A walk through an orchard while enjoying the fragrance of the fruits and flowers can be a rewarding experience, especially in the right season. However, establishing an orchard is not a simple task as it involves a significant amount of time and effort and a long term investment. Before setting up an orchard farm, here are a few important factors that you need to look into.
The right location and facilities
You need to choose an area which has the right climate for growing fruits and also adequate water supply throughout the year. Choosing an already established fruit-growing region will help you to co-ordinate with the other orchard owners and take advantage of the prevalent selling procedures of the community.
A few other important aspects that needs attention are:
• The quality of the soil and subsoil including the fertility.
• The quality of the available water and proper drainage facility.
• The communication and transport facilities.
• A market analysis to estimate the demand.
• Availability of labour.
Planning and layout
Once the location is fixed, the next important stage is the planning and laying out of the orchard. This is to be done carefully after considering the following points:
• Each type of fruit should be planted separately while the fruits ripening at the same time can be kept together.
• Office buildings and guards’ sheds should be suitably located and proper fencing of the area is to be done.
• Proper planning for wind breaking, setting up channels for economical irrigation and road layout is essential.
• To make the best use of the land area the spacing between the trees should be optimized.
There are various standard layout systems for planting the trees and depending on your land shape and the number of trees, you have to choose the ideal one.
Once the basic phase is over you can take the help of an expert to help you in calculating the optimum planting distance and planning for the best planting method.
