Introducing myself to Scott's forum

[toad]

Hello all. I’m a fruit enthusiast from Syracuse, NY. I’ve had the Upstate New York staples of Concord and Niagara grapes, Northern Spy and Macintosh apples for years and branched out into plums and apricots in 2018.

This year I jumped on the cider bandwagon and will expand my hobby to cidermaking at the carboy scale. Planted around 70 trees and grafted another 50 on G.214 on a tall spindle trellis system with about 40 varieties altogether. I don’t have a ton of space (1 acre), so the plan is to follow commercial trellising guidelines from Cornell and keep everything 2 dimensional on the trellis.

Setting myself up this year to enjoy the fruits of labor down the road with blending and experimenting. I mostly grafted scions from heirloom American varieties (Harrison, Baldwin, Gilpin, Newtown Pipin, Black Oxford, Russets, etc) but the purchased trees are newer varieties (Gnarled Chapman, Kronebusch, Franklin) with a handful of European due to an end-of-season tree sale.

[northwoodswis4]

Beautiful photo.

[jls-s.utah8b]

That’s exciting. I had a similar property with 31 fruit trees, most of them apples in the Pacific Northwest, but have moved to southern Utah where there are only two varieties of apples that are said to do well in our heat. Both trees have fruit on them, so we’ll see! Gone are my days of juicing apples for the freezer (such wonderful slush as it thawed) and giving bags away to the neighbors. My mouth is sorry, but my back is not!

[AndySmith]

Welcome! I’m north of Utica, NY with a good portion of my orchard dedicated to cider apples.

[PomGranny]

Welcome to the Fruit Forum . . . you will learn so much here! And meet some very nice and knowledgeable ‘fruities’. - Pomgranny in Virginia

[KSeaman]

Hi all—I found this forum years ago and perused for awhile but somehow it fell to the wayside. Now I’m about to be an empty nester with all 4 newly minted adult children making their way into the world!
I’ve been a home grower for most of my adult life with a love for heirlooms, garden design, and organic management.
As of today, I have 10 different apple espalier varieties, 4 espalier pear , 2 Romeo bush cherries, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, blueberry and a few odds and ends.
Looking forward to sharing and learning from all of you.

[Eden]

Hello!

I have started an orchard here on a little bit of acreage that I rent. It was a long time in the works because I didn’t want to put money into land that isn’t mine, but I’ve stayed her much longer than I’d planned and couldn’t stand it any longer.

So I’ve been working hard to reclaim some inhospitable hilly and rocky earth that was overgrazed by cattle and overgrown with red cedar and locust trees. I’ve got almost 90 fruit trees and bushes now. Most of the spots are filled.

I don’t want to spray if at all possible, so I’ve chosen my varieties with the greatest care I could muster. I don’t yet have a medlar, which I think I’d like to add. I’d love to have a quince, but I don’t that will be possible, considering the copious number of red cedars surrounding me and the orchard.

My current list:
PawPaw: 3 Capri Jane, 8 unnamed
Blueberries: Premiere, Brightwell, Tifblue, Climax
Blueberries: Blueray, Blue Ribbon, Darrow, Patriot, Blue Gold, Bluecrop, Elliot, Reka, Chandler, Top Shelf
Honeyberries: Boreal Beauty, Boreal Beast
Strawberries: Ozark Beauty
Blackberries: Doyle Thornless, Columbia Giant, Prime Ark Freedom
Raspberries: Heritage, Cascade Delight, Caroline, Tulamine
Hardy Kiwi: Issai (female), unknown male
Grapes: Mars Seedless, Bronze Muscadine
Pears: Bartlett, Moonglow
Apples: Freedom, Liberty, Enterprise
Pecans: unknown natives from TN state program
Mulberries: unknown natives from TN state program
Wild Plum: unknown natives from TN state program
Elderberries: Adams, Nova
Persimmon: a native seedling from fruit I was given, Deer Candy, Deer Luscious, Deer Magnet, Millers, Meader, Prok
Pomegranates: Texas Pink, Texas Red
Nectarine: Durbin
Plums: Stanley, Damson
Apricots: Tilton, Moorpark
Bush Cherries: Nanking
Peach: Elberta
Figs: two varieties which I can’t remember

Most of these are in their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year, as I’ve added on.

Having trouble getting my pomagranates to thrive. That’s disappointing. They looked good last year, not this year.

My apples so far are doing well against CAR, but it’s only their 2nd year. I hope that holds well.

I probably won’t plant more honeyberries. They are a nice novel item, but pale for me in comparison to blueberries and I have been having to grow beans to shade them in summer.

Blueberries continue to mystify me. I’ve killed more blueberry plants in my lifetime than you can shake 10 sticks at. Seriously, at least a hundred. This year I’m sulfating the tar out of them and at least they are showing signs of growth. My PH is about 6 without adjusting. So many colors other than green and blue…

I’ve grown kiwi before, but never successfully had a matched male and female so as to have fruit. I’m trying again. So far, my male is looking good, but my Issai is trying to die every moment. Last time I couldn’t get my males to live… ah well.

My biggest concerns - the weed that has taken over the field. Straight from Satan himself. My ag agent couldn’t even tell me what it is. Lots of trouble with that. Would like to not have to mow so much. Once trees are bigger, would like to go no-mow, have flowers and bees, and walk barefoot. A girl can dream, right?

Anyway, I hope to learn a lot here. Thank you!

