Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees

by Ann Ralph

Overview

Grow your own apples, figs, plums, cherries, pears, apricots, and peaches in even the smallest backyard! Ann Ralph shows you how to cultivate small yet abundant fruit trees using a variety of specialized pruning techniques. With dozens of simple and effective strategies for keeping an ordinary fruit tree from growing too large, you’ll keep your gardening duties manageable while at the same time reaping a bountiful harvest. These little fruit trees are easy to maintain and make a lovely addition to any home landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612120546
Publisher:	Storey Publishing, LLC
Publication date:	12/30/2014
Pages:	168
Sales rank:	144,713
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Ann Ralph is a fruit tree specialist with twenty years of nursery experience. She teaches pruning classes in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in the Sierra foothills near Jackson, California.

Table of Contents

Introducing the Little Fruit Tree

Chapter 1 - Small Is Beautiful
Chapter 2 - The Short Fruit Tree Method
Chapter 3 - The Elementary Principles of Pruning
Chapter 4 - Choosing Varieties
Chapter 5 - The Fruit Tree Comes Home
Chapter 6 - The Conversation Begins: The Hardest Pruning Cut You'll Ever Have To Make
Chapter 7 - The Conversation Continues
Chapter 8 - How Much Water Does a Fruit Tree Need?
Chapter 9 - Working with Mother Nature
Chapter 10 - Ripe Fruit
Chapter 11 - Entering the Zone of Equilibrium

Appendix

What People are Saying About This

Pam Pierce

“This backyard fruit tree owner's manual should come with every fruit tree, or, better yet, get it while you are still deciding what trees to plant.”

Novella Carpenter

"Beautiful and essential. Ann Ralph is your good-natured guide to the sometimes intimidating task of planting bare root fruit trees, thinning fruit, and that nail-biter of them all: pruning."

Mike Madison

“Ann Ralph argues her case for pruning with such deep knowledge, and wit, and obvious affection for fruit trees, that you cannot help but be converted.  A delightful and useful book!”

Editorial Reviews

…Ann Ralph demystifies the planting and pruning of [fruit trees]…Her instructions for cuts are presented in a reassuring manner, and she includes tips to combat stress—in the trees, not the gardener.

The New York Times Book Review - Dominique Browning

12/01/2014
In his accessible style, Ralph propagates several new ideas about fruit trees to the backyard gardener. The first is that fruit trees should be small—certainly no taller than the gardener herself. This allows better access to the fruit, and makes managing crop size easier—just enough plums rather than so many that everyone in the household resents anything round and purple. The second is to prune in winter for shape and in summer for size. Winter pruning inspires growth, whereas summer pruning keeps the tree small. The third is to plant bare root trees and make a severe initial prune, the so-called head cut, at knee length. Ralph keeps the rest simple enough. Water infrequently but deeply, mind pests in a live-and-let-live relationship, and pick when ripe—or, in the case of pears, pre-ripe. And she swears by worm castings for a variety of fruit tree ailments. This will be a thrilling read for the backyard farmer wants fruit all year round from a small, sunny space. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Beautiful and essential. Ann Ralph is your good-natured guide to the sometimes intimidating task of planting bare root fruit trees, thinning fruit, and that nail-biter of them all: pruning."—Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

“This backyard fruit tree owner's manual should come with every fruit tree, or, better yet, get it while you are still deciding what trees to plant.”—Pam Pierce, author of Golden Gate Gardening and Wildly Successful Plants: Northern California

“Ann Ralph argues her case for pruning with such deep knowledge, and wit, and obvious affection for fruit trees, that you cannot help but be converted.  A delightful and useful book!”—Mike Madison, author of Blithe Tomato

From the Publisher