I’m from South Georgia and new to growing things in this Middle Tennessee clay and churt. I’d like to get some fruits started for my children as the summer heat eases off, even if harvests won’t be until next year or later, etc. What things would grow best in the Murfreesboro area and be safe to plant in September/October? Thanks in advance!
2 Likes
The list of things you could grow there would be very long.
Planting in sept.- October would be good.
You are lucky in that the Cookville area near you,has a vast nursery area, so I would start there.
Good luck
And welcome aboard
1 Like
Thank you! You answered another question I hadn’t even asked yet, which is where to get good fruit trees/plants. I know where Cookeville is and have been there a couple times for work–so good to know where a nursery with better fruit selections is. I haven’t been too inspired by the nurseries I’ve visited in my own immediate area. Keep the advice coming! I need all I can get!
2 Likes
When trees are still in leaf in late summer into early fall, you can only find and plant trees in containers. Sometimes nurseries and big box stores have sales to unload such trees, but selection tends to be poor and the trees may have been stressed a great deal by restricted root growth and neglect, especially from inadequate watering.
Late in the fall some nurseries sell bare root trees which can be planted as soon as they become available- to some likely advantage in early establishment. Nurseries list - #72 by SpudDaddy
Nurseries that specialize in fruit trees are more likely to have a selection that includes the best varieties for your location (especially nurseries located closer to you) and are more likely to sell properly identified varieties.
1 Like
For Tennessee, I would generally want to plant fruit trees/bushes/vines as early in the fall as I could get dormant bare root trees, so more like November. That said, some nurseries will be sold out of a lot of things well ahead of the time to ship and plant things, so I’d plan and order ahead of time. Now is a good time of year for planting strawberries, though, if you’re not just thinking trees/bushes/vines.
Especially if low-input organic is more or less your style, I’d highly recommend Hidden Springs Nursery. They’re in Tennessee. They note in their catalog which things they grow and which things they’re re-selling. The things they grow themselves are the things I generally recommend.
So . Correction here.
Mc minville tenn…is what I ment to say ,is where the big nursery industry is. Some very large , as far as you can see.
Many container grown plants. That could be planted now, ?(soon )?
That is close to you.
Cookville is where, hidden springs are, good people, small family run nursery , as Cousinfloyd said. Recomended
They don’t start their digging season till November ?
2 Likes
TNtransplant, you should be able to plant anything in the fall that you would plant in the spring…and get a half year or more head start (since roots will acclimate and grow until ground freezes…and ground might not even freeze much, as it didn’t in the winter just past).
Bare root trees won’t be available until late in the fall, but container stock can be planted now, or whenever you feel up to it. (Balled and burlapped….not how most people go with fruit…mostly for lawn and shade trees…but those will start being dug in October in the McMinnville, Smithville, Manchester area.)
I’m thinking of planting a few containerized apples in a week or two in southern part of Kentucky. (But if not, they’ll continue to be fine in their containers for now, so long as they’re watered as necessary.)
Anything that will survive zero degrees F should be fair game.
1 Like
If you are looking for peaches Grandpas Orchard still has some good varieties for the fall.
1 Like