Before you plant, read our tips on planting fruit trees. Buying your first fruit tree or establishing a new home orchard? We share some easy to follow guidelines.
Table Of Contents
- Introduction
- Choosing your tree
- Grafted or From Seed
- Self Pollinating or Not
- Planting time in South Africa
- Spacing
- Preparation
- Step By Step: How To Plant A Fruit Tree
- Digging the hole
- Watering
- Hugul layer
- Soil enrichments
- Mix your soil refill
- Fill the hole
- Tamping down
- Final Treats
- Mulching
- Initial Care
- What To Plant With Your Fruit Tree: The Fruit Tree Guild
- Five Categories of Plants For Guilds
- The Biomass Team
- The Herb Team
- The Allium-ish Team
- The Berries
- More Ideas
- Summary
Intro
Let us give you some tips on planting fruit trees. We’re living off grid on half an acre in the Western Cape of South Africa, and we have a beautiful young food forest in progress. So far we’ve planted around 30 fruit trees ourselves, with more planned! In this article we’re going to share what we have learned both through studies and experience, about planting fruit trees.
1. Choosing your tree
1.1. Grafted or From Seed
Before you plant your first fruit tree, decide whether you want to plant from seed or grafted.
Apart from getting to harvest faster, grafting has the added benefit of producing true-to-type fruits.
Whereas from-seed can have many genetic variations, that can result in a less than lovely fruit very different from the type you planted. That’d be quite disappointing after a 10 year wait.
Planting grafted fruit trees: Keep an eye on the graft line, it should be visible about 5-15cm from the ground on the main stem. Sometimes you can see two different paint colours, other times you’ll see a darkish line in the bark. If you get any new growth sprouting from below the graft line, you need to remove it. That growth is coming from the root stock, not the fruit tree type you’re growing, and will take nutrients away from the main plant.

1.2. Self Pollinating or Not
Another thing to look into during the planning phase to planting fruit trees: Check whether the tree is open-pollinated, or need a pollinator. There’s no point in planting fruit trees that won’t fruit!
Open pollinated: This means it’ll bear fruit on its own. Although it will be happier and bear more fruit with another of its kind nearby, you can still get away with having just one in your garden.
As a rule of thumb, apricots, nectarines, peaches and sour cherries can self pollinate. While apples, pears, plums and sweet cherries need a pollinator. So, one apricot tree will bear fruit on it’s own, but you’ll need to have two apple trees to get apples.
2. Planting time in South Africa
When it comes to planting fruit trees, is there a right and wrong time? Yes!
In general, avoid planting new fruit trees during the hottest time of year, during the coldest time of year (especially if you get frost or extremely low temperatures), or when they are fruiting or flowering.
As winter comes to an end, around August is one of the best times to plant fruit trees in our South African climate.
Deciduous trees are dormant in winter, but come spring they wake up with vigour and expend much energy on growth and rejuvenation. So having them situated in ground just before they spring back to life is perfect. Just make sure you plant after the last frost – you don’t want to lose all that tender new growth!

3. Spacing
How far apart to plant your fruit trees will depend on a number of factors. From space available, to the reason you’re growing the fruit, to the resources you have at hand, for example.
Many people want to plant as many fruit trees as possible in the space they have. This is called intensive planting. Bear in mind, under these conditions you will need to keep a watchful eye on soil and tree health. Your trees may strain to get everything they need when in direct competition from all sides. You may need to prune aggressively each year, add soil enhancements every season, and water consistently to keep them healthy.
Alternatively, you may choose to plant fewer fruit trees and space them out according to the final spread they can reach if left alone to just grow. This generally means much bigger trees, and therefore that you’ll be able to plant less fruit trees in your space.
We have tried to find the balance between these two approaches. We’ve planted all of our fruit trees 2.5 to 3.5 meters apart from each other.
The way our plot is laid out, the trees run in two rows along the west side of the property and in one row on the east side of the property, with our house somewhere in the middle.
On the right is a drone shot of the top half of our plot taken in 2019/2020, when we had just started putting in our first fruit trees (circles).
While you’re in the planning phase of planting fruit trees, you might be wondering which plants can safely be planted near each other.

