Microclimates: Sun & Slope

Unless you live on a perfectly flat piece of ground with no trees in sight, you have a microclimate. A microclimate simply means that the climate, be it sun exposure, temperature, or wind velocity is different over here than it is over there. 

Sun

A house or large structure can produce four different microclimates: north, south, east and west. In the Northern Hemisphere, the north side of the house would be a bad place to plant because the trees would be too shaded, while the south side is best because it is here that they will receive the most sunlight.

If you are planting your orchard in rows, then orienting your rows north to south will maximize the amount of sun that your trees will receive. This is the ideal, but it is not a huge issue if you can’t.

Slope

If you have a slope to plant on, ideally, your orchard would be planted halfway down it. This will protect the trees from the winter cold and wind at the top, and they will be above the cold air that will pool at the bottom.  

If there is a woods at the bottom of the slope, cut driveways through the woods to provide drains for the cold air. Think of cold air as bathwater and the woods and slope as the bathtub. The cold air will pool as high as the tops of the forest unless you open the “drain plugs.”