I’ve just moved to Southeast Michigan, just West of Detroit, from northern Italy (where I used to grow some fruit trees and shrubs in my backyard) and I am planning on starting a little apple orchard for family and friend/community use.
I am trying to get as much info as possible from pros like you all so that my attempt will be success. Any piece of advice is welcome.
I know the weather here can be very cold in the winter, with lots of snow and polar blizzards, so extra info in this regard would be great (planting time, pruning styles, successful grafting types and rootstocks, protections, varieties that grow well, etc.)
I am hoping to have a wide range of apple trees, primarily with crunchy/juicy apples that mature in different periods so that fresh fruit will be available for a longer time.
I was also wondering when and where would be best to get the trees themselves, possibly bare-rooted to keep costs down, and exchange scions, since in April I’ll probably be bringing some from Europe.
Lastly, I was wondering what other fruit trees and shrubs (even less common, unusual or rare ones) would be good in this area, the more variety and biodiversity, the better.
I heard cherries grow well in Michigan, but again, what types, on what rootstock, how fast, etc.
Get cherries that are canker and crack resistant on Gisela rootstocks. Whitegold is the standard Eastern sweet blonde. Blackgold is one of the more successful dark red sweets, along with Sam, Ulster, and Stella, which is especially cold hardy. Sandra Rose is said to be a rugged and productive red sweet. Montmorency is the standard pie and juicing cherry. Boyers, Raintree, Cummins, and Adams County Nursery are among the better suppliers.
In your climate, some apples to consider are Pristine, Sansa, and Jefferis (early); Honeycrisp and Pixie Crunch (mid-season); Roxbury Russet and Stayman Winesap (late); and Suncrisp and Red Fuji #2 (keepers). B.9 is the best dwarf understock. 111 makes good big trees. The Geneva understocks come in a variety of sizes and are also recommended. Cummins of New York is a premeire supplier, but there’s lots of other good vendors out there, including Boyers, WhiteOak, Century Farm, Kuffel Creek, Big Horse Creek, and Adams County Nursery, etc etc…
Grandpa’s (Moser’s) Orchard and Oikos Tree Crops are both near you in Michigan.
@Drew51 is a hobby orchardist that lives in that area. You should seek his advice on what works around there. And you should ping the search-bar for some of the old discussions on growing apples and cherries archived on this forum.
I recommend you seek out the Minnesota-bred blueberries. Plant them in soil amended with peat moss. Indiana Berry company has them.
Some of the northern highbushes would do well for you too (eg. Bluecrop and Northblue… productive and widely available), and also the Maine/NovaScotia lowbushes (see Raintree’s Brunswick and Burgundy) if you’re into that kind of thing. The lowbush berries are unexcelled in pies.
Raspberries of all kinds would do well for you too, and are the easiest thing to fruit once established.
Welcome! I’ll comment more when I get to my home computer. A few of us from Southeast MI are here. I finished my project on Russel Island although I can’t get off the island till Sunday. I hate responding with my phone. I’m too old school!!
Thank you very much for the many replies. It’s so exciting to see that there are so many nice and knowledgeable people ready to help and give great advice!
I really feel that my attempts will bring very good results thanks to your guidance.
I will soon start looking for the varieties, the people and the places kindly suggested to me and also see if there are local courses on the subject.
Please do continue to add extra info that could be useful, the more the better, I still have so much to learn!
I’ll try to update the forum with my progresses as much as possible.
Have a wonderful day,
Clement
P.s. Thank you for the heads-up on the scion wood. I only meant safe and certified (disease free) specimens, but it’s useful and good to know that here in the U.S. there is awareness on the matter. I will do as advised and not bring any, just to make sure I don’t break any law without realizing it.
Under the Reference tab or link, there’s some really useful content that others have posted. I’ve used Scott Smith’s Apple Experiences as a really good guide, since most of the nursery descriptions and experiences are so difficult to unweave for actual performance. You’re lucky to be landing in a location, MI, that is an orcharding hotspot.
As a transplant to TX from the midwest, I’ve enjoyed Juneberry or Serviceberry trees as well in the past. Tart cherries grow well there, but you’re discovering that already.
Welcome @clemens, to the forum. You will meet a lot of knowledgeable and friendly folks on here, as you have already noticed. I got started on my little orchard here in KY earlier this year, and the folks on here have been very helpful.
