Backyard Orchard Culture in cold temperate climate?

Hi, gardeners!

I have been reading up on the concept called "Backyard Orchard Culture", which is basically a summer pruning strategy aimed to keep your fruit trees super small (2-3 m tall or even smaller), so as to allow you to have space enough to plant more varieties to get a longer ripening season along with making it easier to care for your plants.

As far as I can tell, the concept has mostly been adopted in California, where the idea seem to have originated. I have found basically no examples of it being practiced successfully in colder areas (I'm thinking northern USA, UK, northern Europe). I live in Scandinavia in the equivalent of a 6-7 USDA zone. I'm a little worried that a different climate with much weaker sun hampers the plants so that they will have a harder time surviving strong pruning along with cold and possibly wet winters. Does anyone here have any experience or idea of the possibility of practicing Backyard Orchard Culture (or similar pruning strategies) in colder climates?

I'm a newbie gardener with no one around me to ask, so I'm very thankful for any insight or thoughts on this!

 

Depends on what fruit trees you intend growing.
I've never heard of Back yard orchard culture.

Only thing I've come across is the fact that now days most fruit trees, with exceptions, can be found in either small growing varieties or on dwarfing rootstocks.

 

Don't want to take this thread off topic but man back yard orchard culture is a vibe I want to live my life by!

 

@IttyBittyGreenSpace

We do practice backyard orchard culture in the temperate climates such as the UK, except it is not given a specific term.

It is based on the idea that plants, in particular deciduous trees, have two flushes of growth: one during spring and one during the summer.

Prune in late winter/early spring to encourage growth, and prune in summer to prevent growth (ie to keep it to size).

Other people might do things differently, but for young fruit trees omit the summer pruning until you get the first crop.

 

Ah, that is very nice to hear! Okay, I'll keep in mind not to prune too much the first years.

Dwarf trees are a good idea, but even those grow much larger than 2-3 meters from what I hear, so I'd have to prune them a lot anyway. Some examples of trees on my optimistic want-list are chestnut, date plums, figs, blue bean, cherries, plum/mirabell, mullberries, apples, and pomegranates (a stretch - I know).

There are also some trees/shrubs that I'm not sure whether they take well to pruning or not, such as hawthorn, dogwood, siberian pea tree, Elaeagnus (silverberry?) species, and elder.

Another question about this kind of pruning strategy: I listened to a podcast with someone following this strategy, and they asked the question "Are there some trees that should not be pruned in the summer?", with the answer being "Yes, trees that ripen in the fall, like persimmon and figs. Trees whose fruits ripen after September are pruned when the trees go dormant. The rest are pruned right after the fruit harvest"

...But to me that sounds like a lot of the common fruit trees will need to be pruned only in winter, right? Or are fruit trees simply ripening later here than in California? And also, does that mean that you do no pruning at all before the fruit has ripened?

 

@IttyBittyGreenSpace
Summer pruning to restrict growth of fruit trees has been carried out for centuries. Fruit trees grown as cordons, fans and espaliers are traditionally pruned in summer.
More recently commercial orchards have been grown planted at a closer spacing and are pruned to restrict growth to make picking easier.
I grew cordon apples, pears and plums for some years and they didn't get above three metres tall.
The latest development is "fruit walls" where trees are planted 50cm apart and pruned in the summer to restrict width and height; this was developed in France to allow pruning with a hedge trimmer. In the UK details are different and it may not work in Southern Scandinavia.
Overall size of tree is dictated by the rootstock the tree is grafted onto and the variety.
I don't know what "date plums" are, figs are probably a non starter with you they are problematic in the North of England requiring a south facing wall. The same goes for sweet cherries. Pomegranates probably not; I know they have got smaller varieties of Sweet Chestnuts but even these are fairly big and I don't know how hardy they are in Scandinavia.
I would have a look around where you live and talk to some local gardeners about what and how they grow fruit trees, find out about local varieties. Talk to local suppliers of fruit trees. Try contacting the Scandinavian equivalent of the RHS. Try and find podcasts and videos from Scandinavia as these will cover your conditions. Maybe get hold of a couple of books on growing fruit.
One thing though you will have no problem with chilling period.