Welcome aboard Phil, I met you at one of the Atlanta Yahoo group scion exchanges a few years ago, got some persimmon wood from you.
Alan, a few weeks ago you could see a total of your GW posts over the years, I actually looked at yours out of curiosity and you were over 7K from what I could remember, I think Houzz must have removed that feature since then.
Hi Chris, Yes I remember. Think you emailed about a year ago and I replied think it was on persimmon as well. If the ATL group gets together this spring will have to see if I can make it.
Just want to say thanks to all the regs from GW, Iāve learned a lot from you and appreciate you sharing your knowledge, thanks to you too Scott, love the new site. I was mhayes8655 on GW (the crazy guy trying to grow peaches in Minnesota). My wife and I live in the burbs north of Minneapolis and have a sizable backyard garden and the last 3 years have added many berries and about 20 fruit trees. Our goal is to provide as much healthy, organic food as we possibly can out of our space, and we love being out there. Would like to move to northern Georgia or possibly even Puerto Rico in the next few years and get into this hobby even more. Look forward to exchanging ideas and opinions with all of you!
Phil,
Welcome on board. How are all your Kakis doing (30 +)? Cliff England got a couple of new hybrids that you may want to check them out. Kasandra and JT-02. So far both of them can handle the cold to-11F with no damage. Cliff loss most of his Kakis to the -11 to 12F last year.
Tony
Hi Tony,
I am below 30 cultivar still I know that, but somewhere
north of 20. I do have over 30
trees. I have lost some. I moved 2 years ago and tried to relocate all
that were small enough. They survived but really set them back. Hoping this
year they take off. I still have my one
other location and had some nice fruit from them this year.
I will emphasis as I have in the past they donāt like any
freezing weather after starting leaf out.
I saw at or near 0 F last year and again this week, and last year
everything seemed un-damaged by 0 F when fully dormant but damage from 20s
after breaking leaf. Itās a repeating
pattern for me and after this many years with them thought I would be further
along.
Yes I read about Cliffās Kaki Woes, disheartening for him
and all of us, as he was forefront in trying to bring us new selections. I hope to try both Kasandra and JT-02 soon. I
have not really added on much new beyond
figs and Pomegranates since relocating.
My wife thinks with the added space I should be a rancher so I have been putting up lots of fence and a
barn so her hobbies donāt eat mine.
Hi all. My name is Virginia, but you can call me Ginny please. I joined GW a number of years back, and my username is Michigandergardener. I participated once in a while on the heirloom and tomato forums. I love browsing other forums like the orchard, figs, antique roses, vegetable gardening and others.
I have been married to my husband for 34 years. We have four terrific kids, including my daughter-in-law. The other love of our life is our 5 year old grandson, who is smarter than a whip, loves to do magic tricks, and has a love for gardening and animals like his grandma. My husband and I live on a family farm that has been in his family over 100 years. They had a hog farm operation for many years up until just after my father-in-law passed away in 1985. Since then we had a few horses, ducks,
a few sheep, over 60 different heritage breeds of free range chickens ,which I started as a hobby , and raised. (I have a fondness for chickens and became addicted to all the wonderfull breeds.) The eggs are a bonus. I was raising a few to butcher, but silly me, I became too attached , so they lived on until a large den of fox had a feast with many of my beautiful chicken babies a few years ago. Only a few survived. We had some beautiful Alpine milking goats whom gave us some wonderfull raw milk for our family, and I made yogurt, ice cream and goats milk soap.
We live in a small log home our family built from dead standing cedar logs, that hubs great grandpa planted many years ago. They had a sawmill operation back in the day.
I always plant a garden, and everything is planted as natural and organic as possible. I grow a lot of heirloom fruits and vegetables. I started growing and getting interested in heirlooms over twenty years ago. I am a seed saver, and exchange heirloom tomato seeds across the globe, but mostly in the states. My husband and I built a 14x18 recycled, unheated greenhouse, from saved patio doors and windows. It extends our harvest a few months, and I have grapes growing and a semi dwarf reliance peach tree in a pot. I used to grow around 40 to 80+ different heirloom varieties of tomatoes a year, but am cutting way back now that I am getting older. We do have a small orchard. Besides gardening, I love to read, write in my journals, take lots of pictures, cook (I once owned and ran a small diner), fish and so much more. Last year I started an online permaculture and sustainable design class. I was half way finished when my dad took ill and needed a lot of therapy. I put classes on hold, and took care of him and his estate. He is much better now, and I am back to my online class. Hope to be finished in about a month.
