Have I gone overboard?

General Fruit Growing
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I’m up to about 80 varieties of pears, about 50 varieties of pecans, about 20 varieties of persimmons, about 35 varieties of Black Walnut, maybe 20 varieties of muscadine, 16 varieties of Fig, and at least 35 apple varieties. I’ve always been nuts, now I’m a fruity nut. I planted 16 pawpaw seedlings earlier today.

Pear: Abate Fetel, Ambrosia, Aurora, Ayers, Barlow, Bartlett Nye Russet, Beierschmitt, Bell, Beurre Alexandre Lucas, Beurre Superfin, Blake’s Pride, Butirra Rosata Morettini, Cabot, Chojuro, Clara Frijs, Clarks Yellow, Conference, Daisui Li, Dana Hovey, Devoe, Douglas, Doyenne du Comice, Drippin Honey, Duchess d’Angouleme, Lucky’s Early Yellow, Elliot, Ewart (Karl’s Favorite), Flame, Foley’s, Golden Boy, Harrow Delight, Harrow Sweet, Harvest Queen, Highland, Honeysweet, Hood, Hosui, Improved Kieffer, Kalle, Kieffer, Korean Giant, Lazy J, Le Conte, Ledbetter, Leona, Lincoln, Luscious, Magness, Maxine, New World, Niitaka, Onward, Orient, Pai Li, Plumblee, Potomac, Red Bartlett, Red Zao Su Li, Rousselet de Reims, Scottsboro Callery, Seckel, Large Seckel, Seuri Li, Shenanadoah, Shin Li, Shinko, Spalding, Sucre de Montlucon, Summer Blood Birne, Summercrisp, Sunrise, Turnbull Giant, Tyson, Lucky’s Very Late, Warren, Winter Nelis, Ya Li

Pecan: Ace, Adams #5, Amling, Apalachee, Avalon, Baby B, Caddo, Cherryle, Creek, Elliott, Excel, Florence, Forkert, Gafford, Hall, Hark, Headquarters, Headquarters, Hickory Major, Huffman, Jackson, Kalos, Kanza, Kiowa, Labette, Lakota, Liberty, Lucas, Major, McMillan, Morrill, Morrill, Nacono, Oconee, Oswego, Pawnee, Prilop, Seneca, St Paul, Sterling, Sumner, Surprise, Syrup Mill, T-92, Tanner, Tobacco Barn, Warren 346, Woodman, Zinner

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Definitely not overboard, I’m wanting to be on board with you to have that big of an array!

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How many of all of these varieties have you been able to harvest from so far? Any favorites? What are your goals with having 80 varieties of something?

I have 36 varieties of blueberries and many varieties of other fruits, so I’m curious to learn about others’ motivations.

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I have only harvested from one pear, Warren and it was absolutely fabulous. I have in the past eaten several of the pear varieties such as Bartlett, Kalle, Kieffer, etc. I have eaten most of the pecan varieties as collected from Auburn’s grove and a few from my own trees. I’ve grown muscadines for 50 years so have sampled many more varieties than are in my current grow list. I’ve been harvesting from my Black Walnuts for 20 years so have sampled all of them one time or another.

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Pictures please!

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You are more overboard than me … but I try to limit what I plant so that it is enough for us to process and eat ourselves.

I have 3 pears… kiefer with 2 grafts of warren and 2 of karls fav… and improved kiefer with 2 grafts of bell and 2 grafts of potomac… 1 Orient tree.

I think if those 3 pears and grafts produced a good crop… we would have to give some away to family and friends…

But now when all your pears produce a good crop… wow… you are going to have a boatload of pears.

Perhaps you plan to sell at a farmers market ?

I sort of went overboard on persimmons…
In my new orchard… h118, h63a, mohler, Barbara’s blush… kasandra, Nakitas gift, Journey, Dar Sofiyivky… IKIJiro, Cardinal.

If all of those produce a good crop… I may have to host an orchard tour like Cliff does.

I expect any extra non astringent asians would sell well at our local farmers market.

