I have 9 apple trees, 4 cherry, 2 plum, 3 bush cherries, 4 haskaps, about to put down the second saskatoon, 2 grape vines, hooseberies, currants, jostas, seaberries, starting kiwis, raspberry patch, plus some other stuff I’m sure I’m forgetting, and putting more down as we speak.
Basically it is a race on how much I can put on the ground before I realize I have no clue what to do with all that produce… I figure I have two years before I start getting buried under all of it.
I hope this is “dumbest fruit things we have done” because I’ve done many, many dumb things in my life that did not involve fruit. A couple of them involved a motorcycle and a couple more involved teenage indiscretions that became bad habits, and some were when I was in the army…
but back to fruits. A few years ago, I dug up and transplanted a 15 year old fig tree. My back hurt for a week after that. Most recently I gave in and sprayed Round Up on thistles, and oops I sprayed some garden herbs.
There have been a number of dumb impulse purchases at the Orange Box Store, such as Ebony King Blackberry. That one was a turkey.
Kevin,
Thanks for the reminder. It should be posted here.
You should know that when I bought my house and started planting fruit trees, I had this neat little area that already had 1 peach, 1 apple, and 2 pears. So I had this great plan to turn that area into an orchard by planting 4 more fruit trees. That would complete the existing area into a nice little square, and I even thought that if I really got into it I MIGHT plant 4 more trees on the end of the square near the end of my property. 12 years later I have about 140 fruit trees (counting figs, bush cherries and the like). 140!!! And I sell only a few apples each year at a little honor system stand.
Anyway, I tell you all this to say that even though I went completely crazy with tree planting and have unbelievable amounts of fruit each year, I still haven’t had a problem getting rid of it. So don’t worry too much. I take it to work, give it to family and friends, and donate a lot to the local senior citizen center. Point is, there are always people happy to get fruit- so fear not what you;ll do with it. Now pruning, thinning, spraying, etc…that isn’t so easy as your tree numbers climb!!! ha
Bear, tell me about the Ebony King blackberry. I picked one up at Walmart in late winter cheap that I am about to plant out now. I could find little info on it. Should I not plant it? The only blackberry that has done well for me here at zone 3/4 is Nelson, as long as I douse them in rabbit repellent (Liquid Fence) over winter.
@northwoodswis4, Ebony King grew fine for me. It was quite thorny, The blackberry production was not prolific, they were so so in taste, and I never got a lot. I had three plants for several years before pulling them out. There are still occasional ones trying to come up, from root fragments, two years after I dug them up.
If you have a lot of room, it might be worthwhile to plant them and see what happens. It might do better in your climate. Its an old variety, and there is always potential that mine were mislabeled, but I don’t think so. I like my Triple Crown blackberry 1000 times better. I even like my Prime Ark Freedom about 100 times better. We have invasive monster Himalayan blackberry here. They are like coiled barbed wire, but the berries, if you can get them without shedding blood, are much more tasty than those Ebony King.
Speaking of mistakes, living in a wildfire prone area, I shouldn’t have mulched around my house with wood chips. That’s gone now, replaced with lava rock.
Put a plant back on the shelf that I wanted lol
