The Home Orchard Handbook: A Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Fruit Trees Anywhere

by Cem Akin, Leah Rottke

Overview

Crisp apples, tart lemons, lush figs, tender peaches—imagine the bounty of a late-summer farmer’s market, right in your backyard! Learning how to plant and care for fruit trees is a desirable, accessible activity for a wide range of people. It’s a natural extension of many gardeners’ repertoires, and the investment yields generations of results. Growing your own fruit ensures a fresh, delicious, abundant harvest for your family and friends for years to come. Fruit trees diversify a region’s agricultural landscape and ecosystems, attracting pollinating bees, songbirds, and other desirable visitors. And cultivating orchards on your own decreases your reliance on grocery store distribution channels and boosts sustainability.

Inside The Home Orchard Handbook, you'll find:

—Strategies for choosing your orchard's site, taking into consideration soil quality, sun exposure, microclimates, drainage, and more

—Information on plant selection, including what types of fruit trees do well in certain areas and how to decipher critical concepts such as "chill hours," "cultivars," "bareroot," and "cross-pollination"

—Guidance on aftercare, including in-depth watering, composting, and preventative care schedules to keep your backyard orchard fruitful for years

—Advice on troubleshooting diseases, conditions, and non-beneficial insects using only humane, organic remedies

—General tips on jamming, dehydrating, storing, and otherwise making the most of your orchard’s harvest with delicious recipes from chefs Tal Ronnen and Diana Stobo

Start growing your own fruit trees wherever you are with The Home Orchard Handbook!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592537129
Publisher:	Quarry Books
Publication date:	08/01/2011
Series:	Backyard Series
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	275,414
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Cem Akin and Leah Rottke are key members of the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF), an award-winning international nonprofit charity dedicated to planting fruitful trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water. FTPF's grounbreaking mission benefits the environment, human health, and animal welfare—all at once! For more information please visit http://www.ftpf.org.

Cem Akin and Leah Rottke are key members of the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF), an award-winning international nonprofit charity dedicated to planting fruitful trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat global warming, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water. FTPF's grounbreaking mission benefits the environment, human health, and animal welfare—all at once! For more information please visit http://www.ftpf.org.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Fruit Tree 101

Ancient Orchard Poetry

Environmental Benefits

Well-being

Two Tigers, One Rat, and a Fig

Chapter 2: Site Selection

Room Enough for Fruit Trees

Sunlight

Air Circulation

Soil

Know Your Substrate!

Soil Drainage

Water

Managing Microclimates

Planting Solutions for Small or Urban Spaces

Raised Beds

Container-grown Trees

Chapter 3: Plant Selection

Fruit Tree Basics: Roots and Shoots

Rootstocks

Fruitwood

Days to Harvest

Graft Unions

Pollination

Fruit Tree Intelligence

Chill Hours and Climate

Selecting Fruit Trees

Get Exotic!

Tree Size

Tree Transport

A Family Affair!

Storage

Chapter 4: Planting

Timing the Planting

Spotting the Layout

Tools

Site Preparation

Planting a Containerized Tree

Planting a Bareroot Tree

Checking Depth and Orientation

Backfill

Berms

Mulch

Staking

Planting Procedure Checklist

Chapter 5: Irrigation and Fertilization

Irrigation

Water Needs

Flood Irrigation

Sprinkler Irrigation

Micro-irrigation

Watering Schedule Guidelines

Watering Schedule Comparisons

Rainwater Harvesting

Fertilization

Macronutrients, Secondary Nutrients, and pH

Building Healthy Soil

What Is Compost Tea?

Organic Options for Citrus Trees

Chapter 6: Pruning and Weeding

Basics

Tools

Root Pruning

Cuts

Forms

Thinning

Mature Tree Rejuvenation

Topping

Rules of Thumb

When to Prune

Weeding

Weeds Wanted!

Companion Planting and Permaculture

Chapter 7: Prevention, Troubleshooting, and Controls

Right Tree, Right Place

Orchard Cleanup

Insects, Mites, and Nematodes

Diseases

Environmental Disorders

Animal Exclusion

Chapter 8: Enjoying the Harvest

Dehydrate Your Orchard

Preserving Your Harvest Through Canning

Jamming with Chef Tal Ronnen

Assorted Fruits: Seasonal Fruit in Papillote by Chef Tal

Apples and Cashews: Celery Root Soup with Granny Smith Apples by Chef Tal

Avocados and Lemons: Summer Chopped Salad by Chef Tal

Grapefruits: Shiso Bites by Chef Tal

Apples and Dates: Raspberry Applesauce by Diana Stobo

Apples: Caramel Apple Tart by Diana Stobo

Apricots and Cherries: Cherry Apricot Crisp by Diana Stobo

Peaches: Summer Peach Cobbler by Diana Stobo

Tangerines: Creamy Tangerine-tini by Diana Stobo

Chapter 9: Beyond the Home Orchard

Community Orchard Committee

Outreach

Event Day

Community Orchard Planting Checklist

Community Orchards Speak Volumes!

Contact FTPF

Glossary

Recommended Reading

Index

Image Credits

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

"Akin and Rottke (executive director and volunteer arborist, respectively, Fruit Tree Planting Fdn.) have developed a creative, upbeat map for growing fruit trees. The earthy, positive vibe of the book is set by some preliminary 'Ancient Orchard Poetry' and delves not only into the how of planting trees but the why, including environmental and social benefits to orchard growing. The authors encourage readers to get to know their particular environments before planting, based on the notion of 'right tree, right place.' Their advice is easy to understand and heavily illustrated with useful, not just pretty, pictures and drawings. This is truly a one-stop shop for all things related to the personal orchard; the majority of the book is a how-to, but sections on canning, preserving, and recipes for cooking with your harvest also are included as is further information on the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and its work in creating community orchards around the world. Verdict: Solid advice with lots of extras, this offering will appeal generally to those interested in environmental concerns and organizations that address them and will specifically inspire gardeners and arborists who have some fruiting tree experience." — Jenny Contakos, Art Inst. of Virginia Beach, Library Journal XPress

From the Publisher