Home Fruit Growing

It's Amazing How Much Fruit You can Grow in a Home Garden

Course Code: AHT104

Course Duration: 100 hours (approximation, self paced study, commonly 3 to 6 months, longer if you need)

• Grow fresh fruit, berries and nuts efficiently and economically.
• Learn how to raise soil fertility
• Choose the best fruits for your situation
• Control problems and manage risk of failure when growing fruit.
• Avoid using dangerous chemicals.

Both cool and warm climate fruits are covered, and throughout the course you are given the option to concentrate your study on the types of fruits which are of more interest to you.

HOW THEN DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TO GROW?

It is difficult to go wrong provided you do the following:

• You must have or develop the skills required.
• Check and be sure that you can grow each particular crop cheaper than what you might buy the product for ... BEWARE, even though it may seem ridiculous, it is often possible to buy something for less than it might cost you to grow it.
• Consider the need of alternative crops under consideration and select ones you need most or use most.
• Consider the crop's keeping quality. Crops which keep for short periods only (eg: Peaches) are more of a risk than ones which keep well (eg: almonds).
• Consider the relationship between cost outlay & return. Some crops require large capital outlay before any return can be obtained (eg: Walnuts... property and labour etc. can be tied up for up to 10 years before reasonable crops start to be obtained from the trees).
• How suitable is that crop to the soil & climate of your area.
• Consider your own experience & technical ability in relation to the ease of production of the particular crop being considered. Some crops are very difficult to grow; others are easy. If you are inexperienced, start with the easy ones.
• Consider the time the crop takes to mature and length of production of the particular crop considered (eg: paw paws can be harvested 6-9 months after plantiung, but apples take several years).
• What are your existing resources (eg: Manpower, tools, area available, money etc) and what crops are these resources suited to.

Course Structure

There are 6 lessons as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Soils, site preparation & planning
3. General Cultural Practices
4. Tree Fruits
5. Nuts & Vines
6. Berries