If you’ve heard that planting a lemon and an orange tree too close together can result in sour oranges – you’ve been misled! Cross pollination can occur, and it’s generally a good thing, as it results in more fruit production. The fruit borne by the trees will be true to the tree’s type. However, the seeds of those fruit, if grown, may produce a tree that bears traits from both types of fruit, for example a sour orange.
4. Preparation
When you get to physically planting your fruit trees, remember that trees tend to go into a bit of shock when planted out. They can take a little while to adjust to their new surroundings. To lessen this effect, treat your tree like a seedling – hardening it off (but keeping the soil in the pot well watered) in its new environment for a few days. Make sure to give it a thorough soaking before planting.
Conventional wisdom advises that when planting fruit trees, you should dig a 1m cube (1m deep, 1m x 1m wide), and fill it with compost for each tree. This isn’t necessarily the best approach for your tree.
As soon as the roots reach the edges of the cube, it’s going to be thrust into a completely new environment. Growth likely slows down or stops completely at this point, and in severe cases, the tree can become unhealthy or die.
In clay soil, the roots can struggle to break the confines of the the flat walls of the cube you’ve diligently carved out for it. This can result in the tree’s roots becoming “pot bound” (i.e. wrapping around itself and getting less and less nutrition).

Step By Step: How To Plant A Fruit Tree
Dig the hole
Dig a hole that is at a minimum twice the size of the existing root ball (size of the pot or bag), maximum a meter. You can dig in a little wider as you go down, if you like, to mimic the spread of the roots outwards.
Lay a tarp, mat or feed bags down to throw the soil onto as you dig.
Be sure to make rough edges, lines and small holes into the walls of your hole for the roots to purchase onto and through, later on.

WAter
If the soil is very dry: Fill the hole with water and leave it to drain and rest for a day.
If you have clay soil that takes days to drain, you can just thoroughly wet the walls all the way around with a hosepipe until the hole is about 2/3 full of water.
You want to rehydrate as much of the soil surrounding the tree as possible, but don’t waterlog it and create an anaerobic environment.
HUGUL LAYER
Throw in a layer of decomposing wood, twigs, cardboard, kitchen scraps and manure.
I call it the “Hugel” layer after the traditional hugelkultur bed building method.
This bottom later has many benefits. For clay soils, the decomposed material will enrich the clay below, making it much nicer for the tree’s roots when they finally arrive. In dry soils and sandy soils, it adds the needed biomass to help retain a bit more water and nutrients, instead of everything draining away like a sieve.

Mix your soil enrichments
You can use whatever you like, there are tons of awesome options. Compost, bone meal, vermicompost, organic fertilizers, kelp, wood ash (“biochar” if you’re being fancy), volcanic dust, to name a few.
We generally use a mixture of homemade compost (a heaped wheelbarrow full), bio ganic pellets (a few handfuls), and volcanic ash (a few more handfuls). Obviously if you’ve got a smaller tree and thus smaller hole, adjust accordingly.
Don’t be too heavy handed here, as too many nutrients can cause imbalances, and too much fertilizer can burn a plant’s roots. More is not always better.
Mix your soil refill
Now it’s time to treat the soil you dug out of the hole.
Divide it into 4 rough piles.
Mix your soil enrichments into your 4 piles, roughly adding the least amount to your first pile, more into your second, and so on, so that pile 4 has the most amount of goodness and the first pile has the least.
Backfill the hole
Fill your hole starting with pile 1, the pile with the least soil enrichments added. Then pile 2, then pile 3. Stop refilling when your hole depth is equal to the size of your tree’s current pot / bag.
Gently remove your tree from its pot or bag, and then very gently give the roots a little wiggle to loosen them up if they’re stiffly interwoven. This helps them break out of that circular pattern and start exploring outwards faster.
Place the root ball in the middle of the hole, then fill in with the remainder of pile 3 and finally 4 around it.
The idea here, is that you’re giving the plant maximum nutrition to cushion the transplant shock, and provide everything it needs to establish itself quickly. As it gets bigger, it goes deeper, and slowly gets introduced to (and adapts to) the real soil environment it’ll be growing in. Less shock, more sustained growth.
Build the soil up to 1-2cm past the root line, you can heap the soil a little because it’ll naturally compress down once you water. Don’t bury the up the stem.