TNHunter

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You must have a LOT of land to be able to plant out that many nut trees, because they really need the spacing.

Are all your pecans and pears on one particular rootstock?

And no, you’re not nuts, if you have the time and land, why not? We have 50 acres, but only really maintain 2 acres, the rest is too hilly or forested to mess with. All my fruit trees, berries and garden are on those 2 acres.

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@Fusion_power

I need to send you more pears it sounds like! Im lucky i have some bad land that is pure clay where pears grow a mere 8 feet tall on callery.

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Nope. Definitely not overboard. If you can maintain them; you are doing the world a service.

Thank you for the scions of Pear you sent! I am grafting the smaller Diamonds. And am rooting the larger piece. The others will be grafted as well.

Being just 5 acres; I am not sure how many total trees we will end up with. We had a much reduced buy of trees due to unforeseen family legal expenses. Which dashed our big rootstock order wishes.

We still added a few Georgia origin and interesting Euro apples. Hopefully next year we will be back on track and be on the road to getting all our Georgia apples and some interesting Southern apples. Plus a few more just intetesting apples.

We are excited to get Richard’s fig gift and our new pears. And Hambone’s Clark’s Crab! We will get them all growing and hopefully spread them around when ready.

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Subdood, I have 12 acres here at the house of which about 5 acres are cleared. I also have 50 or so acres of walnut and pecan trees planted on 130 acres of land near Hamilton Alabama. My grafted walnuts are at my mothers place and were planted in 1998 then grafted over the next 10 years.

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Well I have 250 or so varieties of figs alone lol

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Nope, no such thing.

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I’m betting you don’t have a shortage of game on those properties. hopefully no hogs.

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You have gone a little overboard. I don’t fault you because I have too. Are the black walnut and pecan varieties that different from each other? Also, are you tapping the black walnuts for sap?

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Ribs1, I would never tap a black walnut! It ruins the tree for future wood value.

My reason for growing so many black walnuts is different from my pecan reason. Walnuts were not documented very well for performance so I planted a bunch in hopes a few would be stellar performers. I found which are best in my climate and also which can perform best further north. For pecans, it is a search for best disease resistance combined with high production potential. I have about 6 varieties of pecan which have all desired traits. I grow the others because they have breeding potential. For example, Adams #5 is a small nut at 83 per pound but it has exceptional scab resistance. Forkert produces large very high quality nuts but is scab susceptible. Breeding them together has high potential to combine desired traits.

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There’s no such thing as going overboard with plants. They keep us alive :grin:

Also, if you have the room, the time, and the ability. Plant to your hearts content and enjoy it.

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Overboard? Maybe, maybe not. But in any case, my wife can no longer claim that I have gone overboard. You make me look lazy and unambitious.

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@Fusion_power , you’re inspiring!

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Got about 15 plants done today. Scraping up rootstock and repotting and such. Did put Clark’s Crab on. P.2 for fast action. Likely will M111 with bonus M111 whips that were rooted.

About out of P.2 and the very few G.214 left.

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There is something called the Betteridge Law of News Article Headlines that the answer to your question is “no.”

That is, if you can keep up with the care of all those trees. Pear, typically, requires conscientious pruning as those trees tend to “go for the sky” and grow straight up. And you can keep all of those different varieties straight that you know when to pick them, which is the challenge with most pear varieties that are wrecked if you leave them on the tree until they are soft-ripe.

Do you plan to sell your fruit at a farmer’s market? Do you plan to share your fruit with a select group of family members, friends, neighbors and day-job co-workers who know what they are getting. Most people don’t eat that much fruit or that many varieties of fruit.

As to black walnut, my parents’ legacy was a planting to be grown for wood, and I had to already take down some 14" diameter logs for which I got 10 cents on the dollar of their worth because the big problem in agriculture is finding a market. They were overgrowing the roof of the house.

How do you plan to crack them open to eat the nuts? The American Black Walnut is tasty, but cracking them open requires a vise-like contraption with a 3-foot handle for leverage, and preparing small amounts of nut meat (in fragments where you had to pick out bits of shell) was Dad’s retirement passtime.

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