Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
garden_of_simple

Closely planted semi dwarfs

garden-of-simple
9 years ago

I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't, apparently. I normally research the heck out of everything, but this weekend I had my 15 year old son helping me with all sorts of yard work and moved without thinking.

We have two 4 year old semi dwarf apple trees that have been really struggling. I also picked up a cherry and peach on sale, even though it's kinda late in the season. The apples were nursery orders, the cherry and peach were big box impulse buys at a great price (in types I wanted anyway).

Anyway, I decided to transplant the worst of the two apple trees, they were 15 feet apart. Now? 8.
The cherry and peach are just over 8.

Bad, yeah? If it helps, the cherry and peach are 8 feet, then there is a 14 foot gap, then the two apple trees (so each tree has one "open" side).

I could reasonably get them to 10 feet apart (with some grumbling from my teen). I would move the peach closer to the apple and the non transplanted apple would get transplanted closer to the peach.

Thoughts? I know ideal spacing is more like 15 feet, but I've read I can prune smaller (and I likely would keep it more like 8-10, if I could cause I'm short)