Gently tamp down
Push down firmly but gently with your hands to secure your tree in place, and make sure its support pole is pressed in deep and tight.
Don’t stomp the soil!
Always try to avoid walking over productive soil.
Air in the soil is essential for soil health. Stepping on it compresses it, meaning all the good bacteria, gogos, mycelial network, and roots suffer from a lack of oxygen and space.

OPTIONAL: Final treats
I usually like to add a few last treats to the top of the soil, especially if it was a very big hole, to make sure the root ball gets some good nutrients from the first watering. I usually mix up some worm tea with my homemade fertilizer tea and give it a cup of that, with a good watering.
My homemade fertilizer tea is a mixture of rain water, banana peels (potassium, phosphorus and calcium), comfrey leaves (potassium, potash, nitrogen and B12) and borage (nitrogen, potassium and calcium). And anything else I throw in it occasionally, like tansy. It brews and gets topped up all year.
Mulch
Create a border around the tree approximately 1m or so in diameter. Keep grass and weeds out of this area. No plants are fans of grass, but fruit trees especially dislike it.
Mulch the area with a thick layer (+-5cm) of mulch, being careful to leave a gap around the base of the tree. Never place mulch up against the trunk / stem – it can cause rot, and even ringbark the tree.
Mulching will help prevent grass and weeds from taking root on top of the tree’s roots, causing competition and putting the tree under strain. It’ll also help retain moisture in the soil and regulate soil temperature.

Initial Care
After planting your fruit trees, make sure to water regularly (once a week or every two weeks) for the first year. In winter when the tree goes dormant, you can dramatically reduce watering (or stop completely if you’re in a winter rainfall area).
Every spring, give the tree a good feed to fuel it’s regeneration, and again in autumn when the tree begins storing nutrients to overwinter. You can use any soil enrichment method you like, as discussed above in the How To section.
For the first two years in ground (in the case of grafts), it’s recommended to remove any flowers or fruits the tree tries to grow. Rather force the tree to redirect that energy into establishing a big strong root system and healthy branches.
In the year thereafter that the tree begins to flower and bear, remove some of the fruits, leaving just a few. You’ll have a smaller harvest, but the remaining fruits will be bigger and sweeter. With each successive year, allow more of the fruits to progress as the tree becomes bigger and stronger.
What To Plant With Your Fruit Tree: The Fruit Tree Guild
When planting fruit trees, think about creating a little guild around the outside mulched border. A fruit tree guild means planting plants with the fruit tree that together function as a mini eco-system. Each of the plants benefit each other.
There are lots of options in terms of what to plant, since each type of tree has different ‘companions’ – plants that work well together. In general there are five types or categories of plants that can go in your guild.
Five Categories of Plants For Guilds:
- FIXERS & ACCUMULATORS: Fixers are plants that add nutrients back into the soil, like legumes. And Accumulators are plants that draw nutrients up from deep in the soil, making them more accessible.
- ATTRACTORS & REPELLENTS: Attractors are plants that attract beneficial insects, like pollinators and predatory insects which control the bad bug populations. While Repellers are plants that ward off bad bugs.
- SUPPRESSORS: Plants that cover the ground, suppressing weed growth.
- MULCHERS: Plants that are rapid growers and create a lot of biomass for you to chop and drop with, creating mulch and regenerating the topsoil with nutrients as the mulch breaks down back into the soil.
- EDIBLES & MEDICINALS: Edibles are plants that provide food, in addition to being beneficial in one of the ways listed above (my favourite!). I also include medicinal plants in this category, plants that have accessible and useful medicinal properties.
Here are some examples and recommendations of plants that work wonderfully as part of a fruit tree guild:
The Biomass Team:
Comfrey, borage, yarrow
This trio is a power house of nutrition. I could likely write an entire article about each one’s benefits. Between them they tick every category. Suffice to say, do pick one for each of your guilds.
Chop and drop for beautiful mulch that will regenerate the topsoil, make liquid fertilizer with them for seasonal tree boosts, use them medicinally to treat wounds and skin issues, and enjoy their beautiful seasonal flowers that attract pollinators.
Borage and comfrey flowers can be added to salads and drinks for a pretty purple pop of colour. I always pick one of these when planting fruit trees.



