ORCHARDHOME
Grow your own fruit — backyard orchards and pick-your-own know-how.
From timing a harvest and spacing new trees to gauging winter chill, projecting a yield, planning a pruning session, and getting a jam sugar ratio right, OrchardHome pairs free hands-on orchard calculators with practical guides and a richly illustrated museum. Grow it right, right in your own backyard.
Orchard Calculators & Tools
Free tools for a backyard orchard — harvest time calculator, tree spacing calculator, chill hours calculator, fruit yield estimator, pruning calendar, and jam sugar-ratio calculator.
Harvest Time Calculator
Estimate when a fruit will be ready to pick from your USDA hardiness zone, across apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, fig, blueberry, and strawberry.
Tree Spacing Calculator
Work out in-row and row-to-row spacing from your fruit type and rootstock size, plus how many trees a given area can hold.
Chill Hours Calculator
Estimate winter chill hours from a typical daily low and high using the classic 32–45°F model, to check against a variety's chill requirement.
Fruit Yield Estimator
Project roughly how many pounds a tree of a given age and rootstock should bear, scaled to how many trees you have.
Pruning Calendar
Find the right dormant-season pruning window for a fruit type, in either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere.
Jam Sugar-Ratio Calculator
Convert a batch of fruit into the sugar (and lemon juice, if needed) a classic preserve recipe calls for, based on its natural pectin level.
Museum of the Orchard
Wander an immersive museum of backyard fruit growing — heritage apple and pear varieties, citrus and stone fruit, berries and vines, and the long history of orchards and fruit growing, each in its own gallery, so you can get to know the fruit behind every harvest: where it came from, how it's grown, and the role it's played on the table for centuries.
Tour the museum →From the Journal
Fresh guides on rootstocks, chill hours, pruning, harvest timing, yields, and preserving, plus practical tips for choosing, planting, and caring for backyard fruit trees.
How to Choose the Right Rootstock for a Backyard Fruit Tree
Almost every fruit tree you buy is really two plants grafted together — a guide to what rootstock actually controls, and how to pick dwarf, semi-dwarf, or standard for your yard.
Understanding Chill Hours: Why Winter Cold Matters for Fruit Trees
Fruit trees don't just tolerate cold winters — many of them need a minimum dose of it. A plain-language look at chill hours, why they matter, and how to check a variety against your climate.
A Beginner's Guide to Pruning Fruit Trees in Winter
Dormant-season pruning looks intimidating with shears in hand for the first time. Here's what winter pruning is actually trying to accomplish, and a simple order of operations to follow.
Espalier Fruit Trees: Growing More Fruit in Less Space
Training a fruit tree flat against a wall or wire isn't just decorative — it's a centuries-old technique for fitting real fruit production into a small yard. What espalier is and how it works.
When to Pick: A Fruit-by-Fruit Harvest Timing Guide
Ripeness cues differ a lot from one fruit to the next — what tells you a peach is ready is nearly useless on a pear. A practical, fruit-by-fruit look at how to judge harvest timing.
Why Your Fruit Tree Isn't Bearing Yet (and When to Expect a Crop)
A young fruit tree with no fruit isn't necessarily a problem — it might just not be old enough yet. A look at typical bearing ages, and the other common reasons a mature tree still isn't producing.
Keep Learning
Plain-language explainers on the building blocks of a backyard orchard — rootstocks and site basics, planting and everyday care, pruning and training, and what to do with the harvest once it's picked — everything you need to grow with confidence.
Visit the Learn hub →