Growing dwarf fruit trees

SALT LAKE CITY — One of the topics the KSL Greenhouse show has been covering a lot these past few weeks is gardening in small spaces. Last week, Hosts Taun Beddes and Maria Shilaos decided to continue this discussion, with a focus on dwarf fruit trees.

There’s not a lot of options for dwarf fruit trees out there, but there’s enough in apples and peaches.

When Maria first planted a dwarf apricot and a dwarf peach tree, she noticed they didn’t last very long.

“In stone fruits, the dwarf trees seem to last 10 to 15 years. That’s just their average lifespan,” Taun said.

For dwarf stone fruit trees, he suggested planting a new one every 3 or 4 years. That way you can still get fruit after one stops producing.

“In the apples, you actually have several options because you can get apples grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock such as Bud 9… If you graft apples onto a dwarfing rootstock you can grow almost any apple variety,” Taun said.

Depending on how you prune those apple trees, they will grow to a maximum height of about 9 to 12 feet.

There are also columnar apple trees, which only grow about 4 feet wide. They may not be the best in terms of fruit quality, but they’re still good and will fit well in a small space.

The KSL Greenhouse is on every Saturday from 8 a.m.-11 a.m. You can follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and on our website.