Four Years From Now

General Fruit Growing
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How do you expect your fruit growing and harvesting to have changed four years from this year? What are your hopes and visions? I know that many on here either have, or are creating, carefully designed and thought out orchards. Others have incorporated their fruit growing into their landscapes. There must be at least a few who at least started rather haphazardly as I did, finding some fruit trees they wanted to plant and then finding spots to put them in without realizing they would be planting more in the future. So, where are you in your fruit growing adventure now, and what do you hope or expect to have changed in four years? What do you need to do between now and then to get there?

Since this year Iā€™ve added something over 50 new trees and vines, some of which will spend all or part of the year in containers, I expect to be spending far less time planting new trees and fruiting plants, and more time pruning and spraying. More importantly, harvesting, eating, and sharing. I also anticipate spending much, much, MUCH less time watering and weeding. Those last two suck up my time. My next orcharding investments will be in setting up irrigation and heavily mulching between the trees in all the orchard areas. That will also stop the complaints of anyone that my tree limbs are too low for mowing convenience.

I expect to feel comfortable, confident, and practiced enough that I waste less time and effort second guessing myself, and more time doing, and that the ā€˜doingā€™ will be more efficient because of that.

I anticipate and strongly hope to once again be eating cherries that I have grown, and hope to be harvesting enough citrus to be satisfied. I have a total of 22 citrus trees comprised of 18 varieties now. I only ā€˜needā€™ a couple more. :wink:

If I donā€™t totally fail at propagating figs from cuttings, I expect my fig season to be expanded. As it is, I get an abundance in a very short time period. Then have to yearn for them for the year while being pestered by my offspring who keep asking when theyā€™ll be ripe again.

I hope and wish upon a star that Iā€™ll have succeeded in fruiting my own bananas, mangoes, and star fruit by then, and that Iā€™ll be at the point where I can keep myself supplied with pineapple. I also hope that my fuzzy kiwi and feijoa will be producing by then. I had to replace the male and a female kiwis this year because their roots rotted, thanks to over 3 months of repeated flooding last fall. A thousand year event shouldnā€™t be repeated within 4 years.

By the time the 4th harvest rolls around, I may even have sampled enough tree ripened variety to feel comfortable responding to @speedster1 's poll. :smile:

My wildest hope is that my worst quandary in 4 years will be figuring out what to do with the abundance! Okay, maybe that one will take 5 years.

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Muddy,

I have asked myself that same question 14 years or so ago. I have learned that growing fruit trees were very tough. I had to fight the bugs, elements, pollination issues, wild animals (human included), thinning, and sharing fruits with family members. After all that, I am happy just to have enough fruits for fresh eating, freezing, and drying until the next season comes around.

Tony

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I can only hope Iā€™m harvesting an abundance of quality fruit in 4 years. I put a lot of initial thought into the varieties I bought and recently have thought a lot about successive ripening. But Iā€™ve made a lot of mistakes as well. I placed my trees in a lower spot than is ideal so that my kids can have the best portion of my lawn for playing ball and soccer and doing all the kids stuff they deserve to do when they are young. So because of that my trees will be more prone to frost and more prone to water saturation. Iā€™ve combated the water log issue by planting on mounds or higher in the hole than traditional planting. But not much I can do about the frost issue.

Another thing I couldā€™ve done better was deciding what varieties to graft in certain locations. Since my orchard is young I had more scions than graft locations. I ended up sticking some thing in locations without regard to bloom times. It ultimately should not be a huge issue because my trees are planted in a high density area. So theyā€™ll never be that far from a pollinator.

And @MuddyMess_8a you can still fill out my polls! No one ever said you had to try all the varieties to answer the questions. Technically if you only tried 3 types of apricots you still can have a favorite. The nice thing about the poll being on Scottā€™s site is that you can change your selection at any time. If your previous favorite was Tomcot but you recently tasted Robada and preferred it you can go back and reselect.

