I would ship the fruit to other locations such as this area. Sections of land in isolated Maine I’ve seen as cheap as 250,000 for 620 acres. Cold would be a deterant but I could grow a lot on 620 acres of land. Someone from California pays that for a basic house with no land in an ok area. Not saying zone 3 is pleasant in the winter because it would be far from that but there are a lot of natural resources. Lots of times those remote areas don’t have the high taxes or stringent building codes that make it so hard to get stuff done in highly developed areas. No red tape is a great thing!
Clark even if you got that land for free I think it would be a poor candidate for an orchard. In the long run it would cost a lot more than 250K to try making that into an orchard and to market the fruit. It would have to be frost free and zone 6+ to get me interested. But if that were the case it would cost as much as the best Eastern US orchard land.
I’m afraid, my friend, there’s no free lunch in the orchard business.
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The best soil resource I have found for the US is this one from the University of California Davis -
https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/
The federal government has a similar site but it is clunky and hard to use.
One interesting problem you will find with cheap farmland is that it’s almost all in locations with lower population density which is going to make local sales of your products a bit more difficult and will keep your prices down. If you want to sell at farmer’s markets in SE Kansas, your best choices are in Wichita, Tulsa, Joplin and Fayetteville AR, none of which are very close and none of which are going to get you premium prices. Another problem with large stretches of prime farmland is that you may be surrounded by large farms which spray herbicides and pesticides continuously throughout the year. Drift can cause damage to your crops, your trees, and your health.
But while you may need prime farmland for most crops, you don’t for most fruit and nut trees. But you still need markets. You can buy decent orchard land in the foothills of the Ozarks cheaply but you aren’t going to make a lot of money selling fruit in that area. But I don’t know how much you need to make or want to make.
Another issue that’s harder to quantify but well illustrated by your example of SE Kansas is that temperature variations can cause problems in growing many things. SE Kansas is notorious for having late spring frosts (and hail) and also for having short mid summer heatwaves with drying winds.Many areas of SE Kansas also have poor ground water quality from old mines. That won’t necessarily be showing up on mining maps because the water quality may be impacted many miles from the mines. And a new problem is fracking. Fracking is destroying water quality in some areas across Oklahoma and Kansas. And don’t forget to check out property tax rates, Farmland by itself is not highly taxed in most states but if you put a house on it, some states have outrageous property taxes. For the Midwest, Kansas taxes are apparently higher than Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
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I agree with your assessment of the properties listed. There is one large fruit grower in Northern Maine that I know of called Circle B farms in Caribou, Maine. He grows high bush blueberries & apples. Does U-Pick and markets fresh & frozen to stores as far South as Bangor: http://www.circlebfarmsinc.com
If anyone is looking at Maine to start an orchard, a good general rule of thumb is to look South of Bangor & East of I-95. It will be more difficult to find larger tracts of affordable land in this zone but this is an area where a well run operation can survive and thrive. We are located about 20 miles Northeast of Augusta and 25 miles West of Belfast (coastal city).
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What are the taxes like in those remote areas? Can you build a cabin from existing timber on the property? Saskatoons and blueberries you would think would do great. Many Apples are more cold tolerant than perceived.
Taxes can be sky high up here if you put a cabin or a house on a piece of property. I’ve noticed rural taxes are crazy high in some areas…i suppose because so much of the land is almost exempt from taxes because of forestry programs,etc. That they need to get the money from somewhere and that is where home owners/cabin owners come in. I know my brothers own about 60 acres, most of that is woods and i think their taxes are a couple hundred bucks a year===no buildings and they’ve been in a forest program for 20 years…without the program taxes would be much higher on what is basically hunting land. The one area you can make up some money is logging…but that is more or less a once in a lifetime thing because of how long it takes to regenerate those trees…Fields can be leased out for field crops or you can rent the equipment (or buy it) and do it yourself.
The problems i’ve always seen with growing up there is just the drive (an hour each way), the amount of deer (like giant rabbits) and climate (colder then here)…so fruit ripens even later up there. I’d never buy land for just fruit growing ($3k+ an acre for large chunks, smaller chunks are even more). You can buy land cheaper in the far north but it’s just too much driving.
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One thing no one has mentioned in this thread is quality of life in the area. My family has about 150 acres of nice attractive riverfront farmland in north eastern Louisiana near Natchez MS, , think Duck Dynasty not Swamp people (zone 8a to be a bit on topic) on the banks of the Ouachita river, it is technically in a flood plain although thanks to sitting about 8-10 ft above river level, and the dams and flood diversion canals along the river it has not flooded in 45 years. The land is typically planted in either cotton or soy beans, and is farmed by a cousin that farms several thousand acres, and lives only next door.
Land and houses in this area is very cheap, which may sound attractive to some of you, however when it comes to quality of life the region is plagued by extreme poverty, the nearby parish seat (county for those of you outside Louisiana) depopulated by nearly 50 percent between 1990 and 2010 and is now down to just 338 people as of 2014, the school system has already closed nearly half of the schools where were open 10-15 years ago, and are talking about more closures and building a single centrally located K-12 school for the entire parish (of course they don’t have any money to do it). City Data shows the median household income is $27,400 (state average is $47,000), the nearest hospital with an ER is nearly 40 miles away (Natchez, MS), the same the the nearest big box store of any kind (Wal-Mart, Lowes, etc.), for that matter the nearest chain fast food place is probably 30-35 miles away.
