Born and raised in NW Indiana. Banned cannabis farmer with 5 years experience running a small outdoor regulated organic medical cannabis farm in California. Member of ICMAG since 2014. Planted 200+ fruits on my former Cali property. On/off QA/QC in oil refineries & chemical plants going back to 2011.
I am in the process of buying 2.6 acres, ~1 hour southeast of chicago, ~1 hour from lake michigan and ~1.3 hours northwest of Purdue University.
This will be a test plot with the goal of finding varieties that can be grown commercially following organic standards in the Chicagoland region.
Apples: 31
Pears: 31
Plums: 31
Peaches: 14
Cherry: 13
Cherry Bushes (canada): 8
Thornless Blackberry: 15
Honeyberry: 20
Blueberry: 20
Elderberry: 18
Soil will be amended following Michael Astera’s Ideal Soil, currently amending the orchard.
Berry’s soil will be tilled, trees will not.
Spacing on trees is 15’x18’
Spacing on berry rows will be 12’
50% of trees getting planted in 2024, 50% in 2025. Everything is already paid for.
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Apple’s mostly on G.890
Priscilla on g .969
Sansa on g .969
Sundance on .210
keepsake .969
Triumph
centennial crab .969
Freedom (macoun hybrid)
Galarina
Nova Spy
NY 35 Bonkers
NY 75414-1 early macoun
Winecrisp
Williams Pride
Dayton (on g.969
sweet sixteen
Enterprise
Liberty (macoun hybrid)
Gold Rush
Harrison
Repinaldo do liebana
kerr
Franklin Cider on g.210
puget spice
Dolgo Crab
Redfield (red juice)
Gilpin on .969 (70%)
gnarled chapman
Dabinett (on g.969
Kronebusch on g935 (45-50%
Otterson (red juice)
muscadet d’haydenville
boisvert
blue house bitter
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Pears mostly on OH87
ayers (hybrid garber*anjou)
Green jade / crisp n’ sweet
Warren
Sunrise
Tyson
Trousers
Gils intrigue
Shinko (asian) OH97
Juicy Jewell
Kieffer (hybrid)
Olympic (asian) OH97
Yoinashi (asian) OH97
Ambrosia (H2-169)
Bell
Brandy
Buerre Giffard
Chapin OH97
Coldsnap/harovin sunndown (614)
Gem
Harrow Crisp (610)
Harrow Delight (603)
Harrow Gold (616)
Harrow Sweet (609)
Harvest Queen (602)
Honeysweet
Magness
Maxine (Starking Delicious)
Potomac
Seckel
Blakes Pride
Moonglow
Shenadoah
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Plums on Myro 29c
Alderman
Wanetta
Toka/ Bubblegum krymsk 99
South Dakota
AU Rosa
Kuban Comet kubanskaya
vampire
Lavina (krymsk 99 rootstock)
Obilnaya krymsk 99 rootstock)
Bluebyrd canning
jam session
Kenmore NY9 drying
De Montfort
silver prune
petite prune d’agen
Improved French
imperial epineuse
Geneva Mirabelle NY 858
american mirabelle
Mirabelle de nancy
reine de metz
Gras Romanesc=Herrenhausen
mirabellier
Green Gage
Reine Claude Conducta
Opal
golden gage
green gage st. lawrence
hildreth
green reine claude
green gage fruitwood
reine claude bavay
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Cherry’s
Meteor on mahaleb
NorthStar
evans bali
Erde Jubileum on mahaleb
Danube mahaleb
Surefire (NY 12716) krymsk 7
Gold (briner)
White Gold on gisela 5 50%
Black Pearl krymsk 7
Burgundy Pearl krymsk 7
Hudson mahaleb
Regina Krymsk 7
Black york
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Cherry Bushes with Berry’s
Carmine Jewel
Cupid
Wowza
Romeo
sweet thing
Valentine
Juliet
D’artagnan
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Elderberry
Adams 1
Adams 2
Bob Gordon
Johns
Kent
Nova
Ozark
Pocahontas
Ranch
Scotia
Wyldwood 1
Allesso
Haschberg
Korsor
Marge
Samdal
Sampo
Samyl
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Peach
bounty
carolina gold
challenger
china pearl
coral star
crimson lady
intrepid
norman
pf 19-007
pf lucky 13
pf 24c
pf 28-007
pf fat lady
sure prince
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Blueberry
Aurora
Bluejay
Blue Gold?
Brigitta
Bonus?
