While you might be thinking of growing vegetables this season, you might want to consider fruit trees as an addition to the backyard.

“Fruit trees can be great for the backyard in Northern Illinois”, states Grant McCarty, Local Foods and Small Farms Extension Educator for the University of Illinois Extension. “We see a lot of homeowners reach out to us asking about what types to grow, how to grow them, and challenges they are facing in their current trees.”

Apples and pears do well in the backyard while peaches and other stone fruit can be a bit trickier due to our winters. For apples and pears, you need more than one variety. “This is a common problem with a backyard orchard. You always need more than one variety of the apples and pears to allow for proper cross-pollination to occur” states McCarty.

Yields can also be impacted by weather. “Expect stone fruit like peaches, plums, and others to yield for you every couple of years. They are strongly influenced by our winters”.

In deciding on fruit trees consider use, size, and disease resistance. Dwarf, semi-dwarf, and standard are the common size trees. For a dwarf tree, the expected height will be 8-10 feet in height while semi-dwarf is 10-12 feet in height. A standard tree will reach 25 feet or taller when mature.

Backyard orchard production was recently covered in a University of Illinois Extension webinar series. “We just finished a Get Growing webinar series that include growing fruit trees in the backyard. These free webinars are being archived on our YouTube channel,” continue McCarty. The webinars and other videos can be found at go.illinois.edu/JSWExtYouTube.

For more information on upcoming webinars and resources, please visit extension.illinois.edu/jsw