The Art and Science of Backyard Fruit Production in Vermont

Planting and Caring for your Home Orchard

For many of our clients, harvesting their own apples, pears, cherries, plums, and other fruits from their home orchard is realizing part of their Vermont dream. Vermont’s climate presents both opportunities and challenges for home orchardists. Many hardy fruit varieties grow well and can produce good harvests here. However, Vermont’s cold winter temperatures, short and humid growing seasons, and the potential for late spring frosts necessitate careful planning.

Planting your orchard

Teacher’s Tree Service offers consultation and planting services to help our clients select and establish new trees and orchards. We can recommend and plant fruits that will thrive, given your site’s available space, sun exposure, and soil qualities. We can also help you understand and select appropriate cultivars for cross pollination and high fruit yields, and your fruit harvest preferences.

Some of the most popular fruits grown in Vermont include:

Apples: Apples are by far the most common fruit tree found in Vermont yards and orchards. Varieties like McIntosh, Honeycrisp, and Empire thrive in Vermont’s climate.
Pears: Hardy pear varieties, such as Bartlett and Bosc, grow well in Vermont. These trees often require skilled pruning to ensure good airflow and fruit production.
Cherries: Sweet cherries and tart varieties like Montmorency do well in Vermont’s cold winters.
Plums: European plums are also a good choice for Vermont growers, though they are more sensitive to late frosts. Popular varieties include ‘Green Gage’ and ‘Mount Royal’.
Peaches: While more temperamental, some hardy peach varieties can grow in Vermont’s warmer microclimates with some extra attention to care and pruning.
Blueberries, Blackberries and Raspberries: While not technically trees, these small fruits are also excellent for Vermont gardeners. They thrive in the acidic soil found in many areas of the state. You’ll find wild blackberries and raspberries growing along field edges and roads, and in where ecological disturbance favors

Pruning fruit trees for health, appearance and fruit production

When pruning fruit trees, our arborists strike a balance between tree health, appearance (shape) and fruit production. We schedule fruit tree pruning to maximize the benefits of pruning while minimizing the potential for pathogen infection and negative impacts to yield. Most fruit trees benefit from late winter-early spring pruning, while they and the pathogens that may attack them are still dormant. However, fruit trees benefit from deadwood pruning any time of year; proper pruning cuts to remove dead branches can help a tree heal quickly and limit decay.

We recommend having your fruit trees pruned early in their life and often to optimize their fruit production and lifespan. Structural pruning in the first few years after planting, when a tree is 1”-2” in caliper, is critical to create a strong branching architecture that will support the weight of ripening fruit for years to come. Pruning in later years continues to train the tree’s branches while also encouraging new healthy growth, removing dead or diseased wood, improving airflow through the canopy, and ensures that sunlight reaches all parts of the tree.

We prune fruit trees with the following goals:

Develop a strong structure to support heavy fruits and make harvest easier. This is especially critical in young trees.
Reduce pathogen infection potential and spread by removing dead and diseased branches, and allowing good air flow to help leaf and branch surfaces dry
Promote flower fertilization and fruit ripening by opening the canopy to sunlight
Minimize the size and number of pruning wounds that may serve as entry points for pathogens
Eliminate redundant, crossing, drooping and other malformed branches including water sprouts.
Enhance the appearance of your fruit trees by eliminating deadwood, maintaining visual balance, and controlling their growth rate, height and spread.
Re-invigorate older fruit trees so that they resume flowering and fruiting

Fertilizing to support overall health and fruit

Our deep root fertilizer is a proprietary blend of macro- and micro-nutrients with biochar and humic acid that we inject directly into the root zone of trees, below turf grasses. Domestic fruit trees have been developed to direct much of their energy toward flowering and fruiting, which are energetically expensive processes. We recommend fertilizing your trees in the spring to ensure that your trees have the nutrients, soil structure and microbial community they need to thrive.

Applying Integrated Pest Management

At Teacher’s Tree Service, we are committed practitioners of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), especially when it comes to home fruit production. We combine careful plant selection, monitoring, cultural practices, and biological controls, to manage pest populations sustainably. Our goal is to protect your trees and the environment by using the least invasive and least toxic methods possible.

What you can do for your fruit trees

In addition to selecting species and cultivars best suited to your site and regular, proper pruning, our arborists may also suggest other routine management that you can do to keep your trees healthy fruitful, including:

Watering your trees deeply (5-15 gallons of water once every three days, depending on tree size) during hot, dry summer conditions.
Composting or disposing of fallen leaves and fruit in autumn to eliminate pathogen
Wrapping the stems of your trees in the fall to guard against winter frost crack injury
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Fencing your trees during the winter to prevent deer, rabbits, voles and other herbivores from munching on them

Teacher’s Tree Service is passionate about local fruit production and dedicated to helping you get the most out of your backyard orchard or trees. Our knowledgeable arborists have years of experience working with fruit trees in New England, and we understand the unique challenges the region poses. Whether you’re new to growing fruit trees or a seasoned gardener, we offer personalized services that cater to your needs. Contact us today to make the most of your next harvest!

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For more information:

Nardozzi, Charlie. How to Grow: Apples. Gardening with Charlie Nardozzi. ttps://www.gardeningwithcharlie.com/how-to-grow-apples/

Hoover, Emily E., Emily S. Tepe, Annie Klodd, Marissa Schuh, and Doug Foulk. 2024. Growing Apples in the Home Garden. University of Minnesota Extension. https://extension.umn.edu/fruit/growing-apples

Johnson, Ken. 2023. Managing fire blight in apples and pears at home. Illinois Extension, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/2023-03-24-managing-fire-blight-apples-and-pears-home

Brown, Diane. 2024. Smart Gardening: Pruning and Training Backyard Apple and Pear Trees. Michigan State University Extension. https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/smart-gardening-pruning-and-training-backyard-apple-and-pear-trees

Bricault, Bob. 2014. Frost cracks in trees. Michigan State University Extension. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/frost_cracks_in_trees

Koetter, Rebecca and Michelle Grabowski. 2018. Black Knot. University of Minnesota Extension. https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/black-knot

Apple Scab. New England Tree Fruit Management Guide. https://netreefruit.org/apples/diseases/apple-scab