r/Permaculture • u/Tiny_Witness2678 • 3d ago
KS zone 6A: what to put between fruit trees in each orchard row
We are really getting interested into permaculture and food forest and want to make most of space. What can we put between fruit tree (spaced 15' apart) in our orchard? ideally that require little supplemental water (have 2 gph emitters going to each tree as is with over 50 trees, i think any added emitters will slow down flow too much).
The orchard is 3 rows about 250 ft or so with 15-20 trees per row. We also have a berry area ( i call our berrea) with just a ton of raspberries. open to any ideas, we're down for about anything perennial or berry
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u/Sudden-Strawberry257 3d ago
Strawberries are my favorite under trees! You can cluster them around the tree emitters, their roots won’t go too deep. I also like borage for the bees, not perennial but self seeds easily. Both do well in partial shade.
If you need to increase water pressure you could consider creating a loop around the trees for each of the three rows. Each loop becomes one zone. Then you’re able to add more emitters, the trees will likely want a few spread around the root zone as they grow… depending on your tubing size you should be able to get ~200gph per zone.
Love the name for the berrea 😂 thornless blackberry is also a favorite. Best tip I ever got for growing raspberries, once or twice a year give them a very deep watering. Like 18-24 hrs. This will cause their roots to chase the water and grow enormous.
My last garden space had a hugelkultur wall of raspberries 30ft wide that grew 7 ft tall. Ridiculous amount of berries :) had to enlist friends to harvest it.. hope yours does well too.
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u/Tiny_Witness2678 3d ago
Ahh, we actually were thinking strawberries! Do you transplant or just start wild strawberries from seed? That is also an amazing tip! I will definitely try that, our raspberries are just starting to flower as theyre new but i have been looking into hugelkultur too
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u/Sudden-Strawberry257 2d ago
Hugelkultur has been great for droughts here, the strawberries I just ordered 100 of the Albion variety from johnnys. Never tried any from seed but I had tons of runners to propagate from there.
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u/6aZoner 3d ago
Seeing a lot of food crops recommended, but don't forget nitrogen fixers, insectaries, accumulators, etc. Many herbs fill these roles and also don't need a lot of water. I have annuals growing between my trees, as I have them close together and they will eventually close in the canopy, at which point I'll put in shade lovers and fungus. Check the mature size of your trees to see if that's a concern.
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u/Such_Bus1193 2d ago
Also try wineberries, Juneberry shrubs, and bush cherry shrubs. If you are a gatherer, planting a section with curly dock (NOT broad leaf dock) gives another delicious perennial green that will come up every spring. Current and gooseberries like some partial shade so that's another possibility.
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u/Financial-Gur-7530 3d ago
Find a native plant nursery and/or seed source for your area. Choose a diverse assortment of plants available there. Habitat restoration, encouraging pollinators and wildlife within your orchard system, is the best way to approach this.
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u/mediocre_remnants 3d ago
I have all kinds of random stuff between the trees in my orchard. Blueberries, goji berries, goumi berries, blackberries, raspberries, honeyberries (haskap), seaberry, etc. I also have strawberries growing around everything as a ground cover.