Cagary,

I have read here that with grafting sometimes one graft will overwhelm the others and you end up with a lopsided tree. Do you avoid that problem by planting "three to a hole"? I have a small yard, have not yet planted any citrus in the ground and want to maximize the space I have. I am very interested in the three to a hole planting. It looks like all three trees are doing equally well. Any down side to this method?

I haven't had any problems. Just be sure to plant the same kind of fruit. Here in my garden in southern California, grapefruits grow big fast, so you wouldn't want to plant one with a couple of tangerines in the same hole. And obviously, you'd want to plant all dwarfs or all standards in the same hole.

This method allows me to plant an early orange, a mid season orange and a late season orange all in the same hole. This way you can have oranges over several months of the year, all in the space that most people grow just one tree in.

BTW, I do this with all my fruit trees from apples and apricots to cherimoyas and mangoes.

I am definitely going to try that! That's a great idea. Thanks

CA Gary,

Thanks for the info. My lemon and lime plants are about 5 feet apart so that sounds adequate. I have planted a dwarf Washington Navel and I now think I will plant a Valencia Tree close to it which I'm told fruits in a different part of the year. Then I will have two types of oranges but all year fruit. I do have limited space so this is great to know.
Thanks and aloha. Tree spacing shown below.

{{gwi:598030}}

Minimum I would say is 8 feet apart for dwarf and 16 feet apart for standard rootstock if you have room. Your trees planted 5 feet apart will grow together in about 3 years and you will get more of a hedge than two trees. Citrus trees get quite large, even "dwarfs" get 8 x 8 x 8 feet. I plant dwarfs 8 feet apart. I planted some standard 8 feet apart but am going to take out every other one when they start bearing more than I can eat.(BTW I have 25 trees in the ground, oldest 7 years.)

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas