European suppliers!

General Fruit Growing
1

Hey guys! My first post here so first and foremost, thanks everyone for the priceless information I’ve been snooping on for the last few months! Now on to business…

I’m setting up a food forest and coppice stand among restocking our forest and other things, but am really struggling to source seed and specific fruit varieties over here in France. My most painful quest has been to find the ever illusive Hickory, it has been as fruitless as the first 8-10 years of growing the beautiful things.

My main aim was to plant a mixed coppice stand with predominantly Cordiformis and Ovata, as well as sourcing a Grainger and Henry to grow for nuts. I’ve contacted every nursery, peniniere, seed website in France and most in Europe, to no avail… Lots of places seem to sell them as plants, but won’t give up the goods on their source of seed. Needless to say buying a few hundred hickory seedlings at €3.50-15 a pop is out of my price range…

All this got me thinking that some guys on here MUST know reliable reputable seed and plant sellers (dealers sounds more appropriate, as there must be something illicit I’m missing here) that operate in Europe? As my well of knowledge is running dry and my backup bag of tricks seems to have a hole in it… I am hoping somebody here may have some suggestions for a newbie.

I’m in the ‘North of the South’ of France and am considering ordering fron the US as it seems to be my last hope. Does anybody have experience in ordering seed fro the EU to US or visa versa? Thanks to everyone who’s still with me at the end of this, and wish me luck!

3 Likes
2

Hello, what is your nearest town? Just curious, I used to know some area’s in France years ago.
You might contact all the european botanical parks/arboretums you can. A rare woody plant nurseryman I knew used to get seeds that way from around the world many years ago.

3

Hey Randy! Thanks for getting back to me, I’m in the North of the Dordogne, between Limoges and Perigeux. My nearest ‘big’ town is a place called Thiviers! I’ve searched for arboretums and places like that the country over, but can’t seem to find any that sell seed etc.

You don’t have any contact info for your friend? It’s always nice to get in touch with someone locally, even if they don’t have Hickory we can still talk trees! I got a reply from some guys in the states, they said I can get a phytosanitary certificate for $81 and I’m seriously considering it… Still much cheaper than my old addiction to collecting guitars!

2 Likes
4

I’m here in eastern Kansas USA. The “arbustives” woody plantsman had a nursery in northwestern Missouri, gone a long time ago. But he had rare temperate species from countries worldwide, I asked him once how he obtained them. So many, he said, he would write to an arboretum or park he heard about and they would end up sending him a package of seeds. My guess is he would send them some money.
I had considered buying a property north of you, near Vesoul about 15 years ago, 50 miles west of Basel.

5

Hello, you can order Hickory seed here https://www.semencesdupuy.com/147-carya .

They have quite a lot of tree seed and are based in France.

6

Ahh, we could have been neighbours! I’m actually thinking of importing them from the US. I was recommended ‘sheffield seeds’ by someone in Poland who uses them and recommended them. Do you have any experience with those guys? A bit of a headache, but I’m just fascinated with hickories and need them!

1 Like
7

Hey Phil! Thanks for the reply! Have you ordered from them before? I’ve been recommended them a few times, but they have a very poor rating on trust pilot and I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s actually germinated seeds from them before. I’m quite hesitant… It also costs me about €40 more to get them from the states from a reputable dealer and it’s a fair bit of money, so I figured it was worth going straight to the source!

3 Likes
8

Sheffield Seeds were very reliable when I ordered from them quite some time ago. :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
9

I never ordered from them but you can try calling them and ask how old are their seed, if hickory germinate better from “fresh” seed you’ll have better results with your US dealer I guess.

I also find this place in Netherland selling seed per Kg http://www.pleijboza.nl/ just download their catalog they do have diffierent species of Hickory.

1 Like
10

Shagbark hickory is a relatively common tree in Ohio and easy to identify from a distance. I am not sure if they are still dropping nuts and the squirrels around here are hard workers. If anybody is still interested next year, I can make a trip to a nearby state park or national forest. Black walnut, sugar maple, and staghorn sumac are also common natives.

11

Sheffield’s Seed Company may have what you are looking for. They are reputable seed suppliers.

12

Hey Phil! I fired them an email, I was after august under 3kg of Hickory seed, unfortunately they replied saying they don’t ship small amount of seed. I asked what an acceptable weight was, but got no reply… I think I’m going to give this semence de Puy a go. I went through the process with Sheffields (who were amazingly helpful and I highly recommend them), but in the end with postage and and phytosanitaire certificates it’s just far too expensive. Thanks again for your research!

13

Hi Nagrom !

I’m in the south east of france. Nice project you have !

I’ve bought seeds once from semences du puy, so not a statiscally significative experiment, and they were easy to grow eggplants, and grew.

There are 2 very good tree pruducers near Nîmes, for me they are the most reliable and the most honest producers in france, they are Mederic peuch from pepimed and his buddy Grange.

