Introducing myself to Scott's forum

Welcome aboard Michael. More jujube input is definitely appreciated! We are all trying to figure out which ones work in our respective regions and the more data the better.

Welcome Mike! There are a lot of hortiholics here but the twelve (or more) step program offered will just feed the disease. I have gone jujube crazy too over the last year and my husband has even had a sip of the koolaid. We are only up to 5 at the moment but it will increaseā€¦:grinning:
Katy

Hi all,
Names Troy, though druss is a nickname that stuck from my youth. Im in Western Australia. The climate here is similar to a usda 9b/10a, and according to the koppen maps itā€™s Mediterranean being very similar to Sicily, ranking CSA.
We have hot dry summers and cool wet winters (though not as wet as they used to be). I cant grow most truly tropicals or high chill cold hardy types. Things like mangosteen, rambutan and cocoa are out of reach as are european plums, most cherries (the low chill zaigers are an exception) or anything traditional fruit tree needing medium or higher chill. I have also found our hot summers can be as detrimental to some plants as the winters are to others. Kiwifruit and raspberries fry here no matter what I do. However to a degree I can grow everything in between. I am currently trialling a large swathe of subtropical fruits to see what does well. Much is currently in pots as I am hoping to purchase 5 acres in the near future to plant out those that produce well and have good fruit.

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Welcome to the forum and the site of great people and advice!

@Druss

Troy,

Welcome and enjoy.

Put yourself on our member map

Mike

How do I do that?

Hi everyone,

thank you for mantaining this forum and information.
Iā€™m portuguese and new to fruit tree growing (started learning since 2013 and love it).
We have a mediterranean climate but, apart from the long, hot and dry summers all the other 3 are going crazy so everything is expected.

We are certified organic so everything we can share is organic related.

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Welcome Andre, nice to see folks from other parts of the world on here. Looks like you have quite an assortment of fruits that you are growing. We look forward to hearing how all your trees and plants do.

Welcome, Druss. Nice having someone from the other side of the world (Iā€™m fighting the urge to call it ā€œdown underā€ because its such a cliche! Iā€™m jealous that you can grow tropicals, but hope you enjoy your time here.

To add your name and location to the member map, just go to this link and follow the directions on it: There are already a few Australians!

Looks like Im there already yay. Cant fruit truly temperate plants, things like white walnut trees, euro plums or anything needing chill over 3-400 hrs chill. Real tropicals like rambutan or mangosteen are also out as are the most tender mangos. But thereā€™s a big range in the middle I can grow. Its not a bad compromise spot.

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Hello,

I live in northwest Arkansas and work with my dad on his 150 acres in zone 7. We graft mostly southern heirloom apples but also have several pears as well as a few newer varieties of apples as well.

My biggest hobby has been collecting apples originating out of Arkansas. To this point I think Iā€™ve collected every variety that is known to exist with the exception of Collins. It was listed as found in Lee Calhounā€™s book but after contacting him he said he no longer had it or new of a place to get it. If any one knows where it is I would love to trade someday.

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Hello as well,
My son told me about the forum so I thought I may as well join too.
I garden, love to can, but my main project is the apple orchard weā€™ve started.
I want the look of a late 1800ā€™s early 1900ā€™s orchard so most all of my trees are on standard or b118 rootstock. As Ben said, Iā€™m searching for every apple variety that originated in the state of Arkansas. This past year I was able to add Tull and Arkansas Beauty. I still need Stellar, wonā€™t be a problem finding, but Brightwater, Highfill Blue, Florence, Howard Sweet, and Collins have eluded me to this point. The hunt is still on though.

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Welcome @BenHawggard and @Merle_Hawggard, I like the names. It is cool to have both a father and son on the forum, we hope yā€™all enjoy your time here. Some really nice and knowledgeable folks on here.

Since you guys know a lot about Arkansas apples, are you familiar with King David variety, and do you know its origins? Ive read that itā€™s a Jonathan and Ark Black /Winesap cross. Do you know which? Or, maybe none of the above? Iā€™m just curious because I planted a KD last year. Plus, we also planted a Winesap as well.

@hambone seems to be interested in the Monark variety, so Iā€™m tagging him. He is into antique southern apples, especially Limbertwigs.

Anyways, welcome again.

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Welcome to both of you. Glad you joined this club.

The place where fruitful minds come to multiply.

Mike

We have king David grafted and growing however nothing much to add at this point. Our trees are relatively young and all were planted on full sized stock.

Monark is the same though itā€™s growing well and I understand its one of the few early apples that is a good keeper.

Sorry, @hambone, looks like you met the Hawggards already in another thread.

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Thank you all for the warm welcome. Monark is from the U of Ark breeding program along with Stellar and Arkcharm. Our Monark bloomed this year, but I pinched the blooms off wanting a bit more growth on it.
Some of the harder to find varieties we have growing are Beach, Tull, Arkansas Beauty, Quindell, Early Banta, and Delstein off the top of my head. They are all young, but should begin to produce in a few years.

So my name is Anthony Shieh. I live in Beautiful British Columbia (western Canada) in the city of Burnaby (suburb of Vancouver, BC). I never really gardened until my first daughter Felicia was born almost 9 years ago. Gardening was my Dadā€™s passion. I am more of a fish/coral guy and had over 1000 gallons of sw aquariums in our small round floor home (1200 sq feet) at one time. Iā€™ve since cut back to two sw reef tanks and 5 freshwater tanks, along with 6 tanks set up at our local elementary school which I donated, stocked and maintain (5 classroom fw aquariums and a sw reef in their entryway).
However, once I found out my baby loved fresh fruits and vegetables, I decided to convert our fairly large backyard from a big lawn into an Urban Farm/Orchard. To understand me, you just have to realize that Iā€™m OCD (obsessive compulsive) and then things I do start to make sense. I started out with a single fruit combo tree (peach/apricot/nectarine/plum) 8 years ago, then added a couple of Fuyu persimmon trees (all planted in ground, with one persimmon planted inside my 16ā€™x8ā€™x10ā€™ tall double paned greenhouse). I quickly added to my collection, bought at least five or more fruit trees each year, sold a few, traded a couple. As of today (May 9, 2017), my ā€œurban orchardā€ contains 42 fruit trees in total and another 30+ citrus trees in my citrus collection. I lost over a dozen of the more cold-sensitive citrus trees this winter when it hit -15C (-8F) and stayed well below freezing from beginning of December till early March. This was the coldest and most prolonged winter weā€™ve ever experienced in Metro Vancouver. It looks like I also lost my Pomegranate tree.

So my current fruit tree obsession consists of:

5 Fuyu/Izu Persimmon
6 Nectarine (Independence/Flavortop)
1 Frost Peach
1 Italian Plum
1 Santa Rosa Plum
3 Fruit Combo trees (Peach, apricot, nectarine & plum)
2 Fruit Combo Esplanier
2 Fuji Apple
3 Ambrosia Apple
1 Apple Combo
4 Cherry Combo
1 European Pear Combo
1 Asian Pear Combo
1 20th Century Asian Pear
1 Comice Pear
1 Orcas Pear
1 Bosc Pear
1 Negrone Fig
1 Desert King Fig
1 Olive (Arabesque)
1 Loquat
1 Contorted Mulberry
1 Dwarf Everbearing Mulberry
1 Nadia Plum-Cherry hybrid

As my citrus losses this winter have proven, Iā€™m pushing the boundaries of what we can grow here in Canada, especially if we have a bad winter like this past winter.
I actually found this site originally after searching for info on my new Nadia plum-cherry hybrid, which is a totally new variety for Canada. I bought one tree on sale at a local store with a garden centre but have been debating whether to spend twice as much on adding another Nadia to my collection from an expensive nursery in the Fraser Valley, instead of waiting for Nadias to show up next spring. After reading through the almost 1500 posts on the Nadia thread, Iā€™ve decided to wait and if the fruiting results are good among members here, Iā€™ll buy two or three Nadias next spring.

Sorry for the essay. Glad to join this group of fruit tree nuts.

Anthony

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Welcome Anthonyā€¦!! We like trees but love fruit. Guess that makes usā€¦fruitnutsā€¦lol

I totally understand. I only grow edibles (at least 99% of what I plant in my backyard is edible) and only add the occasional flowering bush or flowers for the bees. I use native mason bees for the most part to pollinate my trees cause theyā€™re seven times more productive/efficient than regular honey bees or bumble bees. IMHO, if a tree doesnā€™t produce a delicious edible fruit, I donā€™t need it taking up space in my urban orchard.

Anthony