I imagine it’ll be quite a change moving to Michigan from N Italy in many respects. Especially weather wise, even though I know far northern Italy has the Alps. But don’t know even if the temps there get as frigid as your new home. We moved here from Texas a couple years ago, and I’m still trying to get used to the winters. As mentioned, @Drew51 is in your area, along with @Chills and @chartman who are also Michiganders.
Anyways, enjoy your time on the forum. I’m afraid I can’t offer too much advice as I’m still a newbie at this. I can say I ordered 11 apple and 2 peach trees from Cummins Nursery out of New York state last spring and were very satisfied with their products.
Clement, if you are west of detroit you are most likely my neighbor. I have many apple trees, peach trees, grapes and brambles just to name a few. I would b happy to help if I can. What city do you live in?
Clement,
I second Rod. Check the Reference category. It will save you a lot of time. You have time to make your list of what you want to grow and order.
List if reputable nurseries is in the reference section as well. Order bare root trees on line is probably a good way to start. If you already know how to graft, that is more advantageous to you.
Scionwood exchange is any time from now until Feb or March.
There’s lots of stuff you can grow here in SE Michigan.
Apples, peaches, kiwi, cherries, pears, grapes and more unusual things like pawpaw, cornelian cherries, jujube and persimmons (American) and if you are willing to put in the work…figs
Thank you all for the many replies.
I didn’t realize that so many types of fruit could be grown here!
I am especially curious to learn which are the varieties that work best in this area for each type of fruit.
I will try to go both with the more “standard types”, apples, cherries, pears (by the way, any advice on which are the best varieties for my area?), but also with peaches (advice requested here as well), the various berries (I didn’t know about the juneberries!), cornelian cherries, jujubes and that I had also back home.
Persimmons are another fruit that I miss a lot and would like to grow. What are the best types in your opinion? I have never tried eating fruits from the Diospyros virginiana, but I have been told they can be really tasty.
Has anyone tried the Diospyros kaki x Diospyros virginiana hybrids?
I am also happy to learn that kiwis can grow here as well and I am almost shocked by the mention of figs and grapes!
Can they survive? What varieties would be best?
I am now compiling a list of plants that I am planning to find over the winter and I am sure i will be on the forum reading a lot and asking many questions.
Lately I have been focusing on trying whatever Kakis I can get in the stores. It seems that the D. virginiana I have been able to get my hands on have been as good as or better than the Fuyu and Hachiya persimmons I can get here in IA stores. I buy or ripen them all to the “splat” very soft stage of ripeness because that is what I prefer.
I have had both Yates and Osage American persimmons from a grower in SE Iowa. The Yates was superior in overall flavor and had more sweetness. Osage wasn’t as good and was less sweet than Yates, and Osage had a low flesh-to-seed ratio. However, those varieties of American persimmons need to ripen and fall (or need to be very loosely attached to the tree) before they aren’t astringent. There are more recent and supposedly better cultivars of the Americans out there. I suppose the major problem for the D. virginiana’s is that most need a male to pollenize to get a crop, and that means you will have seeds.
I have determined from tasting fresh Black Mission figs, that I don’t like fresh figs, so the other Drew is the one to ask @Drew51.
Regarding grapes: there are grapes you can grow in MI, but none of them are Mediterranean types. There are a few American x French hybrids. The hybrids, in the right hands, produce wines of good quality. Marechal Foch for comes to mind. Door County Winery (you might be able to get it there in MI) makes Marechal Foch grapes into a nice, dry red wine. We are fiercely parochial here in Iowa, so we have somewhat of a burgeoning wine industry. All of the good Iowa wines are of the hybrid type. If you are interested in winter hardy wine grapes, there are probably publications from any of the Iowa State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, or Minnesota extensions on what will work. For hardy table grapes, the variety Reliance gets good reviews from another member here (skillcult). And he lives in California! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOZ1XNtNRf4
Thank you for all the info and sorry for the extremely late reply.
I am so glad that so many nice types of fruit can be grown, and learning which ones are the ones that work best at the temperatures here is really helpful
I’m finalizing my first list of plants and when done I will share it here on the forum.
Perhaps it could be nice to have a thread/resource with location specific lists (i.e. putting the hardiness zone and, if one wants, the actual location or at least the state and then a list of plants and varieties that work well).
I will also read more carefully individual threads on growingfruit and bump the ones most connected to my situation or create new ones for each type of fruit not discussed.
