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Chris

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
Joined
Dec 13, 2017
Messages
212
I just wanted to be the first post in the section.

Little over a month ago I planted 22 new fruit trees from plums to peaches, apples and nuts.

I have about an acre and a half on a slope that I want to plant an orchard in the next year or two once I decide what I want to grow.
 
That's wonderful. In the Spring that area will be so pretty with the blossoms that come before the fruit.

What nut trees? We have a lot of Pecan trees round the area. Mom and Dad had pecan trees on their old property around here. My uncle had Walnuts, they make a mess, but sure are yummy.
 
We have two very neglected mature apple trees which we working to prune back into shape. No idea what type of apples they are, they were planted several owners ago. One is an early red of some form that doesn’t keep well, the other is much later and a great keeper.

We also have an ornamental crab apple in the front. Too small and bitter to do much of anything with but the deer and grouse lot them.

A small orchard of Saskatoon berries were also very neglected so I cut them back to Ground, will see if they come back.

Planted half a dozen hakaps this year as well. A few raspberries and blackberries and a big bed of strawberries.

I know that strawberries don’t grow on trees, and haskapps and Saskatoon are bushes rather than trees but this is closet thread to being relevant.

Oregon grapes grow well in the wild here so we are considering transplanting a few for jelly making.
 
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I HAD two apple trees in the back. Both got wiped out during hurricanes one a few years ago and the other one last year. We had planted them the first year we moved here and the last one had just started producing pretty well. Now I'm down to 3 mayhaws, 2 pear, 1 pecan, 2 lemon, 1 orange & 2 dewberries. Oh I forgot the fig tree that was here the first couple years. got split in half after a hurricane and eventually died.
 
On my last property I planted 80 different fruit trees, sold the place last year and one of my employees was hired by the new owner as a caretaker for the property and he says all threes are really starting to produce and get big. I wish I was able to enjoy the fruits of my labor
 
I wish you luck with your orchard. When I moved back to the family farm 20 years ago dad had a nice 200 tree peach orchard just starting to produce. I don’t know much about apples or plums but I do know a thing or two about peaches. I hope I can be of help.

I know that one of the hardest things in the world to do it produce a beautiful basket of peaches to sell at the farmers market. Between March and June, we’d spray a minimum of 12 times, either or insecticide or fungicide. Sometimes both at once, and that’s not all the chemicals. In early fall we’d treat the ground for all the boring insects that like to spend the winter in the tree trunks or the ground itself.

It’s a trade off with treating your trees. If you want every piece of fruit you produce to be beautiful it’s an all-out war on bugs and fungus. If you can live with 50% loss, 25% damaged fruit and 25% decent fruit not nearly as much spraying is required. All the information you need is down at the local county extension office. They will have all the data on the insects & fungus you face and the chemicals you will need to fight them.

The organic route… One morning at the farmers market I showed up with 40 beautiful baskets of peaches to sell. A lady asked me if my peaches were organic. I wanted to tell here the real truth. If they were organic there wouldn’t be 40 baskets, there’d only be one and she wouldn’t be able to afford it. If you live near a population center (lots of cash) you may wish to go the organic route. I live 100 miles from the nearest city. No one out here in the county had the cash required for a beautiful organic peach. Simply put, organic fruit wasn’t a commercially viable option for me. That said I still did every thing I could to produce safe, wholesome fruit. I even brought in crushed volcanic rock by the ton. At the end of the day when the county agent tells you to put a chemical on your trees you can’t pronounce… it’s a crap shoot.

There is one thing however that affects all growers no matter the type of fruit. Over the last 15 years I’ve seen dozens of people retire and move out here to the country. Most want a few fruit trees. Almost to a person they all made the same catastrophic mistake. They FAILED to prune their trees. 3 years later their trees are 25ft tall.

Of what value is the most beautiful apple in the world if you need a skidsteer with a telescopic boom to harvest it? PRUNE your trees!!!! When I drive by the home of one of the folks who moved out here I always shake my head. I sincerely feel bad for them. Some years they have beautiful fruit but can only harvest a couple of baskets they can reach from the ground. They are older folks and don’t need to be up on ladders 25ft in the air. 90% of their fruit is devoured by birds and other critters. A waste of time, effort and money on a grand scale that could be averted by something so simple! Something completely under the control of the grower.

