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Thu, Oct 16, 14 at 6:32
| Hello, I am currently, well still, in the process of planting our garden. I decided to go with the dense planting of the backyard orchard culture method. Based on their template if you want to do hedgerow planting you would do so by leaving 30 inches between each tree. This seems too little for me so I left 3 feet between each tree (some are a little more). Because I started planting the trees before I discovered the method I have plants that are irregularly spaced. After digging out one citrus tree to create proper spacing I decided to leave them alone and work around it. I have a few trees spaces 5 feet apart and based on the template I could plant another tree there thus leaving 30" (2.5 feet) gap between each. I don't feel like planting big trees and neither do I want to leave that gap. So I want to plant fruit (or spice) trees or shrubs there that are naturally small and would grow in tropical/subtropical climate. I live in Dubai but we are able to grow any fruits that are tropical and subtropical. I would like someone to point me into the right direction as to what edible plants are naturally small. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| guava and papaya. |
This post was edited by glib on Thu, Oct 16, 14 at 18:48
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- Posted by larry_gene USDA8b-OregonPDX (My Page) on Thu, Oct 16, 14 at 23:04
| Calamondin. Also certain dwarf pomegranates. |
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- Posted by meredith_e 7B Piedmont NC (My Page) on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 1:06
| A dwarf mulberry would be nice, I think :) I have one that is quite small compared to most mulberries. And if herbs are OK, definitely rosemary shrubs, imho. The bees like the early flowers very much, too. |
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- Posted by dubai-gardener 10 (My Page) on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 14:11
| Thanks for your replies everyone. Will keep it in mind. Hope someone could reply with more trees as I have a few more spaces "to fill". |
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| of course none of these would fit with the "spindle" technique you want to apply, in an arid region. They need deep roots, and space. |
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- Posted by dubai-gardener 10 (My Page) on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 14:42
| Well I'll try and see. What you are saying glib does seem logical but in real life things sometimes work differently. Our soil is sand - and I don't mean sandy, it's just pure sand. In summer it dries almost instantly. So if a tree is far from other trees the soil around it always dries faster. But the soil of trees that are close together always stays moist even when the temp is in triple digits. So trees spaced farther apart are using up more resources like water and fertilizer ( we need to water our plants regularly otherwise they will all die cuz a few days without water and the soil is totally dry and the trees show heat stress, and we need to apply fertilizer more often because it just washes away). We have some shade trees that are planted pretty close together and they are thriving, they have grown over 10 feet in less than 2 years. We have to constantly prune them to keep them in control. I just hope that the fruit trees would show te same behavior. |
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