Hello all,
A friend of mine who loves growing fruit has reached that point where climbing on a ladder, prunning is not something that can be done besides cutting to the ground maybe every year. Harvesting needs to be either from the ground with that method or it falls and is picked up off the ground.
Right now I have: paw paws, american persimmon, and figs. Zone is 8 and in North carolina.
Appreciate any suggestions!
Fresh eating ability is much preferred
Mulberry. You can just put a tarp on the ground and shake the tree to harvest the fruit. Nanking cherries or other bush cherries
There’s an apple called Midnight Dropper. It drops their apples during the night time. No ladder necessary.
quite literally 0 results on google tell me more, where is it available
Tom Brown ( Apple Hunter) and his nursery there in North Carolina. He is one of the apple hunters that have found so many " lost" apples over the years.
He had it listed on his site to buy last year or so.
I would like to also suggest a particular rootstock to have for the apple trees. It is a
M9/M111 interstem apple rootstock. Boyer Nursery carries them with just certain apple varieties on them from year to year. Not always the same apple varieties. I bough some last year but I just looked and they do not offer them this year on that M9/M111 rootstock. ( Glad I bought them last year).
They only get about 6-9’ tall. If they do have a central that gets taller I just trim it down to the height I need it to be.
I wish I had these rootstocks on all my apple trees. The perfect height not to need a ladder and also plenty of fruit to use.
I do not know why I cannot post the link to their order page to show you what they have this year. Boyernurseies.com look for their bareroot nursery inventory link on their main page.
I think your friend would be happy with this tree size. I know I am at that point of not wanting to get on a ladder to pick fruit. If I need to get fruit higher than I can reach I use one of those fruit picking poles. if it is higher than that the birds can eat them and the wasps can get them at the end of the fruit season, like what they are doing now. I’d rather share it with them than get stung.
Durian, you just need to live in the tropics (which i dont lol).
Get a fruit picker / harvester.
Letting grass grow high under the tree is a big help to reduce damage of fruit that falls. If you got deer pressure, pick them up fast.
In NC, you could easily grow some Feijoa. They drop when ripe, so fit the description. In a zone 8, ichang lemons make good sour citrus, ade, marmalade, etc. They also drop when ripe. In fact,most papeda citrus do too , so could also try Yuzu at a sheltered south exposure.
As my pawpaws get larger, it’s hard to get any. I do keep my trees dwarf, but the smell when they ripen makes every critter come by to snatch them. So you will need fencing to get much on those…
Also, if they have enough mobility to pick up fruit, why can’t they just prune everything over chest height? That would open up other options…
i think removing branches etc is a challenge. . spraying anything also gets a lot harder if needed.
Also if its to the ground they can get a little help and use tools to pick it up like nut harvesters etc.
Fruit trees are pruned for one or more of these reasons: (a) to increase fruit production, (b) to lower the cost of harvest, (c) to adapt to available space.
If none of these are an issue then there is no need to prune.
Yes i should reclarify keeping it within arms reach wothout too much stretching ir work or an unpruned tree where the fruit can hit the ground without issue and still retain quality is the goal
I think if your friend wants to try apple growing the M9/M111 rootstock would be the better one to have. It does not need staking and you can reach everything on the ground. I just did all the picking of the apples on that rootstock the last week and what I could not pick on the tree had dropped on the ground. Your friend cold use one of those little grabbers to pick up the dropped fruit if they have a hard time bending over or reaching to the ground. I used one of those to get the fruit closer to the trunk of the tree on the ground.
When my novamac apples are ripe they drop to the grass.
I have it setup espellar and it is on b9 rootstock… so it is a short fall for them, normally no damage at all.
Here they riopen late July, early August.
A very nice apple.
Everbearing raspberries… after collecting the crop in the fall… you can just mow or cut the primocanes to the ground… the next spring new primocanes come up and fruit in the fall… repeat.
I cut my elderberries to the ground after they go dormant late fall… they send up new shoots in the spring and produce a nice crop.
Things that can be grown under fruit trees or in beds… strawberries, walking onions, chives.
Most american persimmons will drop.
If he wants to grow some fruit that does not drop… and is normally only in reach by ladder…
A good pole fruit picker ?
Or… get into espellar growing fruit trees.
I have really enjoyed my little novamac on b9 espellar… very easy to prune, summer prune, collect fruit from… everything is chest high and very easy to manage.
Good Luck
TNHunter
