil lacks oxygen, and starts killing the fine hairs of peach roots fairly quickly. Anaerobic soil takes much longer to kill major peach roots, but will kill the root hairs fairly quickly. What that means to you, is that the peach tree won’t die from temporarily water saturated soil, but it won’t grow much either. It will lack vigor, take longer to fill in its space, and take longer to fruit.

Poorly drained soil is a relatively easy problem to fix. You simply have to plant your peach tree in a raised planting. A raised planting doesn’t mean you have to build a box and fill it with dirt, although you can do that if you wish, but all that is required is a good amount of soil mounded up.

I’ve built raised plantings by hand and with machinery. If you want to build a really good mound, you can rent a standup dingo & trailer to haul it. You can use it to dig some soil out of someplace on your property or a willing neighbor’s property (perhaps to build a fish pond?) and mound up the soil for your peach tree. A nice big mound 10’ across will give excellent results. Don’t worry if your mound is mostly clay. Clay will drain fine, if it’s raised up above the surrounding soil.

If that isn’t practical for you, you can build a mound by hand. That really takes a minimum of 15 - five gallon buckets of soil. That’s really the bare minimum though. 30 five gallon buckets would be better. You can hand dig those buckets in a place you don’t mind a hole or low spot on your property.

You’ll also need to keep a weed/turf free area around around your peach tree. This can be done by solarizing, mulching, or careful use of herbicides. Peach trees don’t compete well with weeds, especially turf.

Asian plums can be more “iffy” in our area because they bloom earlier than Euro plums. Shiro is one of the more reliable Asian plums. I had some serious black knot issues with Shiro, but many people on the forum grow it without black knot issues. I’ve not grown Hollywood.

You mentioned in another post that you are near the MO river. If you are on the south side of the river, that should help considerably with spring frost issues. In that case I would expect you would almost never get frosted out. Since you are in KC proper, that will help too. The city has less spring frost problems than the farmland surrounding it. All those houses produce heat, which warms things up a bit. KC is almost always warmer in the winter/spring mornings than my orchard.

I like it that you are giving you trees plenty of room to grow. You give up some varieties by allowing more space, but more space makes the trees easier to manage, imo.

[PHorchard]

Thanks for the great insight, Olpea! Your peach review solidified my decision for Redhaven.

Water drainage - the orchard is on a gentle slope, but it sounds like it couldn’t hurt to build a mound for the tree anyways.

Any other fruit tree recommendations you might have for the plot? Thanks again!

[Olpea]

@PHorchard

Any other fruit tree recommendations you might have for the plot?

For a plum, one of my best ones in terms of production was Rosy Gage. Also very tasty.