A bit of my backgroundā¦I was born and raised in Southern Maryland. My grandpap and uncles raised tobacco, and I would hang out with them and watch them bundle up the tobacco and hang it up in the rafters of the barn to dry. They had gardens filled with collard greens, tomatoes and watermelons. My parents moved us to MI, where my dad was from. We had huge gardens and apple orchards all around us. In the summer, I would often take a book and crawl under our neighbors electric fence, then walk through the field to their ancient apple orchard, climbed up a tree, found a safe large branch to rest on, picked a still green apple to munch on, and read my book ā Rebbecca of Sunnybrook Farmsā, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I got many a stomach aches eating those green apples. But it was the solitude I craved, living with a family of eight. We had raspberry patches, strawberries and pear trees. Daddy would take us mushroom picking in the spring, drive us to a u-pick cherry orchard in the summer where us kids climbed up the ladders and picked sour cherries for hours. Then we went home and spent hours taking out the pits with a bobbie pin. Mom canned the cherries. We also had our favorite spots for picking wild blackberries by the bucketfull, wild blueberries which were all along the sides of the road, which sometimes we took to the little general store to make a bit of money.
My other set of grandparents lived a few miles from us and had huge gardens. They had a large raspberry patch and a field of strawberries which I helped them pick ,and made a nickle for every quart. They supplemented their income by selling their extra produce at a roadside stand.
Dad would take us up into the wilds of Canada yearly, before school started, where we camped and fished. You never had a real blueberry until you picked and tasted some of those wild berries up in Canada. Man were they ever good!
Getting back to us on the farmā¦We have grown lots of fruit trees and bushes over the years. We started out early in our marriage buying and ordering pears, apples,plums and cherries from Gurneys, but made the rookie mistake of not putting protection around them, so the deer and rabbits had a feast. We have learned a lot since then, and went through our share of trials and errors. We are stll learning. That is why I come to these forums. I have mostly been a lurker over the past few years, but feel like I know so many of you by your informative and helpfull posts. I want to try my hand at growing figs and other various fruit ,and grafting down the road. (We are currently adding another recycled gh which will be heated when needed). Hope to have it completed by early summer. Dont be surprised when I need to ask questions if needed.
I better sign off, I feel like I just wrote a bookā¦ 
Ginny
Welcome to the community.
Mike
Okay, I guess I should probably put a little ditty here about myself, although I think most of you know me 
My name is Patty, Iām an RN by trade, an Adv. Master Gardener (2003 Elkhart Co, Indiana, out of self-preservation). I was born and raised in Orange County, California, and grew up with a mom and dad who both were wonderful gardeners. Moved to N. Indiana in 1996 and lived there for 10 years in zone 5, which was not only a culture shock for this little surfer girl, but also a gardening shock! In order to figure out how to manage my yard, I decided to complete the Master Gardener program out of Elkhart Co (sponsored by Purdue Univ., the land grant university in Indiana). Then, we picked up sticks in 2006, and moved to Maryland for 3 years, then finally back home to S. California in 2009, settling in N. San Diego County, about 6-7 miles from the coast.
I live on an acre, have about 200 various fruit trees (stone fruits, pomes, citrus, bananas, guavas, pomegranates, grapes, passaflora, and figs). Have 3 grown daughters, one who has caught the gardening bug, and is developing a very nice green thumb. We have replaced our 3 grown daughters with 3 nice Australian Shepherd boys (had to get our boys one way or another).
I am still working full-time, trying to figure out how to stretch my watering to make it as efficient as possible, and reduce my $600 every other month water bill during the summer (can climb as high as $1200!!) Love to sink a well, but thatās a $10-20,000 venture here in S. California.
Very glad to see Scott launch this forum, and glad to see so many familiar faces, as well as get to know some news ones as well!
Patty S.
My name is Gary and I grew up in Central Texas where we always had a garden. I am married and we by 4 boys, ages ranging from 5 to 21. Even as a young child I always enjoyed planting things. We moved to a farm when I started high school. I got a BS in Ag. Education and stared work as a soil conservationist with USDA in 1985.
I started a garden of my own after I got married in 1990 and we stared a garden in West Texas. I even put in fruit trees, raspberries, and blackberries. We moved about a year after I put in the trees. I did notice that I liked to plant several varieties of tomatoes even though I just like tomatoes, not love them. I guess my compulsion is to see how the various plants perform. We moved to another town in West Texas that did not have as much room, then I transferred to the other end of the state to Beaumont about 15 years ago. Went from 24 inches a year to 60 inches of rain.
Being a soil conservationist worked against me because I know my soil is not good for any crop, except rice. I did discover that I could tomatoes in containers. Three years ago I planted 6 blueberries in containers and they did well. My wifeās health went downhill and she was on oxygen for about 18 months. I guess I realized life was short and if I wanted to plant fruit I should figure out how to do it. I really just wanted peaches and pluots at first. I bought 3 peach trees and had success. I guess I focused on the trees as a way of dealing with my wifeās illness. My wife received a lung transplant and is doing very well. I found GW and have really enjoyed the site. Sad to see it changed and that is why I came over here.
However, I still have my compulsion to grow various fruit trees. I would get bored in the hospital and order figs, blueberries or other fruit. I now have 13 peach and nectarines (7 in raised beds), 4 figs, 2 persimmons, 5 mandarins, 8 plums, 1 pluot, about 12 blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries. Oh yeah, and the Nadia Cherry plum that I got my wife for Valentines. My nine year old gets upset when I get a new tree but likes the fruit. He cannot play in the front yard but I promised him I would not plant any in the back yard
Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories. Iām really enjoying reading each new story.
