We recently removed a 50' soft maple tree from our yard in Urbana and are looking at replacing it with 3 varieties of trees in pairs. 2 American Black Walnut, 2 red delicious apple trees and 2 Ayers sugar pair trees. Would these trees work well together spaced in a straight line at 10' apart?

Greetings Richard:

I would forgo the black walnut trees as this species is highly-cited as an unacceptable yard tree (I receive numerous complaints every year regarding black walnut fruit, staining caused by walnut husks, etc.).

Furthermore, interplanting black walnut and apple trees is not advisable due to black walnut's alleopathic effects on certain plant species, and unfortunately, apple is generally considered to be susceptible to juglone.

To read more about black walnut alleopathy and plant susceptibility to juglone, please visit the following university Websites:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1148.html

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/430/430-021/430-021.html

Your fruit tree spacing may be a little tight, depending upon species selection: semi-dwarfs generally need about 15 ft of spacing between trees, whereas dwarfs only need 10-12 feet spacing between trees.

For more information regarding fruit tree selection, please submit your questions to the Hort Corner forum:

http://web.extension.illinois.edu/askextension/?AskSiteID=34