They are some sort of poets who don’t work to become wealthy so you might want to talk with them. They have stuff that isn’t on their internet sites.

Have a good day !

3 Likes
14

Brilliant! Lovely to hear from a neighbour (relatively speaking)! I’ve contacted semence du puy to get their fresh batch of seed coming in November, and will definitely be checking out those pépinière’s. What sort of stuff have you got growing down south? Any recommendations for fruit that does exceptionally well? I’ve been sampling everything I can in preparation to plant, but realise the only way to know how a fruit tastes from your land, is to plant it!

1 Like
15

Yeah, it’s nice to have a tree lover neighbor not that far away !

I planted fruit trees because I don’t have a lot of space, being in Var where land is expensive, and unfortunately being too old to be able to take care of a lot of trees.

Also being very interested in compost and worms raised outside :slight_smile: which is time consuming.

I only have fruit trees, and everything seems to grow, but my water bills are stratospheric :slight_smile: Even blueberries and raspberries grew despite the very calcareous soil and despite the summer heat…well, let’s be honest, they did survive and fed some birds :slight_smile:

Here in France, we don’t have access to chemicals so obviously my poor peach trees became magnets for hundreds of OFM, I guess they came from the whole south to have a feast and indulge in gluttony in my garden, since I’m surrounded with vineyards and pines and oaks forests, I can imagine they were starving before finding heaven in my orchard and turning it into a nightmare for me :slight_smile: Not to mention the aphid infestation and the endemic rust, but then the poets whom I bought the trees from, said my garden will reach better balance soon (in which favor they didn’t say) and otherwise the trees growing on steroids because of the compost would become too high too fast…

Anyway none has died yet ! But they were planted january and february so that’s a bit early to have a celebration with champagne or to brag around !

I guess your project is more ambitious than mine ! And a good job since our planet need more trees to fight global warming ! And you are lucky since you are in an area with more rain !

I’ll try to upload photos…I sure hope to find Uploading Photos on Growingfruit.org for Dummies, because I suck with the computer…

1 Like
16

Dear Françoise, I live in Uzès, you can buy Triazicide on line and Bordelaise is great for peach leaf curl. I use it with a sticker. Stickers are hard to find here but you can use olive oil.

1 Like
17

Hi ! I remember you because I remember the photos you posted and your garden and house are so very beautiful and well tended ! They cannot be forgotten !

Mine is chaos these days because the rain was great ! I like that better than the drought !

I don’t have PLC on peach trees, I use copper oxyde which I prefer to Bordeaux mixture. Unfortunately it’s not efficient on rust.

Only Myclobutanyl is on rust. Perhaps it’s better that there are regulations that prevent us from using it. I guess it’s not that good for the environment and biodiversity.

And yes, oil is great as a sticker and to fight aphids. I use canola oil…olive oil I keep for salads!

Funny that you live in Uzes, that’s where my trees come from ! Well, not far away. Pepimed and Grange are producing trees in Vezenobres.

OFM are a real problem even for professionnal. I read many papers meant for professionnal growers and apparently the best solution is netting. As I don’t grow for cash but as a hobby, I’m not going to bother.

From what I remember, when I searched the forum for informations about OFM or other stuff, hence dug out old threads, it seems to me you lived in the US when you first posted, and on more recent posts I understood you had moved here. I don’t know whether it’s for work or for holidays. Uzes is very pleasant ! It’s a lot greener than my area !
I hope I don’t sound like a weirdo who has been lurking and stalking people on fruit forums ! I guess I just found it interesting and it stuck somewhere in my memory !
And my daughter moved the other way round, from here to the US.

I’ve been there, and loved it ! I loved how easily people talk to you, and tell you what they’re doing and why. I’ve travelled from Boston to San Francisco, sleeping in motel 6 because we had cats. Motel 6 are quite an experiment, as they accept pets, you get an unusual mixture of different social classes, all of them cats or dogs owners. Then early morning there’s the dogs’ pee walk so you drink coffee chatting with so many different people ! Moving from Vermont to work in LA when in France one thinks for years before deciding if moving a hundred miles for a job is interesting !

Well I guess I’m now chatting out of topic ! Fruit tree forum, I forgot !

Thank you for your nice message ! I’ll have a look at the triazicide, this I never heard about.
Thank you very much ! Have a nice day !

18

I moved to live here. Uzès as you know is beautiful. Its a small city but close to almost everything except Paris which is fine! My trees are not holding fruit this year the way they have in the past. We have had too much rain, it that is possible in the south. I had many apricots and griottes this year but because of the rain pollination was not good. I still have enough apricots for tarts this year but no jam. And griottes for small tarts not pies! My apples are ok this year. My Granny Smiths being the best setting. Good quetsche and peaches too. Too many lemons. I pruned my figs heavily last year so I am not expecting much. All in all a so so year for growing in pots. It is cold again here in the mid 60’s the winds from the north are here. Good to hear from you.