The Herb Team:
Dill, rosemary, lavender.
My favourite herbal trio for fruit tree guilds. They are attractors and repellents. All three are edible and medicinal.
Dill happily reseeds itself every year, making it a perfect no-fuss annual for a food forest. What is a pickle without dill? And if your stomach is rumbling, dill will help settle it.
Rosemary grows year round, ready to flavour your roast veg or create a potent anti-bacterial wash (to which you can add lavender).
Lavender is another perennial that smells amazing (put a sprig under your pillow if you’re struggling with insomnia or anxiety) and makes a wonderfully soothing tea. Or almost anything! Really, you can add it to so many things for positive benefits.

While this is my top trio, there are tons of delicious and beneficial herbs (think sage, oregano, thyme, basil, tulsi, to name a few) to mix and match with. Auntie Google is full of info on herbal companions for planting fruit trees.
The Allium-ish Team:
Spring onions, chives and wild garlic (Tulbaghia).
Their pungent aroma makes an excellent repellant, and can mask the tastier smell of your fruits. These guys are robust perennial plants that grow with minimal fuss. And of course, all three are deliciously edible.
Note that when you grow spring onion as a perennial, it becomes inedible after the first season. Well, the taste becomes too pungent and the texture is undesirable – you could still eat it in a pinch, but it’s what I’d call “apocalypse food” – if you’re desperate, it’ll do. But there will be babies that pop up around the adult plants after they have flowered, eat some, and leave some to grow for next year.


Wild garlic leaves can be added raw to salads for a mild garlic flavour, or break off a small bulb below ground from the main plant and fry like normal garlic.
You can choose instead to grow annuals instead, like onions and garlic. Just make sure to leave a fair gap between tree and the bulbs, so that digging them up doesn’t damage your fruit tree’s delicate roots.
The Berries:
Strawberries, Gooseberries, Blueberries, Fuchsia
Strawberries make a great ground cover, they are suppressors and living mulch.
Gooseberries do well in a fruit tree guild, creating your shrub level without the thorns of the brambleberry family.
Blueberries can go on the outer edges of the guild as well, but make sure they continue to get enough sunlight.
Another excellent and often overlooked berry shrub for your fruit tree guild is the Fuchsia. They make such gorgeous flowers, which attract pollinators. And the berries they produce are edible.


One of the most successful guilds I’ve got is a berry combo. I combined a fig tree with a gooseberry shrub on one side, and two blueberry shrubs on the other, with strawberries covering the ground. It’s been very productive all round!
More Ideas…
Rhubarb:
Rhubarb pie might not be as popular in South Africa as it is in the US, but rhubarb does make an excellent guild addition. It’s a suppressor (both with its broad leaves and as a mulch) and accumulator. The stems are edible, and its roots are medicinal. Plus, it’s a perennial plant, making it perfect for a food forest.
Evening Primrose:
Another plant that stands out for me as an excellent fruit guild addition is evening primrose. A biennial and voracious self seeder that will pop up again year after year, evening primrose is a hidden treasure.
The entire plant is edible from root to stem to flower. We favour the young leaves and flowers in salads, stir-fries and stews. It’s rich in amino acids and evening primrose oil is famed for its health benefits.
Since these plants can get quite big, we plant them as part of our food forest, in-between the main fruit tree guilds, so as not to crowd the fruit trees themselves. Actually, we planted them the first year, let them go to seed, and now they take care of themselves, popping up each season around the garden.
Apart from edible and medicinal benefits, and being a great biennial volunteer for a food forest, they are a great chop and drop resource, and their stunning evening blooms attract beneficial insects and pollinators.
Quick Crops:
Plants that grow relatively quickly can be grown around the outer edges and in-between the long term plants of your fruit guild.
Think radish, beets, collard greens, lettuce and mustard.
Leave your mustard to go to seed and it, like dill, will happily volunteer new plants next year. I’ve had fantastic success with broad leaf mustard. I collect the mustard seeds for pickling, roasts and general spices.

Here are some examples of early guilds planted with the fruit trees on our land:




Summary
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading our tips and guidelines on planting fruit trees! If you’ve never done it before, planting fruit trees can seem daunting. But with a bit of extra effort and attention, they will reward you for the rest of your life.
UP NEXT…
Read about our DREAM FOOD FOREST in the making, or find out what my 5 top self-sustainable vegetable gardening methods are.