Planting Berry Bushes and Fruit Trees (How Many Fruit & Berry Plants Per Person)

Learn how many fruit trees and berry plants you need to plant per person for a year's worth of food. Plus all the details you need to know to make this decision including variety and the average yield of each plant and tips for picking the best varieties based on your space and climate.

A woman in a pink shirt picking raspberries.

How many fruit & berry plants per person for a year's worth of food do you need to plant?

Oftentimes there isn't a lot of focus on how many fruit trees or berry plants to put into the garden in order to feed your family for a full year. The focus is typically on annual vegetables. That's why I'm going to walk you through figuring out how many fruit trees and berry plants you need and the details you need to know to make this decision. There are a lot of factors when it comes to growing your own fruit so we're going to tackle that today.

Listen to the full podcast, Episode #230 How Many Fruit & Berry Plants Per Person for a Year's Worth of Food of the Pioneering Today Podcast, where we don’t just inspire you, but give you the clear steps to create the homegrown garden, pantry, kitchen, and life you want for your family and homestead.

For more tips you'll want to know before planting an orchard, listen in on this live coaching call about orchard planning to keep pests out.

Benefits of Planting Berry Bushes and Fruit Trees

One of the benefits of fruit trees, more so than some of your berry plants, is that they are perennials. That means we plant once and year after year after year it provides us with fruit without us ever having to seed start or plant it again. Now, that's assuming the right variety was chosen and that it was put in the right spot when planted.

How Long Until Fruit Trees Produce Fruit?

Photo of different apple preserves on a counter with a fresh apple and cinnamon sticks.

Many fruit trees can take up to seven years before they actually start to produce a good harvest. So with fruit trees the sooner you get them planted, the better off you are and the closer you are to getting a harvest from them.

How Long Until Berry Plants Produce Fruit?

When it comes to planting fruit bushes, aka berry plants, you may get fruit the first year with certain varieties. For example, if you plant raspberries in the spring and they are an ever-bearing variety that produces an autumn crop, then you'll be able to harvest berries that first year in the fall.

Other berry types, like blueberries and elderberries, will take two to three years before you really start to get a good harvest from them. Typically, your berries will give you a harvest faster than you'll get from a fruit tree.

Watch my video below for the best berry plants to grow to get fruit the VERY first year you plant them!

Types and Sizes of Fruit Trees

But, first, let's talk about the different sizes and types. There are three sizes of fruit trees to choose from:

Dwarf & Miniature
Semi-Dwarf
Standard

Dwarf and Miniature

These are the smallest and most compact fruit trees. They usually get between 8 to 10 feet tall and wide upon maturity. The size of the fruit is not dwarf, just the size of the tree.

Benefits of a Dwarf Fruit Tree

The good thing about a dwarf tree is they sometimes produce fruit sooner than their larger counterparts. Possibly within as little as two years, similar to berries.
They are excellent candidates for growing in containers.
You don't need a ladder, so there's no climbing. They don't get super tall.
They're easier to prune and maintain.

Cons of a Dwarf Fruit Tree

They have a shorter life span, usually 15 to 25 years versus the standard variety, which is 50 years plus.
Smaller harvest. Not because the fruit is smaller, but because the tree is smaller meaning there isn't as much fruit to harvest from it as you would get from a semi-dwarf or standard variety.

Semi-Dwarf

A woman raking around a fruit tree with a wheelbarrow full of debris and leaves.

Semi-Dwarf trees are right in the middle and grow 12 to 15 feet tall and wide. This depends upon the root stock. Some may get a little bit taller, closer to 18 and 20 feet, but on average, upon maturity, you might need a ladder to harvest at the very top of the tree. Semi-dwarf is what we have on our homestead.

Benefits of a Semi-Dwarf Fruit Tree

Can be grown in containers.
Provides fruit faster than the standard variety.
Depending on the variety, you can get double to triple the harvest you would get from a dwarf tree.
They'll get large enough to provide shade during really hot times of the year.

Cons of a Semi-Dwarf Fruit Tree

Smaller harvest than a standard variety.
Shorter lifespan than a standard variety of fruit tree.
Requires a ladder to reach the top of the tree for harvest and pruning.

Standard

Many apple trees of all sizes with a lot of fruit on them.

Standard trees are the big boys. They can reach beyond 25 feet tall at maturity. My parents have apple trees on their property that are over 60 years old that are still producing fruit with very little pruning. They are quite sprawling since they haven't been pruned in a number of years, but they are still producing pretty decently. My neighbor has an old standard apple tree that has fallen over in the middle of their field and it still produces fruit, even completely laying on the ground. Pretty impressive for something that was planted half a lifetime ago.

Benefits of a Standard Fruit Tree

Large harvest so you'll get plenty for fresh eating, preserving, for selling, and sharing.
They have a long lifespan upwards of 50 years in many cases.
They can provide a lot of shade.

Cons of a Standard Fruit Tree

It takes a few more years longer for the tree to produce a harvest.
Definitely requires more space per tree. You'll likely need to have some acreage if you plan on having multiple varieties. Nor do you want them too close to building and structures.
And you'll definitely need a ladder for harvest and pruning on mature standard-sized trees.

Fruit and Berry Yield

A woman holding a white bowl full of raspberries.

Keep in mind that all the information I'm sharing are averages. There are several factors that affect fruit production. These factors are:

Variety planted
Climate
Location planted
Whether they have good drainage or not
The amount of sun they're getting (most require six or more hours of sunlight)
The amount of rainfall

However, these averages will give you a good reference and starting point.

When referring to the average yield per fruit tree, it's in bushels and pecks. When it comes to berries, it's in gallons. Don't know what that all means? Let me lay it out for you:

Looking at the graph below, starting at the bottom row, right side:

2 cups = 1 pint
4 cups or 2 pints = 1 quart
16 cups, 8 pints, or 4 quarts = 1 gallon
32 cups, 16 pints, 8 quarts, or 2 gallons = 1 peck
128 cups, 64 pints, 32 quarts, 8 gallons, or 4 pecks = 1 bushel

	Volume
	Peck	Gallon	Quart	Pint	Cups
Bushel	4	8	32	64	128
Peck		2	8	16	32
Gallon			4	8	16
Quart				2	4
Pint					2

Fruit Trees

Now that we have our quantities explained, let's dive into how many fruit trees are needed, per person, to grow a year's worth of food?

NOTE: The following averages are for one mature fruit tree for each type of fruit listed. Trees that aren't mature will yield a lower harvest.

Apple

Dwarf: 5 to 6 bushels
Semi-Dwarf: 10 to 15 bushels
Standard: Anywhere from 5 to 20 bushels

Apricot

Dwarf: 1 to 2 pecks
Semi-Dwarf: 1 to 2 bushels
Standard: 3 to 4 bushels

Cherry, Sweet

Dwarf: 8 to 10 gallons
Semi-Dwarf: 10 to 15 gallons
Standard: 15 to 20 gallons

Cherry, Sour (aka Tart or Pie Cherry)

Dwarf: 3 to 5 gallons
Semi-Dwarf: 12 to 18 gallons

Nectarines

Miniature: 1 to 2 pecks
Dwarf: 3 to 4 bushels
Standard: 6 to 10 bushels

Peach

Miniature: 1 to 2 pecks
Dwarf: 3 to 4 bushels
Standard: 6 to 10 bushels

Pears

Dwarf: 6 to 8 bushels
Standard: 12 to 15 bushels

Plum, European

Dwarf: 1 to 1 ½ bushels
Standard: 1 to 2 bushels

Plum, Japanese

Dwarf: 3 to 4 bushels
Semi-Dwarf: 4 to 5 bushels
Standard: 5 to 6 bushels

In reviewing these, you can really tell that based on the type of tree the actual production can vary greatly. For example, the difference between the dwarf and standard apple tree is a big difference, from six bushels for the dwarf to 20 bushels for the standard. But when you look at the Japanese plum the difference is really only two to three bushels difference.

What you need to do now, is calculate how many bushels your family will consume of each variety of fruit.

Storing & Preserving Fruit

Jars of canned cherries and a spilled bowl of fresh cherries on the counter.

It's also important to consider how each fruit stores. Apples, for example, will store much longer in a root cellar than cherries. They also tend to ripen at different times.

Knowing when your fruit trees will be ripe is just as important as knowing how you're going to store or preserve the fruit from each tree.

Cherries, for example, ripen very quickly and have a pretty small harvest window before they start rotting and dropping from the tree.

If you're planning to plant cherry trees, you'll want to know how you're going to preserve the fruit to keep for long-term storage to avoid food waste (my favorites are my no-pectin cherry jam or my homemade cherry pie filling).

Berry Plants

Now, let's talk about those berries and other fruit that everyone loves. When it comes to these types of fruit, you usually need one or more plants as the yield per plant is less than with fruit trees.

Blackberry

Very prolific! I think you get the most per plant from these than any other plant.

Average Yield Per Plant: 35 to 70 cups
Recommended Number Per Person: 2 to 4 plants

The majority of blackberry varieties will produce fruit the second year, but there are a few newer cultivators of blackberry that will produce fruit the FIRST year you plant them. They were developed by the University of Arkansas and are Prime-Jan' (‘APF-8') and ‘Prime-Jim' (‘APF-12'). They produce on both the first year canes (called primocanes) as well as the second year canes (called floricanes). Most other blackberries produce fruit on the floricanes (second-year canes) only.

Blueberry

Average Yield Per Plant: 15 to 45 cups, depending on the maturity of the plant
Recommended Number Per Person: 2 plants (you need two different varieties for cross-pollination for a good harvest yield)

What size pot/container is recommended for blueberries?

You want to pick a compact (half-high) variety. Half-high blueberries are a cross between northern high bush and low bush while being extremely cold hardy.

Container size should be a minimum of 20 inches deep (deeper is better) and 24 inches across. Blueberries are shallow-rooted so wider is better than deeper in choosing a container. Make sure it's something you can move into an unheated building, or shed, during the coldest months of the year.

Half-high blueberry varieties for containers

Bluegold

BrazelBerries Peach
Sorbet (‘ZF06-043’; U.S. Plant
Patent 23,325)

Chippewa

Northblue

Northcountry

Northland

Northsky

Perpetua
(U.S. Plant
Patent 24,209)

Polaris

Sunshine Blue

Top Hat

Elderberry

Usually, people aren't picking and then eating elderberries like you would fresh blackberries or blueberries. They're usually consumed in homemade elderberry syrup, jelly or jam or used for medicinal purposes.

Average Yield Per Plant: 30 to 36 cups per mature plant
Recommended Number Per Person: 1 plant

Grape

Average Yield Per Vine (Plant): 10 to 30 cups
Recommended Number Per Person: 1 vine (plant)

Raspberry

Average Yield Per Cane (Plant): 1 to 2 quarts
Recommended Number Per Person: 10 to 25 canes (plants)

Rhubarb

Similar to asparagus where you don't harvest from the plant the first year. It needs to get established really well. The following year, you can harvest a small amount. By the fourth or fifth year it'll be fully mature and you can harvest it for weeks on end throughout the late spring and into summer.

Average Yield Per Crown (Plant): 6 cups
Recommended Number Per Person: 2 to 3 crowns (plants)

Strawberry

Strawberries need to be replenished every three years because the original crown becomes exhausted. You can take runners from the original plant to replenish the older plants. How many strawberry plants per person: