haha wish i knew to be honest alan. i plant and just water
Welcome, Ian. Glad youâve come out of lurkdom to introduce yourself! Your orchard sounds lovely, especially the Sugar maples. Looking forward to seeing more posts and photos of your lovely place.
Patty S.
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Welcome!!!
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Hello all! I am not a grower myself, but I have a very big interest in helping orchard growers like yourselves! I am apart of a âfarm-techâ that seeks to create a better future for farming! We just started doing business with a local family orchard in Northern Michigan, and a big problem they were facing on their end dealt with record keeping. Due to the FSA, I believe, making record keeping a more maticulous task they struggled to find a program that would help them make an easy transition from the pen and paper method. What are programs that you are using for record keeping on your orchard? And why did you choose them? Answers will help us create a better product for growers like yourselves in the future! Happy Farming!
Hello from mi. Probably best to start a thread with your question, more may see it.
Awesome! I will do that!
Hello, I posted a couple times on the GW website but have been inactive. My user name was DonnieAppleseed. Tonight I heard from a member of this forum and he told me about this website. I decided to sign up.
A little about me. I dropped out of college in 1972 and came up to Yakima Washington and picked apples. Since then I have picked fruit in a few different states and over many years. I estimate that I have literally picked between one and two million apples.
I also have literally and figuratively bummed around and had many different jobs, but have been relatively stable the past 15 years living in the same place and teaching, loading ships, and offering yard care. Yes of course I am a bachelor.
I have pruned fruit trees for homeowners on a part time basis for 35 years.
I am now active with some civic organizations that work with fruit trees in the Seattle area, including the Seattle Tree Fruit Society, City Fruit, and the historic Piperâs Orchard.
I am especially interested in protective devices that cover fruit or the fruit trees and will probably talk about that later. Thanks
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Welcome aboard. This is a great place for information and meeting people, who like you love gardening and fruit trees.
Welcome, Donnie. Youâll probably recognize a few folks from GW, here. This is a wonderful forum, weâve got brand new fruit growers to professionals, and everything in between. Look forward to your posts!
Patty S.
A lot of fellow GW refugees here!
Welcome. Any messages on fruit protective devices are very worthwhile, particularly for those of us in areas where animal, insect and disease attacks are common.
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Hi Donnie
Nice to see someone else from our neck of the woods. This is a great resource with nice folks.
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Hi All
Just realized I need to introduce myself to this forum. My name is Melinda and Iâm trying to grow peach, apricot, apple, fig, and pear trees in my back yard and stick to organic here in Roanoke, VA, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Right now Iâm nervously watching the weather forecast hoping it wonât decimate my peach and apricot blooms. The apricot already bloomed â hopefully Iâll get fruit out of it this year. The two peach trees are in bloom, and the apples and pear are still coming out of dormancy. I love how fast the peach trees grow, but they are a challenge to keep the bugs out! Hope your trees dodge this frost and snow coming to the east!
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Nice to see a member from the Star City of the South. Welcome to a great place with lots of great folks.
Welcome Melinda.
Tony
Welcome, Melinda. You and many of our other east coast members are also hoping this frigid weather doesnât doom blooms. Hoping you come through relatively unscathed.
Patty S.
Yep! I guess this is one reason to have a good VARIETY of trees that bloom at different times, and fruit at different times. We missed out on the peach and apricot last year, but had figs just about every day from August through November! (the first batch of figs froze in April).
And just another warning for all of you eager to get out in the garden before all the 3 leaves come out â WEAR LONG GARDENING GLOVES. I was weeding and clearing brush out an area, and realized I pulled up some poison ivy plants â it got me on the wrist â ouch, ouch, scratch, blister, calamine lotion, etc. Itâs too early for poison ivy â but itâs hiding and you canât see the 3 leaves this time of year!
Welcome, Melinda.
We have a number of people here who grow organically or with less chemicals. Hope you are here to stay.
You must have misreadâŚshe is from Roanoke, not Nashville. 
haha. Just kidding. Iâm sure @Auburn would say Birmingham is the star, @Chris_in_GA and @bradkairdolf would say its Atlanta, and so on. We all know our towns are the best. ha
And welcome, @sombrerocat . Good luck with your bloomsâŚI think most of us are watching the weather right now with fingers crossed!
EDIT: if the above didnât make since originally its because it should have said @Auburn would say Birmingham is star of the south (I accidentally put Nashville until I corrected it. Of course, Bill, if you live in B-ham but think Nashville is star of the south, Iâll accept your vote! ha)
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Nope â Roanoke IS the star city of the south. Hands down! Roanoke has a giant, lit up star sitting on the top of Mill Mountain which overlooks the city. Anyways, our star city is forecast to get snow, sleet and rain forecast this week. About all I can do now is pray to get peaches and apricots off my trees this year! The weatherâs been a little crazy this year. Weâve had all kinds of trees bloom in late February, which is quite early! And now itâs swinging back to winter weather.
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