Fruit Trees in the High Desert

Apple Blossoms

Spring is here and there is still some time left for planting fruit trees. Bare root season is all but over, but there are many fruit trees to choose from in containers at our local garden centers and nurseries.

Many fruit trees do quite well in our High Desert climate including peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, pears, apples, nectarines, pomegranates, figs and others. Which ever fruit trees you choose, make sure, by reading their tags, that they can handle our hardiness zones – generally Sunset zones 10 or 11, and USDA zone 8b for the Victor Valley area of southern California. Some surrounding areas with higher elevations need to allow for even colder winter temperatures. Fruit trees to avoid in the High Desert region – unless you have a special protected area or are willing to keep them in containers and cart them to a safe place for the winter – include most citrus, avocados, bananas and other “tropical” fruits. Apples that tend to do the best in this area include the more hard/crisp varieties such as Fuji, Granny Smith, Gala, Arkansas Black and others.

Most fruit trees have chill requirements – a certain number of hours below 45 degrees F. Try to avoid fruit tree varieties that have low chill requirements, which is anything with less than 500-600 hours below 45 degrees. If their chill requirement is met too early in the season, they will likely bud/flower too early in the spring and then a later cold snap will damage or kill the new buds, flowers and potential fruit.

Some fruit trees are “self fertile,” which means you only need to have one in order for the tree to produce fruit. However, many fruits, including most apples, cherries, plums and others require pollinator trees in order to produce fruit. Pay attention to the tags that are usually included with the tree as to whether or not the specific variety needs one or more pollinators and which varieties they suggest as pollinators (very helpful for finding potential pollinators that flower at the same time as the variety you want to pollinate). Some fruits will only require one other variety, while others such as Arkansas Black apple require two different pollinators (Granny Smith and Golden delicious are often suggested for Arkansas Black). These pollinators and desired varieties need to be planted within 50 feet of each other. The bonus is that they will all get fruit. If your space is limited, one way around having multiple trees (desired variety and pollinators) is to get what I call a “salad” tree – one tree with different varieties grafted together. My apple tree is such a tree and includes Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji, Braeburn and Jonagold all on one tree. I get a nice selection of apples, but a lot fewer individual fruits than if I had a separate tree for each one. Although more expensive than single variety trees, these types of trees are also available for pears, cherries and others.

Young fruit trees should not be pruned in their first year except to remove any dead or broken branches. Let them grow a year before pruning to develop a good branch structure. The extra branches and leaves can help shade the young tree’s tender trunk until real bark is formed. When the time comes to prune your tree(s), it should be done in the winter.