Chandler
Draper
Darrow
dixie
Duke
Elliot
Elizabeth
Huron
last call
Legacy
Lenoir
Jersey
Liberty
meader
Nelson
Patriot
Reka
reveille
top shelf
southmoon
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Blackberry
Apache
Arapaho
baby cakes
big daddy
Caddo
Natchez
Navaho
Osage
Ouachita
Pime Ark Freedom
Prime Ark Traveller
Ponca
Sweet Ark Caddo
Sweet Ark Ponca
Von
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Honeyberry
Blue Cloud
Blue Delight
blue forest
Blue Hokkaido
Blue Mist
Blue Moon (sergie)
Blue Pacific (F1-9-58)
Blue Pagoda
Blue Sea
Blue Treasure
Blue Typhoon
Boreal Beast
Boreal Beauty
Boreal Blizzard
Giant heart
Honey Bunch (Kaido)
honey crop
honey dream
honey gold
Maxie (Kuchi)
Solo Kapu
Strawberry Sensation
Sugar Pie (Hoka)
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Welcome to the forum. Nice writeup. You are obviously well organized and off to a good start.
That’s not far from where I grew up. Good luck with your project.
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Nice list of varieties you are trialing. Most should be fine…though ‘organic’ may prove problematic in raising market-quality specimens of some cultivars. (Not a bad one sticks out though in your list).
Other than introducing yourself, is there a response you’re hoping for?
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I am not hoping for any particular response. I have been using this forum to help plan my project and so I would like to give back by documenting it. I appreciate any feedback someone is willing to make.
I agree organic will prove problematic in achieving market quality specimens, that is one reason i’m casting my net so wide… I am prepared to chop down 100% of any species that doesnt excel…as well as all cultivars that do not. If 50% of the species work out with 25% winners out of that 50% that would give me 25 cultivars with commercial potential. I could then take count of the yield, quality and potential products to make an accurate business plan to see if it makes sense to expand (2 acres, 10 acres, 20 acres).
My goal is to grow the species that have the highest potential of working out in my area following organic standards. I will then systematically cull any that do not. I am looking for commercial options for selling fresh fruit, processed products (jams, syrups, juice),and alcohol (cider, perry, fruit wine).
While I am looking for commercial options in fruit, I am also using this to prepare to grow cannabis commercially again in the future in the midwest. I believe it is the fruit growers who will be my stiffest competition so mastering how they do things will help me compete against them when cannabis goes national.
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A bunch of nice lists - looks great and best of luck
couple of things that jumped out - almost everyone’s goto fav Honeyberry is Aurora, and I didn’t see it
the pears are heavily weighted to early season since your list is dominated by Bartlett descendants and other earlies (tyson, giffard, etc)
maybe add a mulberry or two (unique berry not offered commercially, cold hardy, no spray, very hard to kill, huge output once established and could be considered a decoy crop so birds and others don’t hit your main ones; frog hollow farm in CA has a net system to collect their ripe fruit (drops on its own) and they sell)
good luck
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Sounds like an interesting project.
It may be useful to check out the publication from Cornell that Alan published a few days ago which covered organic Apple production in New York.
I’m guessing that many of the Blackberry varieties from Arkansas and some of the SHB Blueberries may struggle with the low temperatures, especially if you get a quick shift from unusually warn down to -10. Somebody here who lives in a climate more like the one with your test plot may know for sure.
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Rubus
The tilled berries are my last items to order, i will add aurora to the possible list. After laying out the berry patch yesterday found out only have room for 74 so gotta make adjustments anyway.
I selected ONLY late blooming honeyberry’s as I figured they mite do better in my area by less likely to wake up early from heat and get hit by late frost, not sure. Aurora is listed as Mid bloom so i removed it previously.
Interesting observation on the pears, I didnt realize that! My selections on the pears were heavily weighted to those with fireblight tolerance to resistance. Those that were professionally bred with fresh eating potential were next. Then heirlooms with FB tolerance/resistance. Golden spice didnt make the list because lower fresh eating quality. even though high fb resistance and potential for processed products.
I love Morus nigra mulberry! My neighbor in Cali at 4000’ elevation had one growing in mountain rock almost zero soil produced the most delicious fruit every year! Too bad cannot grow where I live. I had 40 mulberries selected when I was going to buy a larger plot of land…so only getting 1 acre to grow on I removed all mulberries, persimmons, pawpaws, apricots, raspberries, kiwis, grapes, aronias and other randoms. Me and my bonne femme go mulberry hunting at an old homestead 15 mintues away we get a nice mulberry fix.
My problem with mulberries is if I cant grow 10 to 20, my motivation for growing 1 or 2 drops to zero. interesting idea to use as a decoy crop that ill consider!
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I will check it out! Where can I find it?
Yes I agree. I would not have even included blackberries if I didnt plant one on the neighboring property for my parents that yields tremendous amounts of big delicious blackberries everyother year (not tilled, amended, watered, and only half day sun. Need to get the name from her. Because of this one I decided to give them a try, but if I have to remove no problem…no thorns 
I planted 25 types in Cali in rows spaced 6’…and wow i have ptsd about thorns.
legacy blueberry has been the best performer near the blackberry above. handles the cold, no disease, produce consistent. If I get it into tilled and amended soil with more sunlight I have hopes. Again since this one has handled the weather so good maybe I added a few more shb to my list?
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No good Nects were offered at any of the places I made tree or scion orders! I’m expecting to remove many peaches and the first few I replace will be with Nects!
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