Growing fruit trees in your own backyard

As the Arizona heat continues to produce some of the hottest summers on record over the past few years, understanding how to properly take care of a fruit tree and ensure its survival is crucial. The Urban Farm is a local company offering trees for sale, as well as a free online education about how to successfully farm fruit trees in your backyard. Earlier we spoke with Greg Peterson, the founder of The Urban Farm.

The Urban Farm’s Fruit Tree Program offers Phoenicians the option to buy a tree and FREE online education about how to successfully farm a fruit tree in your backyard. Learn benefits to planting your own fruit tree, how to choose the right tree for your area, how to prepare for your fruit tree, and best ways to properly maintain a fruit tree in Arizona. As the Arizona heat continues to produce some of the hottest summers on record over the past few years, understanding how to properly take care of a fruit tree and ensure its survival is a crucial aspect to farming 101 in Arizona.

Tell us about the fruit tree program that you run.

Peterson: “Twenty three years ago I discovered that you can go in to most nurseries and every big box story and they would sell you a fruit tree that would never make fruit here. And that just made me mad. So I started teaching people about fruit trees and then they started asking me where to get them.”

What are the big misconceptions about growing a fruit tree in Phoenix?

Peterson: “The big misconception is that anything will grow. That any fruit tree will grow, and that just isn’t true. You have to have very specific varieties and very different root stocks, and that is what we teach in our education.”

What question about citrus do you hear most?

Peterson: “‘Why is it yellowing in the winter?’ -Not enough nutrition… 99 times out of a hundred they are not getting enough nutrition, or you planted that poor tree in a place you would not like to live: in gravel, in grass, or in a hot micro climate with a lot of block walls.”