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For me fruit trees are part of the landscaping along with flowers. The fact that they need more attention than just the regular trees is the bonus for me, I like the processes of gardening. In the future four years I would probably plant very few new trees, but rather do a lot of grafting on the existent trees. Grafting is fun! I have quite busy life and gardening takes a lot of time as it is. Hope for the reward in terms of fruit production, but I do understand all problems with late freezes, bugs and squirrels, so I do not hold my hopes very high.

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I will have done a better job of ā€œrunning to daylightā€. More reliable and more productive plants. In my case, grapes, rhubarb and I think, raspberry.

I will have done a better job of what they call ā€œprocess improvement .ā€ In my case that mostly means making copious amounts of compost and using copious amounts of mulch, and not much buying of stuff in bags.

I will have expanded and improved on my experiment of hydroponics.

I will have finally figured out how to graft.

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I planted my first apple in 2008. So it has been more than four years.
The first couple of years,they were only A pears and apples. Then, cherries, then peaches. Plums are only recent.

A few thing I have learned:

  • in cold climate, losing crops is real. Plant cold hardy and various fruit trees.
  • learn to graft sooner than later. I wish I was not so intimidated for so long
  • growing peaches in my area is a real pain
  • more years, more fruit if your trees do not have a biennial tendency (a few of mine are)
  • more years, more diseases. Brown rot is a good example.
  • spray less, expect less
  • organic or chemical less is more work but it gives me a peace of mind

Thatā€™s what I can think of right now.

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This year was dominated by replacing fruit trees that had died over the last few years as well as a little diversity expansion. Much of it was playing catch up as I had been unable to do much such yard work the last few years as I have been recovering from semi debilitating back injury. So my hope in 4 years is seeing some of this years plantings to start reaching maturity. As well as add some more to the diversity and expanding the harvest season with more early and late varieties while concentrating on low maintenance fruits, mostly blueberries, blackberries, citrus and maybe some more stone fruitsā€¦

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Thereā€™s another hope that I didnā€™t place in my original post. Maybe I can do that four years from now. It might be a small dream, but one of my life dreams is to eat a freshly picked, perfectly ripened apricot. :blush: Apricots are a fruit that I greatly enjoy dried and canned, but I canā€™t recall ever having tasted a fresh cot, or even having seen an apricot tree up close and personal, except for the stick I planted this year. I promise that as soon as I have been able to sample at least 3 different fresh cots, Iā€™ll find your poll and answer that question. :slight_smile:

@tonyOmahaz5 Wow! With as much as you seem to grow, and grow well, Iā€™m surprised that you donā€™t have more fruit than your family can eat during a year. My own family is increasingly large, though. I think it would be difficult to grow enough to supply them all, much less have too much to use up.

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Recently, the ability to graft has significantly changed my perspective on gardening. I grafted this spring for the first time ever and didnā€™t expect much success. However, I had almost 100% success rate with my grafts, and this opened new horizons to me. I always wanted to have a lot of different varieties that would ripen successively during the season, but the reality of limited space and especially water put tight restrictions on my desires. Now, Iā€™m planning to have a lot of varieties grafted on a reasonable number of trees. Ideally, I would want a stonefruit variety (apricots, sweet and tart cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums and pluots) ripening every couple of days from early May to early October, supplemented by other fruit (figs, pomegranates, feijoas, apples, mandarins, loquats).

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Iā€™d like to reach almost exactly the same goal, but with an expanded list of citrus, and because of my location and available space, the addition blueberries, strawberries, brambles, grapes, Japanese persimmons, and nuts. I doubt Iā€™ll be able to reach the goal of providing enough of those to please at least 20 people over the next four years, but hope to be far enough along that that goal is within sight.

