Yesterday, we removed silver maple tree from our south facing front yard. I still do feel guilty about that. It was healthy medium size tree and it gave some shadow for the house. I HATE kill trees. And I have seen the looks on the faces of my friends when I was telling that I was going to remove it. Well, partially, my decision was made because I would like to plant there better fruit trees like a persimmon, peach or a mulberry, I have not decided yet. And now I am asking myself: am I crazy or obsessed?
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Bob,
Yeah… only the 15 gallon (black and tan) pots are permanent. The weather around here isn’t the best so I’d rather take my chances with potted stock then have winter kill off, bud kill, etc. The grey 7 gallon are all going to be inground this year or next.
Yes. People think i’m nuts. Many don’t say it, but i can only imagine what they say when i’m not around. I tell them i could be into meth or alcohol but i chose plants… how wrong of me.
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Looks like fun! I’m just jealous that you can have so many trees in pots–we’ve got a bad drought in California so I dare not have more than one or two in pots, since it takes more water than when they are in the ground.
I’m in my early 30’s, and don’t have a single friend that even has a vegetable garden (maybe I have the wrong friends). They come over and see my mini-orchard (around 100 varieties on a quarter acre), and they think I’m ill.
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Some people say I have too many pots, how can you have too many pots?
Jesse on duty! Approach pots at your own risk.
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Amen!
Drew…I like your place a lot and like your dog even better.
I bet you spend a ton of time with a garden hose in your hand. 
What breed of dog is that again?
width=“1000” height=“562”> [quote=“Appleseed70, post:28, topic:650”]
What breed of dog is that again
[/quote]
An Australian Shepherd, not to be confused with a blue heeler which is an Australian cattle dog. They should be called Colorado sheep dogs, or The American shepherd. The name comes from the Aussie sheep herders with their Spanish dogs that immigrated to Colorado. In 1974 the Australian Shepherds Club applied for AKC registration. They were accepted into the AKC in 1994.
Jesse is AKC registered. His formal name is “Drew’s Jesse of Russell Isle” Russell island is where I have my cottage. He loves it there, loves to run and swim. Fetch Jesse!
<img src="//growingfruit-images.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/1X/caa90317d94ced0a3441a28a87ccc8ff1c6ca802.JPG"
In the snow this winter
As a pup, my loyal companion
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Red Forrest’s Fightin’ Irish (Cooper)
RHF’s Hot Rod at Red Forrest (Rudy)
CH Kelleyz Ole Blue Eyez (Frankie)
My boys. Awesome rabbit and gopher hunters, btw. Best breed ever.
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I agree, Jesse is my 2nd Aussie. I thought I could not get a better dog than Max my first Aussie. He was great. Jesse is even a better dog, I didn’t think it was possible.
Rudy is a cool looking dog, almost perfect markings. Thanks for the pics! I would take any Aussie, no matter what they looked like.
Jesse was from a Champion breeder, but he is not from that line. Her champion dogs were perfect, and expensive. Jesse was only 300 bucks AKC registered. Jesse was from her working line of Aussies.
His mom and dad were working sheep and cattle dogs. He has that herding thing full tilt.
Yeah the breeder was way on the south-west side of MI. A 4 hour trip, We were talking about blueberries ealier, on the drive to pick up Jesse we went through the blueberry orchards in the fall. Wow, they were beautiful red bushes. I never seen blueberry orchards before. Hundreds and hundreds of plants.
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Hey fruitnut, just what were you trying to say above about “having a lot of trees doesn’t mean having a lot of fruit, just ask cityman”? 
How dare you point out the lack of productivity of many of my trees and/or the fact that I selected many trees which have virtually no chance of every producing fruit in my area! haha. (Its hard to joke around online where you can’t hear the tone or see the inflection on my face, but I am totally kidding and not the least bit offended in reality. And I really do enjoy watching all my trees and if the planets line up just right one year and some of my long shots produce fruit it will just be a bonus! )
But I love this thread, and it does apply to me. I started with the idea of planting one each of apple, cherry, pear, peach. Somehow when I wasn’t looking that morphed into about 68 trees of every imaginable variety. And yes, friends and family constantly ask me why! ha. Everyone wants to know where I’m going to sell all this fruit. Even if I did produce an abundance, I have no interest whatsoever in selling it (certainly nothing wrong with selling it, just that for me it sounds like a lot of work/effort for not much return). I know my little hobby is just that- something I enjoy doing. It doesn’t have to have a “purpose”. When I have an excess of tomatoes and other veggies I often set them in the lobby of City Hall where I work and just let whoever comes in have them. I’d love to do the same with fruit if I ever have that much.
One reason I think so many people think many of us are crazy is that they think all fruit trees are going to eventually grow into full sized trees. In years gone by, at least in my area, most apple trees and pear trees were very large, full sized trees. Many people don’t know about “semi-dwarf” and dwarf trees, so they think every tree in my (our) orchard will one day be 30 feet tall and 20 feet wide and produce bushels of fruit.
I love hoosierquilt’s analogy of fishermen having 10-20 rods and reels. As an avid fisherman, I must confess to having gone bit overboard with fishing equipment AND fruit trees!
