Sounds like a lovely place @JustinIL7a
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Welcome aboard @JustinIL7a . Youāve come to a great place to talk and learn about fruit.
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Now that Iāve been here more than a week I figure I should make a post here
Iām someone thatās interested in growing fruit trees now that I have much more light in my yard (some massive trees taken down recently) I donāt have a very big yard but I figure I can probably fit a at least a dozen smaller trees while still having room for other stuff.
I joined for a few reasons
- Mainly to have an outlet for talking about fruit trees, plant hybridization (shoutout to Aronia Breeding - Diploid Lines for convincing me to join), and various other plant related topics (I was annoying people elsewhere by talking about this stuff too much)
- To learn from people that have actual experience growing fruit
- And to find people that are interested in swapping seeds plants and scions
My main interests lie in the field of genetics and biochemistry (and tasty fruit)
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Greetings from South County Dublin! Glad to see another one here.
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Hi, I found a few great posts on here when I was researching different varieties of trees that I am planning to grow in my high altitude tropical orchard so I decided to sign up.
Most of my experience is with tropical fruit, but I have recently picked up an acre up mountain from my house that is too cold to grow most of what I have previously grown. So now Iām planting trees I never thought I would! Excited to learn much from you all and spread some of mine.
What I have growing:
Figs, apples ,peaches, nectarines, cherimoya, persimmons, citrus, papaya, dragon fruit, plums and tea.
Thanks
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Hi - a brand-new-bie here, having found this site last evening. I got bogged-down reading all the intros and finally figured out how to post my own, so here I am. Iām Becky, 71, happily married to Jim for 50 years and counting, mother of 2, grandmother of 5 (including one married for 3 years - gg-children possible?), with a 93-year old Mama still living on her own 3.4 miles away who taught me to love everything to do with plants. Iāve had a garden (large or small) wherever Iāve been, even in the Navy (ā74-ā78), and at nearly 9,000 feet elevation in Coloradoās grossly-misnamed Wet Mountains. (Max precip was usually less than 15ā per year at our painfully-dry location, with a suggested 56 frost-free days!) Weāre now in central NYās Finger Lakes 6b region, where Iām thrilled to be growing gobs of different fruits and nuts on our 150āx200ā property - I should be out back planting some things I dug 2 days ago from my motherās place, and sticking more corn and beans in the garden to replace what didnāt sprout, instead of typing here! I consider myself a plant propagator, not a farmer or gardener, since I love starting things from seeds and cuttings, raising plant types most folks donāt think will grow wherever I am. I have 19 peach trees of which 17 are my seedlings or from cuttings from seedlings; several apple seedlings; American persimmon seedlings; 2 sassafras; loads of elderberries - the biggest and best growing in the stump-grindings of a formerly huge black walnut; several pie cherries and chokecherries; 3 Aronia melanocarpa; 2 pears; 1 nectarine seedling; 1 purchased AU Rosa plum (new this year); 6 grape vines happily adapting to their new trellis after years in pots; a volunteer mulberry being grown as a bush (no weasels, though); a quince tree seedling; several apricot seedlings; a new GA 866 jujube from Stark Bros that just began leafing out last week - Iāve never seen or tasted a jujube fruit, but they sound nifty; black, red, yellow and purple raspberries; several varieties of thornless blackberries; white and black currants; gooseberries; strawberries; blueberries; saskatoons; Cornus mas; beautyberries; 3 native pawpaw seedlings (each had their first blossoms this year, but all fell off); hardy kiwis, and 9 fig trees. Iāve probably forgotten a few things, tooā¦. oh yes - 2 hazelnuts, a new jostaberry, and beds of wine cap mushrooms. I am trying to keep everything under control by using the Anne Ralph method for āgrowing a little fruit tree,ā summer pruning to keep all the fruit trees around 6 feet tall. The elderberries are beyond control, however - theyāre mostly way taller and suckering like crazy. I pick gallons of them daily, once they ripen. My main problems include annual battles with peach leaf curl, and finding time and space for all the fruits I pick! I share a lot with family and friends, and have taken to dehydrating a lot, besides canning and freezing. ā¦ Well, enough of this - Iām off to the back yard! Thanks for letting me join the group!
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Hello and welcome all new members. We have members across United States and internationally.
For some of you who may not know, we do have a search function. It is a symbol of a looking glass on the top right-hand corner of a page.
If you click on it, a dialog box will show up, you can type in key words like Apple issues, Peach problems, Oozing on plums, etc. Many threads regarding those topics will show up for you to review them. You will learn more than you want (or need) reading those previous threads/posts but the info is mostly relevant and helpful.
If you have questions about your fruit or plants, choose the categories relevant to your questions and post them. There is no dump question. Donāt worry if you post in an incorrect category, we can move it to the right one for you.
Fruit growing can be addictive.
The unofficial motto of the forum is:
āWhy do it, when you can overdo it? Glad youāve found us.
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Iām fairly new to the forum here as well. Welcome!
How is Anne Ralphās little fruit tree method working for you? I have yet to plant any fruit trees, but when I do Iām interested in trying out that method. What type of rootstock are your trees on?
EDIT: I read your post more closely and see that most of your trees are seedling rootstock. I like the idea of seedling rootstock myself. Now Iām extremely interested to hear how Ms. Ralphās method is working for you.
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Hi Jake. I started pruning by the little-tree method two years ago, and theyāre a LOT easier to maintain than leaving them to grow āau naturel.ā I donāt need to be climbing around on ladders to prune big trees, or to pick the fruit, or try to spread netting over them - I take care of my mother and husband, besides doing stuff for another elderly couple - canāt afford to have broken bones! I also have most of my orchard on 10x10 squares, with some even closer - canāt do that with bigger trees. We can still get the zero-turn mower between them, easily, and pruning doesnāt take very long. I carry my snips in my hip pocket and frequently remove stuff whenever I find it, rather than waiting until a certain time. Summer pruning is done as close to June 21 as possible, and I usually prune again in late autumn to remove the soft summer growth that would freeze and die back. My peaches only bloom on older wood anyway, so that tender stuff needs to go. Theyāre my only blooming/fruiting trees so far, although one of my brand-new dwarf pie cherries (dāArtagnon) had ONE bloom on its tip after a month or less in the ground - yay!
Anne Ralph recommends using standard-size rootstocks because theyāll have larger, hardier roots than dwarf or semi-dwarf. Pruning the top doesnāt affect the roots, but the roots sure affect the top, and having terrific roots will help the top survive other stresses. I have very few grafted trees (2 peaches, 2 pears, maybe the jujube) out of all the three yards full - I donāt have a total of the trees - it would probably scare me! (I also propagate various ornamentals and shade trees, but they donāt get pruned like the fruits.)
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Glad to hear youāre able to use the little fruit tree method on seedling rootstocks! Iām encouraged to keep moving forward with my plans!
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Hello!
Iāve been a lurker on the site for a few years, but since Iāve just closed on a house, I decided to make an official account. Iām located in a suburb outside of Philadelphia in zone 7b. I donāt have a huge amount of room, but Iād like to try to grow a peach tree or two and a couple of apples, maybe even some plums. I saw some people talking about āGrow a little fruit treeā which for someone in the suburbs, seems pretty great.
On top of gardening, I also really love native plants. Thereās a lot of great info here about low-impact spraying that Iāve appreciated in the past, and Iād like to keep an eye out for anything about IPM.
Nice to meet you all!
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Welcome @enfys , you have come to a great place for tons of information dealing with anything āfruitā and more.
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