Gary, I found your story about tomatoes interesting. I donāt like tomatoes at all. However, I started growing tomatoes in pots two years ago. About 12 varieties the first year. Last year I grew about 21 varieties in my garden. Even though I donāt like eating them, I really enjoy growing rare varieties in a multitude of colors. I give them away to family and friends and everyone loves them. This year, instead of doing a full garden, Iām just planting tomatoes and watermelon. Iāll eat the watermelon and give away the tomatoes!
Hereās a pic of a few from last year:
Hi Scott
I got in touch with Bass and he tried to register but couldnāt. Can you help him register. Thx
Tony
Tony as of an hour ago Bass had an active account so hopefully we will see him soon. Anyone with account issues can email info@growingfruit.org.
Scott
Hello All,
Iāve come a long way literally. Born and raised in a rural area of Thailand. Where I grew up, every family grew something; usually a combination of vegetables, herbs, fruit trees and flowers. I remembered helping my parents plant vegetables in plots we had in the back. We also had a very large mango tree in the front by a canal. My siblings, my friends and I climbed and jumped off from that tree into the canal. Life was good.
I saw my mother stick mango seeds in pots with moist soil. A few weeks later, we had mango seedlings. People bought her seedlings. Our mango variety was rare. Itās very sour when green and sweet with firm texture and distinct flavor when ripe. Iād say other people grew mangoes with an equivalent of red or golden delicious apples, we grew a Gold Rush of mango. Itās gone a long time now. I wish I had its seedling. In Thailand, common fruit such as mango, papaya, banana and guava are easily grown everywhere. All we did was stick a seed or a seedling in soil and water it. For the most part, no bugs, no disease. I thought growing fruit trees was easy.
I moved to Bangkok for education and later career. I lived with my sister in a small town house. She had a 3x10 ft plot of land in her front yard. She has crammed a rose apple, a papaya tree, various herbs, flowering plants like roses and jasmine in there. Thatās typical for those living a city who want to grow something. Meanwhile, I was busy studying and having a career. I did not pay much attention to growing anything.
Later, I came to the US for higher education. Got a Master Degree in Human Services, met my husband-to-be, got married, bought a house, settled down and had one girl. After 8 years of living in the home in a town in central MA, I decided to grow fruit trees against my husbandās advice. How hard would it be?
Quick answer; itās a lot harder than I imagine esp. when trying to grow them with no or little chemicals. I planted my first 3-1 apple tree in 2008. Soon after that I found Gardenweb. I read and learned but did not sign up until 2011. Iāve learned a lot just from reading. I remember a fellow poster, Glen R. of RI, who asked almost every question I wanted to ask but too timid to do so (thanks, Glen) and Jellyman who made me laugh at almost every answer he gave. What an experienced grower with a great sense of humor. Wish they posted again. Iāve read most posts daily. Itās fun to learn from others.
Iāve run out of the small growing space I have. Iāve started learning to graft to my existing trees. People here have been kind, generous and supportive. I hope this site will flourish and become a wonderful fruit growing resource for both newbies and experienced growers.
Ma-muang is a Thai word. It means mango. Iāve chosen it for a fond memory of my late mother and my childhood.
Mamuang
Mamuang, what a lovely story and beautiful name. Your name had to mean something special!
Mrs. G.,
Thank you. Mamuang is my screen name. I do not want to post my real name here for a personal reason.
Mamunag,
That was an especially nice story. Thanks for sharing it.
Mamunag, I loved the story and your screen name also, almost as much as I love actual mangoes. My brother has a large home orchard in Hawaii and grows several types. Heād like to have one of your special strain, Iām sure.
That is a cool story and I donāt know why, but I always thought you were a guy. Sorry, not sure why I thought that. My wife is Filipino and just like in Thailand, those who grow stuff in the Philippines do so in a community garden or in pots on their steps. Very few in the large cities like where my wife is from have any lawn or yard at all.
All her family there dream of it though.
Olpea, Alan and Appleseed - Thank you for your kind words. We visit Thailand every other year so I still feel connected.
Alan - My brother still lives in that village. Iāll ask if heād check around to see anyone has grown that variety. Your brother will like this mango. He probably cannot sell it since itās small. New mango varieties these days are a lot bigger than in the past.
Appleseed, because being islands, the Phillipines have far fewer flat land than Thailand. Except for Bangkok where land is more expensive than gold (literally), we have land to grow things everywhere else.
Also, among Southeast and Far east Asians, Thai and Phillipino people are those who look so much alike. Generally speaking, we canāt tell each other apart except for when we speak. One speak English/Tagalog, the other speak Thai. Your wife probably agree.
My brother doesnāt sell them but they are his favorite fruit. He doesnāt harvest them consistently because of frequent rains on his side of of the island he lives on although he has a new strain that is resistant to the rot the flowers often get. I think heād try a seed of yours if I talked him into it. He doesnāt care much about size.