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I had not much success with blackberries and raspberries last summer (just a few have survived the heat waves), but Iā€™m still trying. Hopefully, they will do better this year. Next year, I will also plant black mulberries (morus nigra) and blueberries (potted). I have a mature mulberry tree (morus alba if Iā€™m not mistaken), but birds beat me to the berries every year, and the tree is too large to net. For grapes, I have nearby a farm growing Early Muscat (variety that I prefer to any other), so Iā€™m reluctant to invest into building a grape trellis system. Maybe a few years from now, when other plants are established. Strawberries are also available in abundance at nearby PYO farms, and itā€™s much easier to pick strawberries there than protect my own from wildlife. We have an enormous number of earwigs that eat practically everything, tons of birds that peck at every ripe fruit, and ground squirrels that steal even tiny unripe peaches and apples (two-three months before they are ripe!). So, everything needs to be netted. Persimmons are one of very few fruit (or maybe the only one) that I donā€™t like to eat. I just donā€™t care for its taste.

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Raspberries are considered inappropriate to grow here, as well. We have too much heat and not enough continuous chill. I planted four varieties last year, anyway. They are surrounded by wooded areas on all but the northeast side. I was both surprised and delighted that they produced berries last year, and kept it up until New Yearā€™s. I never expect them to do as well as they could grow in the north, but am amazed at how abundantly they have both multiplied and are very heavily they are flowering now. I didnā€™t know they were a spring crop! I think that the trees surrounding them keep them cooler, not just because of the shade, but also because of the transpiration.

Blueberries and muscadines are hassle free here. Much easier than stone fruits and apples. On the flip side, citrus takes much care and effort, loquat success varies from year to year, and youā€™ve warned me that olives would be futile to attempt. I actually heeded your warning for the time being. Once I have the more appropriate trees established, I know Iā€™ll succumb and attempt a few. I doubt they could be more challenging than the lychee tree I accidentally wound up with. :confused:

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My goals are more modest. Since I put my first trees in the ground just a year ago, my expected change is to have fruit to harvest.

Until then, itā€™s mulberries, black raspberries, maypops, and foraged kousa and black cherries. Which doesnā€™t sound so bad when I write it out.

(Secondary goal is to be good at grafting, develop some local mulberry cultivars, and become the maypop expert.)

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Hopefully in about 4 years I will have enough harvest to sell at a little stand at my house. I am thinking about planting about a 2-5 acre orchard for when I retire. I would like to have a variety of different fruit to sell. Deciding if I would like to put in a pecan orchard as well. Though that would be more for my heirs.

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FOUR years from now I want to still be here to complain about the weather and the pests and I wish that EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US still be here, in good health and spirits to be able to hear each otherā€™s complaints, commiserate in our less than stellar results as well as to celebrate our successes and victories.

YEAH SPRING !!! ā€¦ Oh what a relief it is.

Mike

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Thanks for saying that! That was my #1 hope, but Iā€™d yammered on long enough.

Another along the same line is the hope that my kids and grandkids are always eager to come visit, if for no other reason than to explore and consume whatever is available that season.

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4 years? Hope to have all my plants actively producing. Enough variety to keep me in fresh fruit from the start of season with rhubarb in May to the end of the season with apples in November. Enough quantity to preserve enough to last me through winter into the next season without rationing and still have enough (fresh and preserved) to share with friends and family. I think I will reach the variety goal within 4 years, the volume probably close to 4 years but more likely 6-7 years. Disease pressure is still an unknown though so who knows.

Iā€™ve already told my wife that if she ever forces me to move I am keeping the house and renting it until my next orchard is up and running at the new place. Iā€™m not leaving my fruit behind until I have something to replace it!

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in 4 years i should be measuring my fruit production in tonnageā€¦

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4 years from now, I hope that my persimmon, pawpaws (both planted last year) and jujube (planted today) will produce fruit and be care-free trees like people say. I look forward to getting tasty fruit from trouble-free trees in my yard.

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In four year I will finally have huge crops of apricots, cherries, peaches and all citrus, since I am moviing to the south of France! :fr:

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