Hey there Citrus Lovers!
I have recently landscaped my back yard and have a section of raised bed about 1 meter(3 feet) wide by about 4-5 meters(12-14 feet) long.
In this bed i have planted quite the little orchard of..
2 Tahitian Limes, 1 Serville Orange, 1 Kaffir Lime, 1 Moro Blood Orange, 1 Sanguinelli Blood Orange, 1 Buddha's Hand and 1 Satsuma Manderine.
So Thats 8 citrus altogether!
Is this ok to plant so densely????
They are all on DWARF rootstock and i'm happy for them all to stay small.
What do you citrus veterans think???
Thanks from a Newby:)

Are they all planted in a line? I have heard of people doing citrus hedges, but it will take a lot of effort to keep those orange trees as small as the limes. That being said, it does seem like really really dense planting to me....like 1.5 foot spacing! It's not ideal, but I think it could work. Just make sure that the oranges don't shade over the smaller, less vigorous limes.

Here is a photo.......

http://img688.imageshack.us/i/dsc00148m.jpg/

My comments on this kind of planting are:

They should grow this way, but they will never reach the size they could have further apart, and will have fruiting minimized by competition for water,fertilizer,sun.etc.

This may actually be a good thing: You want a variety of citrus, but you don't necessarily need hundreds of pounds of fruit every year.

One concern is that some varieties may cross-pollinate and create some weird mystery fruits!

In a few years it may be harder to see developing problems such as rot, diseases, infestations.
If you are going to grow them this way, keep up with pruning and allow air to get in around them.

Cross pollination between the trees will not cause any weird mystery fruits. Each of the varieties that Trex planted in his bed, will still produce only its particular type of fruit. If some type of mystery fruit would be desired, Trex would have to extract the seeds from a fruit, that was cross pollinated, and plant it. Then wait for 8-10 years until the seedling tree matured and begun producing fruit. Still then the chances of a hybrid fruit would be slim to none, due to nucellar seeds crowding out the zygote. Normally, many, many crossed pollinated seeds would have to be planted in an attempt of ever obtaining of a mystery fruit. That is, unless, Trex planted a monoembronic variety. - Millet (1.030-)

Thanks for your advice everyone. Youre right in the comment that i dont want them at full size as i am planning on keeping each tree at a height of about 4 foot. And also it is just my wife and i so dont need loads of the fruit just a "tasting selection"
Also i heard from someone that if you plant them like this that the fruit tends to have more seeds. I feel dubious about this as the limes i have harvested already had none. Is there any truth to this?????

Two, items. First, in my above post on cross pollination, I in error kept using the name Cristofre for the planter of the trees instead of Trex. I have correct my posting. Second, Trex, the reason that your lime did not have seeds, is because the Tahitian lime (also known as Persian or Bearss lime) is a variety that never produces seeds, no matter whether pollinated or not. However, when trees are planted as close as you have planted your trees, the chances of your other fruit having an excessive amount of seeds are excellent. - Millet (1,030-)

Thats a shame! I dislike seeds in my citrus!!! I guess its only a problem for my oranges a mandarine tho. Anyway to avoid excessive seeds now that i've planted them in???

Those just look soo very close together.

Millet, you didn't address the main question: Do you really think the way Trex has planted 8 trees staggered only 18" apart, against a wall, will thrive? The bearss lime is a vigorous grower and compared to other slow growers will certainly start crowding/shading out the others.

I guess if a "taste" is all that is desired, Trex may certainly, eventually, get a couple fruits per tree. But once the trunks thicken and branches attempt extensions, the pruning required for such close spacings will make them very bushy (if they survive) and further reduce air flow and light penetration.

I've never tried it, I don't know. Just wondering your opinion.

