Growing Fruit Trees in our NH area
Growing your own fruits can be a fun and richly rewarding experience.  Nothing beats the freshness and flavor quality you will get from a juicy, ripe, nutritious fruit. To quote my brilliant grandson, “Gran, your blueberries taste much more blue than the ones in the store” 

Many concerns about our food now revolve around synthetic chemicals, which have been used to grow or fertilize the plants in recent years.  It is now fairly widely known that the synthetic chemicals have harmful side effects and that the presence in our foods has greatly increased the risks of getting cancer. When you have grown them yourself, you know exactly what's on them.  In fact, it's easy to grow fruit plants using organic practices, which benefit our soil and water quality, help maintain beneficial insect populations, and protect our health. 

Preparation: For a home grower the problem it is relatively simple. You desire nutritious, truly healthy food and it is worth the effort to find a source of good compost and to take the time and care to amend the soil and plant these beautiful plants correctly on your property, which will feed you for a lifetime.  The little extra time and expense involved in soil preparation and using organic fertilizer is insignificant, since the rewards are so enjoyable and healthy.  
There is no particular magic to this approach, it is as old as farmers themselves.  The basics of an organic approach to agriculture are described in every book published previous to the 1950's since agricultural chemicals were not in use previous to this period.  Plants, like people, have certain preferences as to the conditions under which they grow and produce.  They prefer a compost rich soil, with a suitable ph.  They prefer to be in full sun, and have no other root competition or restrictions. Plants must be selected which are appropriate to the climate in which they are being grown and always benefit greatly if care is taken to create an optimum growing environment.

There are a number of manures which are useful to amend the soil, the only thing you must be careful of is that this does not contain much grass and weed seed as in the case of horse manure which will endlessly contribute to weed control problems.  Rabbit, sheep or well composted cow manure will normally be a very good source of nutrients, chicken or turkey manure is the best since it is very high in nutrients and they are  not fed grain that cause weed problems.

Another important thing to consider is the mature size of the plant.  How large can the fruit tree/ blueberry bushes or other plant become at maturity?  Blueberries planted in a row form an attractive and productive edible hedge, that also provide colorful red fall color. They also group well with other plants. 
It is also very important to select plants that are hardy in our southern NH zone 5 region.  Highbush blueberry varieties normally are hardy to about –25 degrees Fahrenheit.  Some, such as Patriot and Blueray are hardy to –45 degrees or more.  Although Lowbush varieties are common in extremely cold regions zones 2-4 their ability to endure very cold conditions also has to do with their size since there are normally covered with a blanket of insulating snow in these regions. 

Thining the Fruit Trees
Homeowners also should realize the importance of this necessary evil of relieving fruit trees of their "overload." Even though you pruned the poor creature unmercifully this winter, the tree still has too many fruit on it to size them properly. For example: eight percent of blossom set equals a full crop of quality peaches. This means that 92 percent of the baby peaches have to go! YIKES!
How does one properly thin the fruit of a fuit tree? With determination, a lot of will power. Be determined that you will remove the unnecessary 92 percent of that fruit. Have the will power to stay with the gruesome task until the job is finished. And have the job finished before your spouse comes home and has you committed for ruining the first decent fruit crop that you have ever had!
You must be strong! You must make a decision at this point. The decision is whether to have a lot of small, worthless fruit or a few, high-quality fruit. Too many fruit on a tree will result in damaged trees and pitiful less flavorful fruit. For example: It takes 191 peaches of a 1-3/4 inch diameter to make a half bushel, while it only takes 79 peaches of a 2-1/2 inch diameter size to make the same half bushel.
Thinning is the hardest of all tasks for the novice fruit grower. The idea of removing all of those little baby peaches is more than most of us can stand. But too many babies, especially 92 percent too many, would be bad on any mom tree. All those babes will break the limbs and weaken the tree to the point of death.

