Introducing myself to Scott's forum

[marynaw]

Hey y’all. I’ve been lurking for several years, using this forum as a resource whenever we add more to our fruit tree hoard and whenever we encounter ailments in the orchard. I’ve finally decided to start actually posting my own questions when my Google skills fail to yield the information I need.

My husband and I planted our first fruit & nut trees, grape vines, and berries in Spring 2022 in several clearings on our 60+ acres of pine plantation in Northeast Texas (8b, Bowie County right on the border with Arkansas & Oklahoma).

We currently have 6 peach, 4 apple, 2 asian pear, 5 nectarine, 2 almond, 2 persimmon, 2 apricot, 2 pomegranate, 3 pear, 2 fig, 2 jujube, 3 plum, 2 plumcot, 2 pawpaw, 3 medlar, 3 sweet cherry, 10 pecan, 9 english walnut, 12 dunstan chestnut, 3 kiwi, ~16 raspberry, ~40 blackberry, 14 blueberry, 14 muscadine and 18 table grapes. I also have a sizable raised bed garden.

Looking forward to participating more going forward!

[Pnwplantnerd]

Hello all!

I’m gardening in Washington state, and I really like fruit! I’ve got a small amount of a wide range of things, from raspberries to goumi berries to figs. Excited to be part of this forum and learn from others!

[Javlonbek]

Greetings from Uzbekistan!

I’m passionate about fruit growing, especially grapes, figs, mulberries, pomegranates, cudrania, apricots, pears, and some other rare and interesting fruit trees. I’m looking forward to meeting like-minded people here, learning new techniques, and sharing both successes and failures in the orchard

[dizzy]

Hi!

Mid-life crisis here, starting “over” in Philly 7b where I’ve lived off/on for many years.
I have a 12 x 24’, deck with unimpeded sun from the east, west, and south, and a south-facing brick wall. About as good as I can do for city living!

Some people stress buy clothes or electronic toys, I stress buy plants. Hoping to have a lil container-based garden and orchard here. Figs, berries, maybe a pomegranate or persimmon or two if I can. I also have green stalk vertical planters and am considering to plant some ostrich ferns for fiddleheads in the one shady area I have (next to a big storage shed the previous tenant left). Wish me luck!

Also hi @Javlonbek ! I traveled to the “Stans” including Uzbekistan 15 years ago, it was a seminal trip for me and one I had hoped to do since childhood. Amazing landscapes, amazing food and amazing people.

[Javlonbek]

Hi, Dizzy!
I am very glad that you enjoyed your stay with us. Thank you for your good feedback!

[QuinnsOrchard]

Hi, I am Kari originally from Ohio, lived in few other states and another country before settling in Pittsburgh. I live right on the edge of Zone 6a/6b.

I was an environmental biologist (wetlands) with a love for bats (my favorite animal), entomology, and herpetology before following another dream…quitting corporate life and owning design- build business with my husband and owning a cabinet shop.

Now my husband and I are new (ish - 4 years) owner of an old agricultural farm that we are hoping to convert to an apple orchard starting phase 1 hopefully next year. New to most (95%) of this. The plan is to start with perhaps 5 acres facing east), could go up to about 2 more acres over there. Add additional 10 acres under our ROW facing NNE.

I love Pawpaws, I bame going to OU for it.

I also love spicebush, my favorite plant to sniff while I was working in the field. My favorite wetland plant is seedbox (I annoyed my coworkers with using common names ha). My favorite tree is American beech, but I do have a soft spot for American sycamore. Oh, I love sticky willy and I throw them on my young kids when I can.

[JAF]

Welcome, nice to meet another OU Bobcat here. Good luck with your endeavors and love for plants.

[Xygorn]

New backyard grower here, from Central NJ. Hillbillyhort pointed us to the forum after showing us how to graft at the ohio pawpaw festival.
This is our first year with a non-balcony-garden, and we’ve got 3 pawpaws, 2 figs, a che, and a bunch of berries (ground cherry, strawberry, blackberry, seeviceberry, and purple flowering raspberry on purpose, and volunteers that are likely dewberry, black raspberry and/or wineberry), as well as veggies.
From the previous owner, we have a kousa dogwood giving fruit, and an ornamental crabapple we might graft onto (though cedar-apple rust is aggressive here).
Looking forward to learning about deerproofing, pruning, grafting, over wintering, and just about anything else.