I'm trying something similar although in large 18ftx7ft bottomless troughs full of soil all out in the open away from walls that used to be sales benches in the days when a small nurseries/garden centre could make a living..until a home depot lookalike starts up just around the corner

I intend one row in each of 18inchx3 tree cluster apart by 3.5 ft until the next cluster and so on.
The biggest problem I find is that there is nothing on the net that can adequately tell me if this will work and how to prune to make it workable if it can be done.
Believe me I know. I fortunately found this site weeks ago while searching to see if I could do this.

Apples can and do grow well with backyard orcharding with judicious and regular pruning however I wonder how this form of orcharding will work with citrus.
I feel that there are many future citrus growers 'imprisoned' in suburbia who would love to know...can we squeese 'em in and if so how?

Growing out in the open, away from the wall is different than Trex above: a) Sunlight can reach two sides of each tree and b) air flow can pass between them -- helps tremendously. You are limiting both with your close plantings and also creating competition with limited raised bed soil area. It just might work out.

I've learned so many different pruning methods for fruit trees; it depends on the tree type b/c how & where it flowers/fruits and what the natural behavior is of the tree+rootstock when branching, and how well it handles severe pruning.

For high density backyard orchard culture, info on non-citrus fruit trees abounds... Most can be "dwarfed" (reducing vigor) by summer pruning alone, but also via competition from light and nutrients (close plantings). Peaches and nectarines can be kept columnar very easily and handle extreme pruning very well, compared to other fruits. Apples are very influenced by rootstock and certain varieties behave differently, too. True dwarfing root stocks for pears and cherries are severely limited in number, but are available to home growers. But many standard pears handle extensive pruning OK as well as respond to summer pruning to limit growth. Cherries, not so much. All of this info is pretty well available both via common knowledge How-To sources as well via scholarly research.

Citrus??? Not so much. You guys should take frequent pictures, document your routines, etc and help get at least some info out there. Nothing will be acceptable to the technically minded folks unless scientific testing is performed by the universities. But showing off your success in a close planting can give hope to many who want to try the same thing.

I have over 50 container citrus and test lots of things dealing with container media. But I have limited in-ground space and plant only my favorite dwarf (PT) citrus 6-9 feet apart from each other, depending on the trees natural shape (oval vs. compact).

Thanks for your comments guys. What i'm trying to do with my mini-orchard is to train the branchs to shape and direction by tying them down in a psuedo-espalier to bamboo stacks so all the trees get a good share of sun. They are in a very sunny position and all seem pretty happy there so far and are fruiting/flowering well already. I have been thinking tho i might try and inhibit some of the older plants' roots dominating the others by "spadeing" a boundry between so they wont hog the bed and prevent the other younger plants from stretching out their roots. I was also going to prune them to grow upward rather than sideways. My theory is they would have just as much root area as a container pot if not more. I liked this picture Lars posted of someone's espalier citrus which i will get inspiration from.
www.zitrusgarten.net/homepage/citrusspalier/citrusspalier.htm
Hopefully one day it will be like one large citrusy hedge. Keep u posted:)
oh and BTW there has been a new addition a Indio Manderinequat so thats nine now-thats difintely it tho

You said you bought an Indio Manderinequat in NZ? I've been looking for one. Can you tell me where you got it from?
C4F I will keep photos. At the moment the area is full of incredible colored kales from Peters Seeds in the US but when they lose their oomph the citrus go in.
It will be interesting...

Trex: Ah, OK espalier is a complete different story. They allow for much closer plantings and don't require as much root zone space for a dense bushy canopy.

Good luck to both you guys!

Hey glenn believe it or not i got it from Kings Plant Barn! - "everything you need" From memory it comes from the Flying Dragon Citrus nursery in KeriKeri. I can check if u like. I'm excited about the manderinequat as its pretty unusual but i'm sure i'll be underwhelmed by the taste as its supposed to be pretty sour. I have got all my Citrus from Flying Dragon Nursery via Kings theyre pretty good quality and they do some unusual varieties such as buddha hand and Moro blood orange etc.