Peaches should be thinned when the fruit is still as small as a dime. Some say that the best effects of thinning will be realized if thinning is accomplished at bloom time. This is especially true with earlier-ripening types. The longer the fruit has to mature after thinning, the larger it will get and less nutrient competition equals larger fruit. Fruit should be thinned until all small fruit are at least 3 to 6 inches apart on the branch and there are absolutely no side-by-side fruit. This small fruit can be removed by hand plucking.
When you complete the job, the ground will be covered with small fruit, and you probably will say bad words about this article. Fact is in all probability should have thinned even more.
Since most of us are too squeamish and reserved when it comes to the task of fruit thinning, nature usually gives us a little helping hand and finishes the job we started. A "natural" fruit thinning will soon occur.
The shedding of young fruit from fruit trees is often very alarming to the backyard gardener. About the time one begins to count the fruit and breathes a sigh of relief, the young fruit, for no apparent reason, begins to fall. This wave of fruit drop is referred to as the "June drop."
Actually, such shedding of fruit is a natural process and with most fruit species, little if anything can be done to prevent its occurrence. But there are certain cultural practices, which when neglected, can contribute to fruit drop. This type of fruit drop may occur in April, May or June. The exact time depends upon species and varieties. The "June drop," may be highly beneficial: it thins the fruit early, in time to promote the largest influence on size. Trees of some species, such as peaches and plums, rarely drop enough fruit and hand thinning is vitally necessary. In the absence of an annual fertilizing, poor soil, dry soil, or overly wet soil, expect more fruit to drop.

Pollination Is Essential In Home Orchard. If growing your own fruit is in your landscape plan, you'll need to make sure you've provided an adequate opportunity for pollination to occur. In most cases, you will need to plant at least two of each type of fruit tree.

There are two types of fruit trees with respect to pollination -- self-fruitful and cross-pollinated. Self-fruitful also called self-pollinating means that pollen from the same cultivar variety will produce fruit. However, fruit set is enhanced even on self-pollinating trees types if more than one type is in the area. For example: Blueberries, like most fruit, benefit much from the presence of a second variety.  Since most blueberries set fruit at the same time but mature at different rates it is possible to pollinate a late season variety with an early season variety. Plants produce about twice as much with a pollinator nearby. 
Most fruit trees belong to the group that requires cross-pollination. These trees not only need pollen from another tree, but the tree must be of a different cultivar and be flowering at the same time. An early season apple will not pollinate a late season apple. Pollen from its own flowers or those of another tree of the same cultivar will not be able to successfully pollinate the female parts of the flowers, due to incompatible timing. You'll need to do a little homework to find the right combination of cultivars. Extension bulletins and gardening books are good places to find suggested combinations.

Even if you have compatible trees in place, other factors can interfere with pollination. One of the most frustrating foes of pollination is the weather, since we have so little control over such things as frost, rain, cold and wind. Flower buds are formed in autumn for the following year's crop. Severe low temperatures in winter can kill or injure the buds before they even open. Those that do make it through winter can be injured by spring frosts. The more developed the bud, the more sensitive it is to cold injury. Fortunately, not every flower bud on the tree needs to survive to have a good crop. But each incident of frost further decreases the fruit potential. Apples are one of the most popular home-grown fruits, and most are not self-fruitful. Generally, early-blooming cultivars should be used as pollinators for other early-blooming types and so on. Midseason bloomers can often act as pollinators for all others, since they will have some overlap with both early- and late-season cultivars.

Pears generally are not self-fruitful, either, so at least two cultivars are needed. Generally, any two cultivars will be compatible. Self pollinators fruit without benefit of cross-pollination, but will produce best among other cultivars.

Tart cherries are self-fruitful, but sweet cherries are more complicated. The sweet cherry 'Stella' is self-fruitful. Other sweet cherries need to be cross-pollinated, and some can only be pollinated by certain other cultivars.

Peaches, nectarines and apricots are generally self-fruitful, but fruit-set may be considerably enhanced by having more than one tree. These trees are often quite susceptible to winter and spring frost injury in our zone 5, resulting in poor or no fruit crop some years.

In order for adequate cross-pollination to take place, trees should be within 50 feet of one another. Pollen is too heavy and sticky for wind to carry it, so bees must do the job. Protect those bees by omitting the insecticide use from your yard. Offer colorful flowers in pots near or beneath the trees, while they are blooming to entice the bees into visiting your trees. Some flowers attract more bees than others. Visit our garden center when your trees are blooming and see which flowers the bees are most attracted to.

Most fruit trees are propagated by grafting or budding the variety on a root stock. When you purchase nursery-grown trees, their tops will be one to two years old while the roots may be one or two years older. The age from actual planting - when trees can be expected to be healthy and strong enough to bear fruit depends on the type of fruit you are growing: apple, apricot and sour cherry three to five years, peach two to four years, pear and plum four to six years, sweet cherry five to seven years. Dwarf fruit trees may begin to bear one to two years earlier than standard sized trees. All fruit on newly planted fruit trees should be removed for the long term benefit of the fruit tree and future fuit bearing.