Seven fruit trees for mountainous areas

Which fruit trees withstand altitude and are suitable to plant in mountainous areas?

In areas with an altitude above 600 meters and up to 900 meters, the climate presents several peculiarities.

Especially in the winter season, low temperatures create difficulties in maintaining a blooming and green garden. Many of the garden’s fruit trees, such as citrus and subtropicals, do not thrive at altitude.

Especially in the northern regions of our country, semi-mountainous and mountainous, we have often come across dried or damaged fruit trees due to frost, snow and intense north winds.

As not all plants survive in these conditions, we need selected plants for high altitude mountainous areas.

Let’s see in detail which trees are suitable for mountainous areas, as well as useful tips for planting them.

Fruit trees for altitude For fruit trees that can withstand altitude, we choose deciduous plants, that is, trees that drop their leaves and fall into dormancy during the winter season.

They need a long cold period, an element necessary to form flowering and give us a rich production of fruit.

So we choose the most popular trees that we can plant in mountainous areas to enjoy delicious fruits and nuts.

1. Cherry. We start our list with the cherry that is grown in mountainous regions with enough souls to give us the cherries, the wonderful crunchy fruits. We choose places with enough sunshine and good ventilation for cherry cultivation and avoid areas with enough moisture, rainfall or late frosts during the flowering and fruiting period. Cherry is grown in deep fertile soils that have good drainage. We avoid planting cherries in dry calcareous soils, where they will not grow satisfactorily.
2. Cherry. We continue our list with the cherry, a tree resistant to low winter temperatures, more than the cherry. The cherry tree is sensitive to spring frosts, while it is relatively resistant to the higher summer temperatures. It thrives best in medium-textured irrigated soils with good drainage and a pH ranging from 6-8. The planting of the cherry tree is not recommended in dry and calcareous soils.
3. Chestnut. Chestnut cultivation thrives in semi-mountainous and mountainous areas with a relatively cold climate and sufficient humidity and gives us the wonderful tasty chestnuts. It prefers sloping soils and sunny spots that are not marked by spring frosts, to which the chestnut tree is sensitive. It is grown in deep, fertile and acidic soils with a pH around 5 – 6 that ensure very good drainage and have a very low calcium content.
4. Apple tree. And the apple tree endures the frost as it craves winter cold and altitude so it can thrive and give us delicious crisp apples. Apple cultivation requires a cool climate, as high temperatures, combined with a lack of moisture in the soil, cause significant damage to the quality and quantity of production. It prefers light soil and relatively sloping soils that ensure good strategy and good aeration due to currents.
5. Pears. Our pear trees give us their delicious fruits in mountainous areas with enough winter cold and hot dry summers, but without late frosts during flowering. We prefer areas with south or south-west exposure for pear cultivation that are not characterized by much rainfall during spring and summer. The pear crop grows best in fertile soils of medium texture with good aeration and relatively good drainage. We avoid planting pears in dry calcareous soils.
6. Quince. Although the quince needs less souls to give us satisfactory fruiting, it can survive in mountainous terrain and give us delicious fruits. Its quince can also grow in soils that are not very deep, in the root system that grows more on the surface. It prefers fertile soils that have good drainage and a low calcium content. In soils that are too dry or too wet, the fruits produced do not have good quality characteristics.
7. Almond tree. The almond crop is resistant to frost and is planted in mountainous soils, but it is sensitive to a wet environment that favors fungal and bacterial disease attacks. For better fruit yield, almond cultivation is planted in medium-textured, fertile, well-drained soils. Almonds can grow even in dry, barren calcareous or stony soils, as they have a very strong and penetrating root system that spreads deep.

What is the right time to plant fruit trees in mountainous areas? The specific deciduous fruit trees we recommend can be planted as bare-root plants, which only have a root system without soil.

Bare-root plants can be planted in the ground from mid-November when they have dropped their leaves to late February when their buds begin to swell.

Of course, we can get pot-rooted fruit trees from nurseries of our choice and then transplant them into our fields.

The best time to plant potted fruit trees in the mountainous areas is in the spring, after the winter frosts have passed.

How do we plant fruit trees in mountainous areas?

For the planting of the specific fruit trees, we dig deep by opening pits with a depth and diameter of 50×50 centimeters so that the root system of the fruit tree can grow better and deeper.

At the base of the planting pit we add digested manure and compost to strengthen the substrate of the fruit tree with organic matter.

We place a wooden or metal support stake in the planting hole to tie the young seedling down so that it will not be uprooted in case of strong winds in the mountainous areas.

Before we plant the trees in the ground, we cut the tips from their roots to activate the plant’s root system and ensure better rooting.

When planting we first put the surface fertile soil at the bottom of the pit and then fill with the deeper soil which is less fertile. We plant the seedlings at such a depth that the grafting point of the plant is about 5 cm above the soil surface.

And a secret for planting fruit trees at altitude. When planting fruit trees in mountainous areas. the addition of manure to the planting pit and on the surface contributes to the warming of the soil and the activation of the development of the root system of the trees.