Chaos. That’s right, to put it simply, the difference between an orchard and a food forest is chaos. Orchards are typically far more orderly than food forests. Plants springing up in random spots are typically seen as a good thing in a food forest. Meanwhile, anything not in the grid of an orchard will likely be pulled up and transplanted, discarded, or sold. Digging a little deeper, there are a few characteristics that differentiate an orchard from a food forest:
- Orchards tend to be monocultures or low polycultures of a particular fruit tree or closely related varieties of fruit trees. For example, an apple orchard is likely only going to have apple trees, but there are probably going to be multiple varieties like Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Winesap, and McIntosh. Certainly, there may be an apple orchard right next to a peach orchard. They may be owned and worked by the same people, but the apple and peach trees likely will not be intercropped with each other. This is because of the different harvesting methods and times. To understand the difference between an orchard and a food forest, consider that a food forest is highly polycultured. It has many different species of fruit and nut trees, perennial vines, native flowers, berry bushes and canes, and tall canopy trees.
- Since orchards are typically for growing produce for sale, the trees are typically aligned in rows to make pruning and harvesting easier. Food forests are a little more chaotic and likely have dwarf fruit and nut trees among much larger canopy trees. Thus, light is at a premium and plants will need to be placed where light conditions are best. This illustrates another difference between an orchard and a food forest.
- There are typically not plants other than the fruit or nut trees and some type of ground cover in an orchard. Food forests, in contrast, have fruit and nut trees intercropped with many other types of plants. These plants form guilds that support the fruit tree by attracting pollinators, providing mulch, or defending against pests. This shows a clear difference between an orchard and a food forest.
- Food forests tend to be for consumption by both humans and animals. There are certainly people who quarter off part of their food forest for human consumption. They also grow native food plants to support wildlife in the deeper woods. For example, a food forester may have an American Persimmon tree meant for their own consumption near their house and protected with a fence. But they may also plant persimmon trees deeper in the woods for the deer and birds to consume. As time goes on, the seeds from that persimmon tree will spread around the wild section of the forest. This allows more trees to grow, which can support more animals. If hard times fall on the humans, they may be able to harvest some of those fruit from the wild forest for themselves. This is another point of difference between an orchard and a food forest.
So, should you grow an orchard, or a food forest? Yes. Either is better than neither. However, if you grow an orchard, I think it would behoove you to incorporate native plants. Maybe even have the main produce from your orchard be a native fruit or nut. Considering the difference between an orchard and a food forest can help guide your choice.