While you’re sitting by the fire reading those mail-order gardening catalogues, you might think that you can’t grow fruit in the desert. Don’t be discouraged. You can. An
If you’re ordering from a catalogue, you’re probably ordering bareroot seedlings. The best time to plant bareroots in the desert is in the spring, for elevations below 5,500 feet and for mountain valleys above 5,500 feet, so now’s the time to begin deciding and ordering what you want.
By the way, if you’d like to enjoy some humor, please take a look at Barbara Martin’s article, Best Plant Catalogue 2007 Parody, and check out the website she recommends. It’s well worth the time and the read.
If you plant bareroots in the summer in lower elevations, the heat, low humidity and drying winds may cause enough stress to kill or permanently damage the plants. Planting during the summer in mountain valleys in anticipation of summer rains or monsoons is also not a good idea, because the timing is unpredictable. Planting in the fall in mountain valleys will not give the plants enough time to establish an adequate root system before winter.
If you plan to buy your fruit trees at local nurseries and they are containerized, then you can plant either in the spring or fall in lower deserts. Fall plantings are actually preferred in those areas. In high desert areas, spring planting of containerized fruit trees is better. Spring planting here has resulted in much higher survival rates (10 to 20% higher in many cases) than mid summer plantings.
You can plant in mid-summer if you can time the plantings to coincide with summer rains and monsoon activities. Planting in high desert after August 15 is probably not a good idea.
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