We began pruning about the end of January at this latitude. It always seemed to be 35 degrees and raining, an entire week spent in freezing rain, lovey! What’s the old saying? “Toughen up Buttercup”. Pruning can be a miserable experience but it’s the one thing you can absolutely control when it comes to fruit. If you produce some fruit you can at least enjoy it. If not then the birds will thank you. Prune your trees! I hope my experience helps in some way.
Peaches 01.jpg


Last note on peaches… There is a nasty fungus called “Brown Rot” that hits peaches just as they begin to ripen. I’ve seen it destroy 40% of a crop in 3 days. It’s one fungicide you might want to consider.
 
We buy peaches at our local farmer's market. There are many good peaches, but then there are to die for peaches. Once I found those, all the rest are good, but just not the same, IMHO. I came upon some Redhaven peaches, from the Western Slope of Colorado, where all the good peaches grow in Colorado. They are so juicy and delicious. We eat them like an apple, but have to have a towel to get all the dripping juice. We also eat them in a bowl with a little cream.

I asked the woman at the stand where a person could buy a Redhaven peach tree. Stark Brothers. They have quality trees. I do see that their prices are higher than when I bought my tree. Mine was a dwarf. I planted it in the spring and the following year it was loaded with blossoms, and then peaches. I culled many of the little peaches to help some make it to a larger size.

The tree was a marvel and was often talked about by people walking by, wondering about it.

One fall day a few years ago, the temperature fell about 60 degrees within about 24 hours and it killed my peach and 100s of other trees in my area.

I also have a dwarf pear from Stark Brothers. It is another great little tree. It survived that temperature drop.
 
We buy peaches at our local farmer's market. There are many good peaches, but then there are to die for peaches. Once I found those, all the rest are good, but just not the same, IMHO. I came upon some Redhaven peaches, from the Western Slope of Colorado, where all the good peaches grow in Colorado. They are so juicy and delicious. We eat them like an apple, but have to have a towel to get all the dripping juice. We also eat them in a bowl with a little cream.

I asked the woman at the stand where a person could buy a Redhaven peach tree. Stark Brothers. They have quality trees. I do see that their prices are higher than when I bought my tree. Mine was a dwarf. I planted it in the spring and the following year it was loaded with blossoms, and then peaches. I culled many of the little peaches to help some make it to a larger size.

The tree was a marvel and was often talked about by people walking by, wondering about it.

One fall day a few years ago, the temperature fell about 60 degrees within about 24 hours and it killed my peach and 100s of other trees in my area.

I also have a dwarf pear from Stark Brothers. It is another great little tree. It survived that temperature drop.
We live in a very desirable spot for peaches and other fruits. The banana belt we are in makes them juicier and sweeter than any I have ever tasted.
 
i only want full size standard trees.these smaller trees cant stand the roughness of my homestead and the various things that happen.open center trees dont last here ,to much snow load,not to mention bears.i want long lived trees that last for as long as possible so not only i but others can reap the rewards as well after i am worm food in the ground.one of the very best producing trees on old abandoned homestead here is the yellow transparent.all homesteads are not same and conditions dictate planting schemes.my next orchard i have planned is an espalier orchard for ease of reach and grafting multiple species on base trees.my base trees will be standards too. i have trees to start planting between now and spring as i get fencing built.

also in faze of planting chestnuts as well. so far i have 10 planted and will be ordering more i hope...yall know how money doesnt go far these days.
 
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Peach Pruning.jpg
How soon do you start pruning or how big should the tree be?

The best source of information would, again, be the county extension office. They have booklets on pruning just about any species, anything you want to know.

2. Folks who sell at the farmers market in your area will begin having meetings after the holidays. The folks at the county extension office will know when these meetings will be held. By all means attend these meetings. You can meet all the local growers and more than likely find someone with experience with the trees you are trying to grow and prune. Growers usually hang out and drink coffee afterwards. They swap seeds, swap stories and growing experiences. There is almost always good information to be had if you are a listener!

I will say this about a peach tree… the idea is to prune the tree so that the crown is shaped like and upside-down umbrella. Also, a new limb growing this spring will not produce fruit but it will next year. So, when you prune you are pruning for the way the fruit will grow 2 years from now. It takes a bit of head scratching sometimes… :confused:
 
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Considering fruit trees in a cold climate? I would recommend the North American plum which is t he only plum native to north America. They are smaller and yellow in color but oh what an amazing amount of flavor in a small package.

