Helping an amateur figure out fruit trees in zone 4b

General Fruit Growing
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I am located in Southwest Minnesota, less than 30 miles from the SD border, so likely not too far from you. In regards to pears I wouldn’t mess with Ure, fairly poor quality compared to most. Robert Purvis has given me a lot of advice and for our region Ewart, clara frijs, and harrow sweet.

The harlyne and harcot are both likely very good apricots but the harcot may be marginal for zone 4b whereas harlyne may be more likely to produce. Zard, jerseycot, DR-606, Debbies Gold, etc. may be some better options with very good flavor.

I rather doubt Cortland peach will do well. The reliance will likely fruit occasionally but the quality is not quite as high as contender. Everyone in my area that has tried peaches have failed. I going to be high grafting peaches on Manchurian apricot as well as American plum rootstock to try and make them more winter hardy and tolerate the -30 weather that they will likely encounter. The issue with most sources of peaches is that they use standard peach rootstock that go dormant too late into the year which leads to winter kill. I do have some Siberian C growing at this time that I plan to convert to rootstock for more winter hardy varieties such as contender, intrepid, veteran, PF-24c, and blushingstar (the last 2 are quite iffy though!)

Your Cherry options look good. If you are interested in some sweet cherries than I would explore the gold series Gold, White Gold, or Black Gold that are overall fairly cold hardy for cherries.

Both of your apple choices are great options, I have 6-7 varieties that will bear fruit this year and another 20+ varieties in the nursery so hoping to be able to provide more information in the future.

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How good are those trader mulberries in the eating department? I’ve been eyeing them and wondering if I should jump in.

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Well, I was only able to taste a few of them last year. In a couple more days I should have a better idea. Those I had last year were “ok”. Not a lot different than the wild white mulberries that grew on my old place in southcentral WI. Jim Walla, the guy who sells Traders tells me that the fruit will get larger as the tree gets older. I’d say most of mine this year are right around 1/2". That’s smaller than the wild whites I was used to, but my trees at that time were older. I guess time will tell.

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my riverview came to me as a 4ft. tree with 20 1/2in. mulberries already on it but they shriveled up and fell off after transplanting. a good sign that its early bearing though . my poor northrop got all its buds zapped by that late frost and never really recovered. has a tiny amount of leaf growth in the center of the 6ft tree. will likely set it back years. i thought new buds would form but they didn’t. this was the biggest tree I’ve ever received thru mail.

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Well, I really appreciate everyones help! We ended up getting the place, and it’s been a whirlwind of work and planning, as my fiance and I got married in September, as well as taking care of some updating on the house and property.

Anyways, now that all the important stuff is over, I have some time to think about what I want to do for next summer. I’m hoping to get some thoughts on where to put everything. I’ve attached a photo of the general area I have to put things. You can see where i’m planning to put my garden, and to the left of that is our goat corral, and to the right is our “pasture”. The corral is on the north side, and the pasture the south.

I’m running into the issue, where i’m just not 100% certain where I want everything to go. I just put in an order for 4 different grapes, which I plan to build a vineyard style trellis for, and I Also have plans to plant hops, probably 4-8 plants initially. The trellis for the grapes, and the wires for the hops are semi permanent, and I would prefer to find a good place for them the firs time.

Secondly, I was thinking of putting all of my fruit trees in the “pasture” the south. That way they’re not in the way, and I don’t have to worry about dropped fruit. However, my wife made a good point, once the trees all start getting mature, they may shade out my garden area I’m unsure if this would actually happen, but it would be a concern.

Lastly, I’m trying to decide if I want to do a traditional orchard design, and have rows, or if a circular design, with a central large tree, and a bunch around it would work better.

Thoughts? If you had to put in grapes, hops, fruit trees, and leave/find places for other perennial fruit bushes, how would you set up the space?

Thanks!

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