If you do a little planning before you rush out and buy a tree, you should be able to find trees that can survive on lower amounts of water. Usually the most adaptable plants are the ones that are indigenous anyways. If you live in a zone that is suffering a water crisis, usually the only plants that survive are the ones that have been there all along. Pruning also keeps the tree in shape by keeping the branches even. This prevents it from becoming weighed down on one side. Having too many branches on one side could cause the tree to become permanently crooked. Many gardeners don t even think about pruning their trees until they start to bear fruit. Maintaining a Healthy Young Tree Making sure that your fruit tree stays healthy is very important, but not as hard as some might think. There are several vital things you need to do: don't harvest all of the fruit on the tree at the same time; make sure the soil is healthy; watch out for pests; plant it correctly; be sure it is protected when it is young. It s just a matter of what you would prefer. Once your tree collection starts to bear large amounts of fruit, you can consider starting a fruit stand or participating at the farmers market. Instead of letting the fruits go to waste or trying to eat them all (which can lead to some bad stomach aches), you can let the rest of the world enjoy the product of your intense labor. If the tree just has bare roots, then the ideal planting time is anytime in winter and early spring. If you buy a tree that has been grown in a container, make sure that the roots are not constricted by the container. This will usually cause the roots to go in circles underground after you plant it. After you buy the tree and before you plant it, be sure to constantly add moisture to it. If your tree doesn't get just the right amount of sun, it will die. Be sure that you do not plant it where the sunlight will be blocked by something. Also be sure that it isn't being constantly hit be the sun at every moment of the day. Either of these can be fatal to the tree. An important thing to keep in mind when choosing a spot for your tree is whether your spot will be convenient for watering, harvesting, and pruning.