Next would be NanKing cherry bushes. You heard that right, they are more of a bush. They grow to about 10 feet tall and can spread to 15 feet. Tart cherries from them but they can tolerate cold winters, hot summers and drought
 
One that I forgot to mention a and many overlook is a crabapple tree. If you slice and dehydrate them it is like eating candy. They are amazing and that is a healthy way to curb your sweet tooth
 
Very cool Chris. I just planted a bunch this year too. Been planting from April to just last week. I have a dozen elderberry. 18 blackberry. 3 peach. 3 apple. 3 pear. 3 fig. 2 cherry. 3 mulberry. 7 crabapple of 2 different types. 2 persimmon. 3 pecan. 2 hazelnut. 2 Almond. 4 ornamental willows and 2 weeping willow. 2 PawPaw and am going today to pick up 4 Chestnut. I really enjoy this growing thing and am going to start with some easy garden stuff real soon. Like garlic,sweet potato. Stuff like that . Please keep us posted. I'm spraying and pruning over the next two weekends on mine. Most all are pretty new do the pruning will be minimal
 
also in faze of planting chestnuts as well. so far i have 10 planted and will be ordering more i hope...yall know how money doesnt go far these days.

What variety of chestnuts are you planting? I walk in a park where there are chestnut trees. I was thinking I would gather up some of the chestnuts for roasting, until I saw someone in a neighborhood group ask if anyone had chestnuts in their yard for eating. Someone replied that they needed to be careful because not all chestnuts are safe to eat. I had no idea of that, and no idea which ones are safe to eat, or not. I guess the safe thing to do is to buy them at the store.
 
Very cool Chris. I just planted a bunch this year too. Been planting from April to just last week. I have a dozen elderberry. 18 blackberry. 3 peach. 3 apple. 3 pear. 3 fig. 2 cherry. 3 mulberry. 7 crabapple of 2 different types. 2 persimmon. 3 pecan. 2 hazelnut. 2 Almond. 4 ornamental willows and 2 weeping willow. 2 PawPaw and am going today to pick up 4 Chestnut. I really enjoy this growing thing and am going to start with some easy garden stuff real soon. Like garlic,sweet potato. Stuff like that . Please keep us posted. I'm spraying and pruning over the next two weekends on mine. Most all are pretty new do the pruning will be minimal
That's awesome. I only wish the cost of trees would go down. I have a bunch of peach and plum pits that I am going to plant this winter in pots and see if I can get tgem to grow.
 
What variety of chestnuts are you planting? I walk in a park where there are chestnut trees. I was thinking I would gather up some of the chestnuts for roasting, until I saw someone in a neighborhood group ask if anyone had chestnuts in their yard for eating. Someone replied that they needed to be careful because not all chestnuts are safe to eat. I had no idea of that, and no idea which ones are safe to eat, or not. I guess the safe thing to do is to buy them at the store.

currently chinese chestnut...there are more but the price different is huge between what i get and other varieties.

here is one place for other varieties..

https://www.willisorchards.com/

https://www.willisorchards.com/category/chestnut-trees#.WjtBvjdG19A
 
currently chinese chestnut...there are more but the price different is huge between what i get and other varieties.

here is one place for other varieties..

https://www.willisorchards.com/

https://www.willisorchards.com/category/chestnut-trees#.WjtBvjdG19A
I just got some PAWPAW from Willis. They appear to be very healthy. I paid for 4-5 foot tall and they are both about 5 1/2. They only ship in fall. I hate waiting to see them with foilage but they say it's best this way so I believe them. I just went to get Chestnut trees but they weren't ready yet. I'm going with Dunstan....
 
We have two very neglected mature apple trees which we working to prune back into shape. No idea what type of apples they are, they were planted several owners ago. One is an early red of some form that doesn’t keep well, the other is much later and a great keeper.

We also have an ornamental crab apple in the front. Too small and bitter to do much of anything with but the deer and grouse lot them.

A small orchard of Saskatoon berries were also very neglected so I cut them back to Ground, will see if they come back.

Planted half a dozen hakaps this year as well. A few raspberries and blackberries and a big bed of strawberries.

I know that strawberries don’t grow on trees, and haskapps and Saskatoon are bushes rather than trees but this is closet thread to being relevant.

Oregon grapes grow well in the wild here so we are considering transplanting a few for jelly making.


We buy maple syrup , your lucky to actually a tree. It is not cheap.
:cool:
 
I wish you luck with your orchard. When I moved back to the family farm 20 years ago dad had a nice 200 tree peach orchard just starting to produce. I don’t know much about apples or plums but I do know a thing or two about peaches. I hope I can be of help.

