Home Fruit Growing

Growing Fruit Trees, Pruning Fruit Trees, Berries, Vines and Citrus

Study it all in this Fruit Growing Course for Home Gardeners

Grow an abundance of fresh fruit, berries and nuts, efficiently and economically. Preserve your harvest and trade or give away excess surplus produce to your friends and neighbours.

Learn how to raise soil fertility, choose the best fruits for your situation, and grow them in a way which controls pests and diseases without using dangerous chemicals.

Cool and warm climate fruits are covered in this course; you are also given the option to concentrate your study on the types of fruits which are of most interest to you.

Lesson Structure

There are 6 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
2. Soils, site preparation & planning.
3. General Cultural Practices
4. Tree Fruits
5. Nuts and Vines
6. Berries

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

What You Will Do

• Research information you can within reason (eg: leaflets, booklets, details about advisory services etc) which relate to fruit growing in your locality.
• Select part of a home garden where the owner would like to grow fruit. Consider the good and bad points about the site and the suitability of different types of fruits to the situation.
• Take a sample of soil from an area you might consider growing fruit in. Using the method set out in the gardening manual provided with the course, name the soil.
• Look at the buds on the wood of three different species of fruit. Draw what you see, and label where you think the buds are fruit buds, and where you think they are vegetative buds.
• Observe the way in which fruit trees are trained or pruned in your locality.
  • Visit a local hardware store, nursery or irrigation shop and look at drip and micro irrigation equipment which is for sale. Take note of the various components of these systems, how they fit together and how they work.
• Identify pests and diseases in a garden which you have visited.
• Select different fruits from those you have read about which are grown in your area. For each one, research which varieties of that fruit are commonly grown, and why they are grown.
  • Plan the development of a berry growing area for a backyard. Contact companies, visit nurseries and check the availability, quality and prices of berry plants you would like to grow on your site (or proposed site). Work with an imaginary site if you do not have a real life situation to deal with.

It is a wonderful, healthy, and satisfying experience, to be able to pick and eat fruit from your own garden.

This course aims to expand your capacity to do just that.

You, like every other student in this course, will have your own very specific desires and needs when embarking upon this course.

From the outset, please understand that the course notes are only part of what you will potentially learn.
The experiences you have through your set tasks, and if you choose, the use of the school’s many support services can provide you with a range of varied learning experiences according to your own specific needs.

HOW THEN DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TO GROW?

It is difficult to go wrong provided you do the following:

• You must have or learn how to grow the fruits you choose to grow.
• Check and be sure that you can grow each particular crop cheaper than what you might buy the product for ... BEWARE,
  even though it may seem ridiculous, it is often possible to buy something for less than it might cost you to grow it.
• Consider the need of alternative crops under consideration and select ones you need most or use most.
• Consider the crop's keeping quality. Crops which keep for short periods only (eg: Peaches) are more of a risk than ones which keep well (eg: almonds).
• Consider the relationship between cost outlay and return. Some crops require large capital outlay before any return can be obtained (eg: Walnuts... property & labour etc. can be tied up for up to 10 years before reasonable crops start to be obtained from the trees).
• How suitable is that crop to the soil & climate of your area.
• Consider your own experience & technical ability in relation to the ease of production of the particular crop being considered. Some crops are very difficult to grow; others are easy. If you are inexperienced, start with the easy ones.
• Consider the time the crop takes to mature and length of production of the particular crop considered (eg: strawberries
  can be harvested 6 months after planting if grown correctly. Pear trees take 4 years before you get a worthwhile crop,
  but will keep bearing for over 100 years).
• What are your existing resources (eg: Manpower, tools, area available, money etc) and what crops are these
  resources suited to.

  For books related to fruit growing click here to visit the ACS online bookstore