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[quote=“thecityman, post:32, topic:650”]
Hey fruitnut, just what were you trying to say above about “having a lot of trees doesn’t mean having a lot of fruit, just ask cityman”? [/quote]
Actually I was thinking of my outdoor trees! They are purely ornamental as far as my memory can recall. 
haha It’s all good man. It actually cracked me up. I honestly do have several trees (like sweet cherries) that I consider ornamental since they almost certainly won’t fruit here, but I do enjoy the trees and blooms. So you’re right, as long as include trees like that, having lots of trees won’t necessarily correlate to having lots of fruit.
Well to me having that many is kinda crazy, all the work involved… Once they fruit tens of thousands of fruits will be there, and you can’t let them fall and rot else it will be insect heaven. I’m kinda a perfectionist, and feel it would be rather difficult to manage that much food. Why do something if you can’t do it right? I guess if I didn’t have a job or a family I could. Just managing bush fruits, and veggies seems hard to me. I was glad when the season was over last year, I was whipped! This year is going to be even more crazy. More canes are mature now than ever. My blackberries are going to produce like crazy. I had very few last year.
I can my tomatoes, I make sauce, it’s a full day thing I do 5 or 6 days a year and it takes all day. No extra tomatoes here, ever. I grow about 20 plants and use every tomato. Well I do give some away.
When my trees start producing my plate will be so full, and I only have about 25 total. most produce small fruit, so not hard to harvest (16 are cornus mas). Good luck with it!
I think you’re a little mistaken about dwarf trees. I plan to keep my trees to 8 feet, but they could easily produce 150 peaches or plums per tree. Tom Spellman of DWN said they should produce between 50 and 200 per tree. let’s just say 25 per tree, 25x 68 = 1700. 3 medium peaches weigh a pound so 567 pounds of fruit. Hope you have a good back? I know you have cherry too, and other small fruits, all the same in a good year you can triple that number.
Just think when you thin, you’ll probably remove 2000 fruits.
Fruitnut has a lot of trees, but most are not in the ground, and if in the ground he is keeping them smaller than 8 feet. So yes, he does not get as many. The numbers are with 25 fruits, and that would be a bad year. say 200 you’re going to be working a lot!
Are you going to hire people to harvest? Better start thinking about that.
I catch hundreds of pounds of walleye and perch each year, but only have 3 reels.
I think the best evidence for my obsession are the before and after pics I posted in this thread.
Before (mostly, it isn’t completely before):
After (Last spring):
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you do have too many pots! 
Wow Bob, looks like a nice piece of land. About the size I would like.
I like the slope on that land. Should help drain off the cold spring air during bloom.
Drew- I must say I was a little surprised that you’d take so much effort just to criticize the number of trees I decided to plant. I am very happy that you feel 9 trees are enough for you and I wish you all the best with those 9 if that’s the number you want. I wanted more. I’m a little confused at why you decided to publicly deride me just because I have the desire and the space, time, and resources to plant more. Saying things like “why do something if you can’t do it right” includes the assumption that I cannot “do it right”. I certainly have a lot to learn, but I don’t agree that I won’t ever be able “do it right”. There are a lot of people here with more than 9 trees, and several with more than I have. I don’t think they’d all agree that they “can’t do it right.” I’m not even sure how you define doing it right, but for me and my hobby, doing it right can mean nothing more than having fun, and I’m darn sure doing that! If you define it by profitability or size of fruit or some other benchmark, that only means doing it right for you…not for me. I suspect we all have different definitions about success with our orchards. As to your calculations, as much as I am impressed by the time and effort you put into trying to make the size and scope of my hobby look silly, your calculations are badly flawed. You applied peach tree numbers to 68 trees. My 68 trees includes a multitude of different fruits and many that will probably never produce. You might characterize unproductive trees as a waste, but they are fun for me just like flowers, shrubs, or maple trees might be for the next person…except they come with a tiny chance of a rare tasty treat. I don’t know if you were really concerned about my back or whether I have fruit picking employees lined up, but both comments felt a little condescending to me. If you are sincerely worried about my health and future need for fruit pickers, then I appreciate your concern and warning. My back is fine and I don’t think I’ll need any fruit pickers. One other thing you should keep in mind, if I ever do get overwhelmed by the size of my orchard, its a simple matter of a chainsaw and few minutes of time to reduce it. Many of the trees I planted were done with that in mind- to try them out and if I don’t like them or don’t want them, I can always remove them pretty easily.
Finally, its nice to hear that you catch “hundreds of pounds” of fish each year-that’s a lot more than I catch. In the context of the rest of your post I assume your final sentence proclaiming you are able to do that with 3 reels means you think I have too many? You’re probably right. I’m glad you are happy with 3. I have many more and I enjoy using them and/or having them. Just like fruit trees- its just a different philosophy. I don’t think any number of fruit trees or fishing rods is right for everyone. But that’s just me. I respect your opinions and your right to express them. But I respectfully disagree with many of the characterizations in your post regarding my orchard and the decisions I’ve made regarding trees. I would never criticize you for having only 9 trees, and I would appreciate you not criticizing me for having 68 (approx.). Thanks, Drew.