Tropical Fruit > Tropical Fruit Discussion

Food Forest Help Needed

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Rob From Sydney:
In a few months, after I plant my stonefruit/pomefruit orchard, I'll be planting a food forest, and I would love some help regarding a couple of things.

1: How should I space trees?
Mainly a curiosity with the overstory trees. I want enough space between tall trees so that they let some light in between them, but not too much space.

2: Which trees belong in the overstory and which ones belong in the understory?
I've worked out that Mangoes, Ingas, Pouterias, Avocadoes, Loquats, Casimiroas, Black Sapotes and Artocarpus are overstory trees, and that Acerolas, Eugenias, Plinias and Psidiums are understory trees.
I can't figure out what to do with Annonas, Longan/Lychee and Garcinias, how to arrange the shorter lived trees like Bananas, Papayas, and Tamarillos. Especially bananas - I just can't get my head around how to get them in.

To anyone who helps me, thank you. I'm just getting started with food forestry and would love your knowledge.

Galatians522:
Lychee and Logan make big trees. I would consider them "overstory."

Coconut Cream:
1. Microclimate overrides any other concern for me. The dry areas with best drainage get Avocado, Mamey Sapote, White Sapote and whatever trees you determine can't tolerate wet feet. Wetter areas with poorer drainage get Bananas, Sapodillas, Jaboticaba and Coconut. Mango is somewhere in between. Check the moisture levels in various areas and research which trees you want to plant do best in those conditions.

2. Overplant, both in density and quantity. Trees will die, some will grow bigger than expected, some will stay smaller than expected. It takes 5 - 10 years for spacing to become an issue and during that time you will learn a lot about what you want and change your mind many times. You will remove trees and relocate trees for many different reasons.

3. Consider the vertical shape of the tree and the openness of its canopy. Some Mamey trees and Avocado trees have a more open, skeletal limb structure that lets light through. Other trees are more like dense umbrellas (star fruit, black sapote). Coconuts grow straight up with a limited canopy. To some extent you won't know the exact habit until you plant it, and you can control it somewhat with pruning. Take advantage of the canopy shapes by putting a tall upright tree next to a low shrubby tree and packing them in tighter. A great example would be a seedling jackfruit that wants to go straight up next to (and very close to) a Mango tree that can be pruned and trained into a dense low shrub. Now you are maximizing the vertical space as well as the horizontal space.

4. Spacing only applies to permanent long-term trees like Avocado, Mango, Mamey, Sapodilla, Star Fruit, Custard Apple, White Sapote, Black Sapote. These are the high production trees for the future and you won't want to move them. I planted mine at 10 - 15 foot spacing, mostly around 12 feet. Anything else can be stuffed in between them, especially trees that fruit quickly because it's no big loss if you have to move a tree that fruits within a year or two (guava, Pigeon Pea, Papaya, Barbados Cherry, Loquat, Pitomba, Grumichama, COTRG etc).

5. I have temporary and permanent bananas. The permanent banana patch is in a low, wet area with taro root. The temporary banana plants provide early shade to the juvenile fruit trees, just don't plant them too close. Eventually you will dig out the temporary bananas and you don't want the corm to grow into the roots of your mango or avocado tree.

K-Rimes:
I was going to say some stuff, but basically it's the same as what Coconut Cream said, so just +1 on that. The only modification I would make is that you should do your best to plant in rows where possible, with at least enough room for a small vehicle to drive thru. At the very least, a garden cart / wheelbarrow. I made the mistake of not thinking about this at my old place and it became really annoying to mulch and stuff, having to steer the wheelbarrow around like a slalom course.

RS:
Great advice so far. Depending on the size of your site, creating rows/edges can increase the amount of growing space especially on a smaller site.

One example of a small 1/10 acre food forest is here in case helpful: https://www.edulisdesigns.com/portfolio/naples-food-forest


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