How much can I seperate fruit trees?

Question

I have a stella cherry tree, a meyer lemon tree, a dwarf avocado tree, and a washington navel orange tree, each is ea 5 gallon in size. I want to plant them in my back yard, but do not have that much room in the side of the house. I have about 25 feet lengh by 9 feet width, I bought root barriers for the width since I don't want any root problems in the future. What is the minimum space between the trees I should plant them, and in what sequence should I plant them? Thank you.

Answer 1

I would not plant them closer together than 12 ft X 12 ft. . Of course you do not have that much room. With the 25 ft length, you only have room to plant them 5 ft apart, allowing 5 ft at each end of the row. If the row is North to South, plant the shortest tree on the south end (so a tall tree does not shade a small tree), Avocado, Cherry, Orange, Lemon. If the row is east to west, the order really does not matter, they will all have a southern (sunny) exposure. You really do not have enough room for 4 trees, but it will take 5 or 6 years for them to begin crowding ( about the time you will have a significant amount of fruit). Why not plant the cherry and avocado in the front yard? The cherry will have beautiful flowers in the spring. Avocados make attractive trees.

Answer 2

you cannot line them up, so stagger them in a zigzag fashion... and be sure that one is not going to shade the other!.... you may have to not use the lot line at all.... but go across the back yard.... a southwest orientation would be good, lining them up so that each gets sun from that direction for the longest time possible..............