Planting Fruit Trees Australia
While many fruiting trees are completely unrelated to each other, nearly all of them have certain conditions that they prefer. Planting fruit trees requires a little more thought and efforts.
To be successful most fruit trees will require a minimum of five hours sun in Spring and Summer. The more sun they get beyond this, the better. More sun is equal to more fruit!
Fruit trees generally prefer a soil that retains water in summer, but still drains well in winter. So, lots of organic matter, especially compost, should be added at planting time.
Fruit trees require regular feeding to be productive. Ideally a specific fruit tree fertiliser should be added 2-3 times per year depending on product instructions.
Most fruit trees we sell are easy to grow, but regular watering is essential for good fruiting. Particularly important is the period between flowering and fruit maturity. If trees are allowed to go through a drier spell here, it can result in fruit dropping off the tree before its ready.
Lemons
We sell the Meyer Lemon in various sizes. It is always popular as it produces fruit year-round. Thin skinned, it has a milder flavour than other lemons.
Eureka is our biggest selling lemon. Again, it fruits every season, is thicker skinned and has a true lemon sourness.
Other citrus easily grown in the home garden are:
- Tahitian Lime
- Makrut Lime
- Imperial Mandarin
- Washington Navel Orange
- Cumquat
- Finger Lime
Fig
Black Genoa Figs are very easy to grow. The fruit is a beautiful purplish black skin with sweet, succulent flesh. Figs don’t require much fertiliser. A bushy tree to 4x4m, allow it some space to grow. Prune two oldest branches off every year to encourage new growth.
Pomegranate
We sell the classic Elche variety. When ripe, Elche has a yellowish skin with beautiful red blush markings. Elche has a very high juice content in the fruit compared to other varieties. Pomegranates thrive in Australian hot summers, and at 3m don’t take up much space in the garden. They make excellent pot specimens, too.
Quince
One of the most ornamental fruiting trees, quinces have exquisite large white blossom in spring. Smyrna quinces are very productive and have large golden fruit with a beautiful aroma. Perfect for dessert cooking and jam making.
Persimmon
You can justify planting a persimmon purely for ornamental reasons – its stunning orange autumn foliage is that good. Fuyu variety’s succulent, sweet fruit in early winter is unlike any other fruit you’ll eat – magnificent. And Fuyu is a non-astringent variety you can eat while it’s still firm.
Olive
Olive trees have rightfully become a staple in Melbourne gardens, sometimes just because of their hardiness, ornamental silver foliage and screening capabilities. We sell three classic fruiting varieties with different characters:
- Correggiola Olive (Small Fruit)
- Manzanillo Olive (Medium Fruit)
- Kalamata Olive (Large Fruit)
Feijoa
Often overlooked the Feijoa or pineapple guava is a productive and easy to grow choice for the home garden. Growing to around 3m, the egg-shaped guavas have a distinctive and refreshing tangy flavour. Very dry hardy, they can make a great low hedge at 1-2m.
Blueberry
Its hard to beat harvesting your own ripe blueberries straight from the bush! We sell the evergreen Sunshine Blue variety which is highly productive. Blueberries are shrubs rather than trees – growing from 1-1.5m. They can be very ornamental with pretty white bell flowers that precede the fruit.
Planting fruit trees after winter is also fine as we stock fruit trees all year round.