Planting fruit trees between pines not the way to go
Question: I recently moved into a home in Henderson, and I have a large backyard with about seven pine trees lining the property. The trees are spaced approximately 8 feet apart. I am contemplating planting fruit trees between the pines, and once they reach maturity, I would remove the pine trees. What do you think about this approach?
Fruit trees will need about eight hours of full sun to produce a good amount of fruit. If the trees are limited in light by the pine trees, then the amount of fruit produced is affected. If you can provide near optimum light for the trees by leaving the pines, then they should be fine. If the pines are too large and too close together, then the fruit trees will not do well in these locations.
Bob Morris is a professor emeritus in horticulture with the University of Nevada and can be reached at extremehort@aol.com. Visit his blog at
xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com.