I know that one of the hardest things in the world to do it produce a beautiful basket of peaches to sell at the farmers market. Between March and June, we’d spray a minimum of 12 times, either or insecticide or fungicide. Sometimes both at once, and that’s not all the chemicals. In early fall we’d treat the ground for all the boring insects that like to spend the winter in the tree trunks or the ground itself.

It’s a trade off with treating your trees. If you want every piece of fruit you produce to be beautiful it’s an all-out war on bugs and fungus. If you can live with 50% loss, 25% damaged fruit and 25% decent fruit not nearly as much spraying is required. All the information you need is down at the local county extension office. They will have all the data on the insects & fungus you face and the chemicals you will need to fight them.

The organic route… One morning at the farmers market I showed up with 40 beautiful baskets of peaches to sell. A lady asked me if my peaches were organic. I wanted to tell here the real truth. If they were organic there wouldn’t be 40 baskets, there’d only be one and she wouldn’t be able to afford it. If you live near a population center (lots of cash) you may wish to go the organic route. I live 100 miles from the nearest city. No one out here in the county had the cash required for a beautiful organic peach. Simply put, organic fruit wasn’t a commercially viable option for me. That said I still did every thing I could to produce safe, wholesome fruit. I even brought in crushed volcanic rock by the ton. At the end of the day when the county agent tells you to put a chemical on your trees you can’t pronounce… it’s a crap shoot.

There is one thing however that affects all growers no matter the type of fruit. Over the last 15 years I’ve seen dozens of people retire and move out here to the country. Most want a few fruit trees. Almost to a person they all made the same catastrophic mistake. They FAILED to prune their trees. 3 years later their trees are 25ft tall.

Of what value is the most beautiful apple in the world if you need a skidsteer with a telescopic boom to harvest it? PRUNE your trees!!!! When I drive by the home of one of the folks who moved out here I always shake my head. I sincerely feel bad for them. Some years they have beautiful fruit but can only harvest a couple of baskets they can reach from the ground. They are older folks and don’t need to be up on ladders 25ft in the air. 90% of their fruit is devoured by birds and other critters. A waste of time, effort and money on a grand scale that could be averted by something so simple! Something completely under the control of the grower.

We began pruning about the end of January at this latitude. It always seemed to be 35 degrees and raining, an entire week spent in freezing rain, lovey! What’s the old saying? “Toughen up Buttercup”. Pruning can be a miserable experience but it’s the one thing you can absolutely control when it comes to fruit. If you produce some fruit you can at least enjoy it. If not then the birds will thank you. Prune your trees! I hope my experience helps in some way. View attachment 918

Last note on peaches… There is a nasty fungus called “Brown Rot” that hits peaches just as they begin to ripen. I’ve seen it destroy 40% of a crop in 3 days. It’s one fungicide you might want to consider.

So much change. We use to have peach trees in Georgia growing wild almost. Always had peaches on them. That was about 50 years ago though.
Here in fl. can't grow them at all. Too hot summers. Mild winters my apple trees bloom about 6 times every year so not good. One year I got one pie from it. I call it my one apple pie tree.
 
I just got some PAWPAW from Willis. They appear to be very healthy. I paid for 4-5 foot tall and they are both about 5 1/2. They only ship in fall. I hate waiting to see them with foilage but they say it's best this way so I believe them. I just went to get Chestnut trees but they weren't ready yet. I'm going with Dunstan....
where are you getting dunstan at? seems most chestnuts outside of chinese are in the $50 a tree range. its hard for me to say no to chinese kind at $2 each from state forestry program. be sure and check your state to see if they have a state tree nursery .

you might find this of interest

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1587361671/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

51%2B%2BVip3mJL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

and..
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E3ZN36/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

and..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ZM4P4A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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where are you getting dunstan at? seems most chestnuts outside of chinese are in the $50 a tree range. its hard for me to say no to chinese kind at $2 each from state forestry program. be sure and check your state to see if they have a state tree nursery .

you might find this of interest

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1587361671/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

51%2B%2BVip3mJL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

and..
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E3ZN36/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

and..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ZM4P4A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
It's right down the road from me here in Florida. http://www.chestnuthilltreefarm.com...mohTw9Ick1w7RcR1TpKNP4rgwtwkbOA8aAvxsEALw_wcB. They do some awesome stuff.
 
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