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Louisiana is warmer than Kansas so I’m tempted! I don’t mind low population. Someone will be lucky to find a community like that.
Yeah, here is one of those potential deals 77 wooded acres for $173,000 https://www.trulia.com/property/3247212225-Lot-Land-Harrisonburg-LA-71340 This location is about 3-4 miles north of our place, ours is in the traditional river flood plane, just north of our land there is a sudden uplift hilly area with bluffs overlooking the river, in fact there was once a confederate fort on one of the bluffs perhaps 75-80 feet above river level. (Fort Beauregard), although honestly the soil conditions in those hills make them good for little other than growing pine trees.
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Are you looking to move?
I’m considering it since taxes have steadily went up. Love my property but now developers have built all around me and my once dream property is no longer as private. If I move it will be to a very isolated area.
Ever heard of Terlinqua Texas? It’s about 100 miles south of me. Weather about like Tucson, poor soil, and little water. Thousands of land owners most of which probably haven’t been there twice. AZ would be a better bet IMO. Some place like Skull Valley which actually looks pretty nice and much better climate than the humid south or south of me. Far enough away from the drug dealers and off their routes. It’s just west of Prescott.
This thread: Variety suggestions for you pick orchard - #19 by garybeaumont
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Las Vegas, NV… mild winters, but still perfect for stonefruit…hot as hell summers. The strip for nightlife 
Actually for growing fruit…that area north up into Utah would be awesome i would think==although i wonder if they get hit with late frost?
I think i could do Omaha or Denver ===cold doesn’t really bother me, but i hate snow.
Property taxes here aren’t bad, especially for families like i have that use the public schools (which are very good). Very little crime–although heroin has moved in. The job market is very strong locally…like everyone seems to be hiring…and the housing market has been red hot for a few years (which has led to house prices rising).
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It’s unlikely I would really move.
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It is fun to think about though, the perfect place to grow fruit, maybe an island with no bug pressure.
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Hawaii sounds pretty good to me, though I bet they have some bug pressure. My wife isn’t keen on that though, so I bet we’ll head somewhere continental and warm in 10-15 years instead. A place with a record low around 40F sounds pretty good though…
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Most of us aren’t doing this for a living, nor even growing enough to feed ourselves more than a small piece of the year. The challenging economics of growing fruit really hit me when I got into making a lot of cider, and found that cider-quality fruit could be bought for $50-$100 per bin - not drops, picked apples with just cosmetics or minor defects, majority being apples I would be happy to eat. It seems that even a lot of the commercial operations are doing it in good part out of tradition or love of the craft - this article by the USDA indicates that 70% of farms with gross income below $100k have profit less than 10%, and in aggregate these farms lose money.
So it stands to reason that family, other professional work, or a place that feels like home is going to matter more than the price per acre or how the weather behaves around bloom time. It’s amazing to me though how no place is perfect but folks manage to grow good fruit of some kind or another in just about every part of the country.
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As I see it, so much is about planting the right type of fruit for your region, which often has little to do with what the big box store nurseries sell. For where I live in SW Louisiana that means planting a lot of variety when it comes to chill hour requirement as we may get as low as 300 or as high as 1,300 chill hours, with an average year being around 500-550. It also means that while there are many varieties of blackberries we can grow, I don’t even think about trying to grow raspberries, or non muscadine grapes. There are of course some advantages to this climate though, we do get enough chill hour that various low chill versions of many fruits will grow, yet it is also warm enough to grow some in ground citrus (with active winter freeze protection)
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This 132 acre area is close to I 95 and is more of a central location. Price is reasonable though im not familiar with the area for Sale in Maine - Wilderness Realty - Land Sale Specialists
My favorite part is annual property tax $340
It gets better it’s zone 5a http://www.plantmaps.com/hardiness-zones-for-waterville-maine
http://www.watervillemaine.net/
5a is warm enough to grow most pears. There is plenty of water and fertile dirt. There has been historic flooding in that area within the last 50 years. Here are maps of areas prone to flooding Floodplain Mapping Resources: Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
The town is around 15000 people with plenty of business http://www.waterville-me.gov/shop-local/. I think selling fruit would be reasonably easy.I had no idea zone 5a was that cold! St John Catholic School, ME Weather Forecast and Conditions - The Weather Channel | Weather.com
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Very familiar with this area! I’m only 20 minutes from there. I believe that this land has been for sale for a while. It is definitely in an area where an orchard could do well, but the land itself may not be conducive to orchard development if it is too wet and it might take a lot of work and $$$ to clear a wooded area if there are no existing fields. There is an orchard very close to this location as well: Redirecting...
The Waterville area itself is decent. It used to be a booming community back in the manufacturing/railroad era. It has lost jobs and population over the past couple of decades but still remains a fairly thriving community thanks to Colby College which is investing a ton of money into the downtown area buying up buildings and building new ones. It’s also serves as a regional retail, dining and entertainment center for quite a large area of Central Maine. The beautiful Belgrade Lakes are 15 minutes to the West, Belfast/Coastal area is 45 minutes East, Bangor is 1 hour North on I-95 and Portland is 1.5 hours South on I-95 so it really is very centrally located.
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