[Pete73]

Hi, I’ve been reading everyones contributions on this site for a while, many very advanced topics (to me anyway) demonstrated here and it seemed like a good place to join and ask advice. I’ve been growing fruit and veg in a basic fashion for a decade or so, and the first few years of that were quite unsophisticated, so I’m fairly inexperienced. Last few years though taken an interest in fruit and grafting grape vines and now venturing into apples and other tree fruit. Current interest is how to graft apples and every advanced looking link from google brings me here! So it was clearly time to join

[JDN]

Brand new to the forum, here… I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to join, but I’m here now. I’m a botanist, though I haven’t held a job in that field for several years. I’m also a bit of a pomologist and am drawn by the more obscure varieties of fruits, particularly apples and pears.

I’m anxiously awaiting the day when I can post files, though. I have an apple pollination reference chart that I’ve been compiling for over a decade!

[stl]

Hello everyone. I’ve been following this site for several years. Joined a while ago, but never introduced myself. I live in southeast Michigan. 90% of my trees are 200 miles away in northwest lower Michigan. Been trying to grow fruit tree up there for many years. I have 20 trees planted (mostly apple with a few peach trees) with probably another 10 varieties grafted to them. Also have some other fruit and nuts planted there. Great site I have learned so much here. Thanks

[MikeC]

Welcome to site Kari. I’m in SW Ohio. So OU is where some of my friends went and also my daughter’s friend is a professor there. I have a relative that was living in Pittsburgh, last I heard.
Pawpaws are really good. I have been eating them since I was a kid. I can see why you love them so much.
Lots of good info and helpful people here.

[Bdav]

Welcome my trees are 90 miles away and I have about the same number of trees that you have. It is a struggle at times. Don’t think I could do it at 200.

[caponet]

Hello, I’m Miquel Àngel, from Mallorca. I have an orchard where I started planting new trees a few years ago. Now I want to add more varieties of stone fruit, begining with native varieties of cherry and apricot

[BackyardProduce]

Hi,

I’ve been a lurker for a few years now and want to give back to the community where I can. This forum has been very useful for planning out what I want to do with my upcoming trees.

I garden to feed my family and I & sometimes post about it on YouTube and TikTok under the same name.

I started adding fruit trees to my garden this year with some peach trees someone was kind enough to give me, and am going to add apples, pears, plums, and figs next year. But most of my time has been spent with tomatoes and other vegetables; growing, breeding, adapting these plants to my garden and palate and adapting my garden to them. Everything I grow is a breeding project of some sort.

Looking forward to chatting with you guys,

Slayden

[LarisaLee]

Welcome!

[Arugula]

Hello. We bought a house with a 1/4 acre lot in 9b sacramento ca(800-1400 chill hours) 3 years ago, and starting somewhat blindly planting things. Eventually I picked up “grow a little fruit tree”, but now I’m realizing that no one seems to actually plant this densely - I’ll just have a crazy yard I guess. Our goal is a fruit-heavy food forest with pollinator friendly natives. We’ve sheet mulched and are working on irrigation.

Trees are: peaches(elberta, Babcock, Saturn), plums(emerald beaut, green gage, Santa rosa)/pluots(elephant heart, emerald drop, flavor king, dapple dandy, flavor grenade)/pluerries(candy heart, flavor punch, sweet treat), cherries(lapins, royal crimson, Rainier), asian pears(20th c, hosui, raja), apricots/apriums, avocados(mexicola, bacon), guava(red, pink, strawberry, feijoa), citrus(mandarins and kumquats), figs, nectarines(freckle face, snow queen, arctic glo, spice zee nectaplum), pindo palm, medlar, goumi, autumn olive, mulberries, jujubes(chico, honey jar), apples(pink lady, goldrush, gala, rubinette, honeycrisp), aronia, loquats, pomegranates, seaberries, grapes, and some subtropicals that I’m not sure will survive(white sapote, cherimoya, longan, ice cream bean, jaboticaba, luma berry).

I’ve been pruning a ton this year to shape the trees and keep them smaller, and I feel more confident despite mistakes. Some trees have given us fruit the first year(jujubes, figs, kumquat, aronia), others second(peaches, pomegranate, pear, guava, clementine) most are still working on it. We also grew hundreds of pounds of squash this year(not recommended). Happy to be here and learn.

[LarisaLee]

Cool! We have several members here who are interested in pruning to keep things small, and a lot of small lot growers, as well as a lot of people interested in semi-tropical fruits who can probably provide some great advice for you.

Welcome to the conversation!

[Melon]

I LOVE your dog already

[Eme]

Your yard is stunning! Please post more pictures here for other urban growers to see and learn:

Small lot growers

I thought this could be a place for tiny lot/residential area growers to share space saving ideas, layouts, and the successes and frustrations of trying to cram as much as possible onto a small piece of land. I have 1/6th acre that is 1/3 house plus deck plus shed plus large driveway. I started with one 8x4 vegetable garden that became two then four then five and now taking up half of what was grass space in my backyard with 4 cattle panel trellises and a 9’ grape trellis. I was really anxious …