Now THAT'S a big question!

I live in the "Apple Capital of the World". Our area is mostly apples,
cherries, pears, and peaches. Grew-up around, and in the fruit
industry. It can be a lot of hard work.

You will need enough trees to make it worth the effort and expense
of your tools. You will need a lot of land to maintain proper spacing
between certain species, and the big one; an applicators permit.

You might be able to save some trouble by going totally organic, but
fruit trees are a lot of effort. I had a small cherry orchard many years
ago. My biggest headache was size. I was just too small. This may
sound rediculous but to be effecient, and worth the trouble you actually
need to produce about sixty tons/year, and no, that's not a big orchard.

I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but five fruit trees in the
yard just won't work well. People who are about the same size I was
complain of the birds (they will devistate a small orchard), tractor
rental (you can't buy a tractor with only 20 trees, the expense per
tree is too high), application (applicators won't bring their sprayers
by your place for just a few trees), pickers won't work for you (it's a
lot of work to pick just one mature cherry tree, and no one will come
and pick if you can't guarantee a full season of work) and on the list goes.

A guy I work with has a small pear orchard. Too much hard work and
high expenses. He's too small. makes enough to pay the taxes and
equipment, but I think that's about it.
Another guy I work with (if you call what he does "work") asked me
about a cherry orchard. I think it was less than 160 trees. I told him
to buy it if he can just keep his head above water for several years and
then sell the land at a profit, but with a small orchard he is taking a big
risk.

Well, not at all what you wanted to hear. I can ask some of the successful
growers I know what they would recommend for small scale production,
they may be of some help. A few people around here have a cherry
tree, or a pear tree in their yard. Most people have cut them down
because of the fines for spreading disease or pests, can't spray a single
tree, or are just tired of the mess and maintenance.

The easiest method I know of for good tonnage, and variety is to do
what I have done.

Glean.

I have had tons of apples, elderberries, and cherries offered to me
totally for free. The free pears, grapes, and plums have been in the hundreds of
pounds, and I have always had to pay to pick my own peaches. A few
years ago I was offered eight tons ( I only took two tons) of very nice
picked, and packed asparagus.

Sorry to have been a wet blanket but my experience has been that
gleaning is much easier. Maybe I should write a blog on how to glean, what equipment is needed, and how to preserve the gleaned foods.
Just gleaning and preserving can keep you busy for many hundreds of
hours each year.

Steve & Ellsworth, feel free to jump in and delete or edit my respose.
I may have come off as a little harsh. Just tried to present my experiences and a view of what friut trees can be like.

Now, if you want to raise chickens....

-Rick

Thanks for posting the reply about the book. I
plan to see if I can get a copy today. Hopefully
it will paint a rosier picture of small scale orcharding
than the gloomy outlook I gave. :lol:

-Rick

I didn't ever think about a big orchard,(I know why now). just looking for a few trees for the family but I didn't want to "replant" what I killed every 3 tears as well. I'll look up hat encyclopidia, Thanks

Here's some stuff for Washington state. http://agsyst.wsu.edu/vegtble.htm

If you click on the "Alternative Fruit Crops" link it takes you to a page that has a few pamphlets you can download for free.

Jeff

Thanks Ken, I'll check out Jerry.