Best places to live - For Growing Fruit

[BobVance]

@CrazyForFruits

Isn’t volcanic soil the most fertile? At least you don’t have to buy fertilizer

True, though I might need a jackhammer to plant…

@castanea

The lava flow is so recent that almost nothing can be grown there. That area also has little or no water. That’s why land is so cheap.

From what I could tell, the lava was from Mauna Loa, which last erupted in 1984. How long does it take before it could be replanted? Not the part covered directly in lava, but the near miss stuff, which looks like what a lot of this property is. I’m not too likely to want to do anything there. Of course, if I was to someday move to Hawaii, having a high elevation planting area for $4-5K wouldn’t be a horrible idea. Except when I’m covered in lava…

@fruitnut

Then there is a big rain shadow effect on rainfall making parts of some islands pretty dry.

I’ve been reading a bit more into it and you want to be careful with the wind for volcanic gases as well as rain. You think CA air is bad, wait until it is SO2 right from a volcano…

@fruitnut

Wives can be convinced. It just takes some time.

Stranger things have happened. I do have years to try…

@foothillsgrower5a

if I ever wanted to get far more into the fruit growing hobby beyond the hand full of trees in our suburban yard, I’d move to the Grand Junction/Palisade region of Colorado. It runs at z7

I remember a poster named MileHighGirl had a horrible experience in Colorado. A hard early frost in fall and I think there were some late spring frosts too. I’m not sure if it is the same area of CO though. From one of the few posts she made after coming over from Gardenweb:

@milehighgirl

What grows in Colorado? Sour cherries and rhubarb, and not much else! How many thousands I have spent I probably couldn’t even calculate. I’m glad the Canadians still make whiskey cause I think I will imbibe.

@castanea

You can get warmed up in the winter.

You would think so, but there are plenty of times I get pulled outside. Also, there is the associated annoyances that cold weather brings. Nothing too horrible, but just yesterday, I was handling rodents at one place, shoveling snow at another one, and dealing with a vacant one running out of heating oil. Luckily I stopped by to check before the ~0F night and noticed that it had gotten to the high 40’s inside. Evidently there was a misunderstanding between my wife and the oil company as to whether is was auto-delivery (like all the other properties…). So they did a small emergency delivery and promised a full one for today. I was showing it today and noticed that the heat was a few degrees below set. After the potential tenants left, I checked and the oil was out again. So, another call to the oil company (or at least their answering service). After another call later in the afternoon, they finally called back and said that they had just made the delivery, but couldn’t tell me if the furnace re-started. At which point, I went back over to the house to re-start the furnace and make sure the place started heating up again. None of this is too bad, but I’d be happy to skip winter- or just consider the last month of fall (Nov 21- Dec 21) to be winter, as it feels like winter to me.