[ansayre]

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[mamuang]

I have said this many times. Please keep this thread for INTRODUCTION only. Short welcoming is fine.

Please refrain from engaging in any long discussion. Please feel free to move your discussion to other categories.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

[Xgoldpt]

Hi everyone,

I am enthusiast to grow fruit trees in Portugal.
I already found very interesting information here.
I am here to learn and share my little knowledge

Thanks everyone.

[Browndrake]

All my life, I’ve dreamed of having a small farm where I can live fairly self sufficiently.

I’ve worked towards that goal for years. I raise a few chickens for meat and eggs. I have a small herd of cows. (Started with 1 a few years ago and am now up to 20) I garden quite a bit for fresh and bottled food. I’ve dabbled with fruit trees and gone on farm tours and seminars to learn more. ( One winter we had 18 banana plants living in our living room… waiting for springtime to go back outside). As my father-in-law’s health deteriorated, I ran his small farm for a few years, mostly hay and some corn.

… So, i have just enough experience to get myself into trouble, but not enough to even know the right questions to ask, all too often.

A couple years back my brother and I purchased 160 acres in southeastern AZ. My wife and I are moving down this summer with the 3 kids who are still at home. Brother and his wife are still two years out from moving We will have an adventure to say the least.

It will take many years to really develop the the farm/ranch, but I’m looking forward to the experience…( probably more than a couple of my kids)

Goals:

1. get well drilled and house dried in by end of June. ( House dependant on my current house selling… Well needs to go in no matter)

2. Get garden in

3. complete house before cold sets in this fall. Also get shop/ barn up.

4. Clear the mesquite from land this coming winter.

5. plant small orchard 100-150 trees as soon as mesquite is cleared. Most likely will only get in around 80 fruit trees in next year. The other trees will be landscape/ wind brake trees.

While doing all that, we are also developing some sex linked chickens and a line of broilers, getting pigs started and developing cow herd. My brother has already added in some goats and we may do a couple dozen sheep.

For the livestock, we are setting up to do intensive rotational grazing. Chickens will follow the sheep/ goats, who may be following the cows.

Anybody reading this will know by now that I must be at least a little bit crazy and that my wife must be a saint.

I’m sure that plans and goals will change much over the coming weeks to years but the adventure has begun.

I will be picking your brains to clean from your many years is collective experience, to help this journey go as smoothly as possible.

Thanks for providing such a forum, to share experience and knowledge with each other

[Juniperfarmks]

Hi! I am new to growing fruit trees and have been lurking quite a bit and reading up. This seems like a great group and it has been a valuable resource for me starting out and building a new orchard. This spring I bought almost 9 acres in western Kansas south of Kansas City. The land was previously pasture that was somewhat neglected and I’ve spent the last couple months clearing cedars, burning the front 3 acres, and overseeding pollinators and accumulators (mostly native). My plan is to use 2 of those 3 acres to build a permaculture orchard and cut flower business. I have had a hard time finding information on how to scale up permaculture concepts-it seems like most of what I find is targeted to back-yard growers with maybe 2 or 3 trees. So far I have 3 rows, about 30 trees that I bought bare root. They are a mix of apple, peach, pear, plum, and nectarine, and I planted them so trees of the same type do not touch, but are still within 50 feet or so of their required pollinator. Yes I had to make a spreadsheet
I am really looking forward to learning from and meeting you folks!

[belowtheterrace]

Welcome and congrats on your purchase!

[binghamtongardener]

Hello everyone! Backyar/hobby grower here, currently in Binghamton New York (Zone 6a…until very recently was Zone 5b). Grew up on a farm in the Midwest, run a local community garden, and have a little backyard patch (couple quince trees, couple pears, a medlar, black and red currants, couple pawpaws, sour cherry, mulberry, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, asparagus, rhubarb, two hardy kiwis). Fiddling with maypops and a potted fig this year–curious about hardy cacti as well. Also grow a lot of dahlias. Have learned a ton from this forum by lurking and thought I’d finally make an account.

[Vasylgardener]

Усім привіт! Мене звати Василь.
Я новий учасник форуму.Проживаю та професійно займаюсь садівництвом в Україні
( На межі зон 5b та 6a )
Вирощую Абрикос,Персик,Черешню,Яблуню та Грушу.Садівництвом займаюсь 15років,трошки маю досвіду,але люблю багато вчитися.
Дякую адміністраторам за чудовий форум та що прийняли мене до поважної спільноти садівників.

[ansayre]

welcome vasyl. slava ukraini!

[k8tpayaso]

@Vasylgardener

Усім привіт! Мене звати Василь.
Я новий учасник форуму.Проживаю та професійно займаюсь садівництвом в Україні
( На межі зон 5b та 6a )
Вирощую Абрикос,Персик,Черешню,Яблуню та Грушу.Садівництвом займаюсь 15років,трошки маю досвіду,але люблю багато вчитися.
Дякую адміністраторам за чудовий форум та що прийняли мене до поважної спільноти садівників.

Translation:

Hello everyone! My name is Vasyl.

I am a new participant of the forum. I live and professionally do gardening in Ukraine

(On the border of zones 5b and 6a)

I grow apricot, peach, cherries, apple and pear. I have been gardening for 15 years, I have a little experience, but I like to learn a lot.

Thank you to the administrators for the wonderful forum and for accepting me into a respectable community of gardeners.

Ласкаво просимо на форум Василю!!

Welcome to the forum Vasyl!!