Hey all, so nice to hear your stories, and I like that this is a more personal site. I grew up in Berkeley in a small house with a little yard in which my parents tried to grow fruit, but usually failed. I think that gave me a desire to get it right—that and having had access to delicious, juicy tree-ripened apricots for a few years in childhood. But I didn’t have my own yard until recently, so now the fun is starting! I spent most of my life painting landscapes (outdoors) and playing music, while working in social services to support myself. I had a midlife crisis in my early forties and decided to go to college, and I liked it, so I’m now in a sociology PhD program. Thank goodness I’m done with coursework so I can live at home in California. However, my obsession with fruit trees is slowing down my progress toward a finished dissertation. (Gardening is less stressful than grad school.) Our yard had an older, mistreated Winter Nelis pear and a similarly abused Gravenstein apple when we moved in five years ago, both of which I am working on reviving. I’ve also planted two avocados, Pinkerton and Reed, a Frost peach, Desert King fig, Katy apricot, Fuyu persimmon, and a Seckel pear, all three years old, and a Lapins cherry and Mirabelle plum that I put in just this winter, as well as a new Honey Babe dwarf peach and a Black Jack fig that I just put in large pots. I chose my fruit trees before I started reading fruit forums, and wish I’d known more when I chose them, but I’m going to be doing my first grafting this spring to make up for that! I have an unknown variety of peach that I grew from seed and had been dragging around in a pot, but I planted it immediately upon moving here, and it now has a very strong root system. I’ll be topworking almost the whole thing this spring. I’m married to a wonderful but non-gardening fellow who eats lots of blueberries, so I’ve got eight blueberry bushes, planted three years ago. I’m finally allowing it to fruit this spring. We have no kids, alas, but a lovable, aged, ex-alley cat who has arthritis, asthma, diabetes in remission, and kidney problems. If I’m not tending my trees I’m tending my cat! Thanks to all of you for sharing your knowledge. I’ve already learned so much from reading (the former) GW and asking questions.
Welcome Bob. I am glad you made it here.
Tony
Hi, All. I am Annie. I kind went into the backdoor, went to wrong thread and wrote something, I now formally step into the front door and introduce myself to Scott’s forum. I am a member of GW and have been lurking at GW for years and learned a lot from the GW . I used to check the posts everyday till the company installed a filter and filter out social media, etc. none work related web site.
I am an electrical engineer by education but do a lot of BS in business now. I read many of you had grown something in childhood, or watched family members grew plants/trees. I have none of that, I grew up in a city , had never grow a blade of grass when i was growing up. However, I did built a radio started from scratch when I was 7. Don’t think I was smart, I just followed instruction. For some reason, I am always interested in how to grow things . I started with a veggie garden which is simple to do. spending $$$ bought seeds, sweating every summer night watering, but I still go the grocery store to buy most of my veggies. Waste of money? No, it took my stress out and burnt extra calories . I enjoy the gardening experience very much. Every spring, I can’t wait to start the cycle all over again. One would be wondering why my garden does not produce enough, well, the secret is that I spend about almost month on vocation some where out of country every summer. All live things are on auto sprinkle and they do not look very happy to see me when I am back.
I am a dog person by born but ruled by a tom cat. Every time I came back from vocation, I told my cat that I will stay home with him all summer next year. The cat knows I am lying 
, someone else will come to give his water and food twice a week and left him no one to talk to again. I promise that I will try to stay home this summer attend my garden and my cat.
My Interesting in fruits tree started with potted citrus, 10-15 yrs ago, in Kumquats, which is very easy to grow and very ornamental. Once this is started, like most of us here, can’t stop growing more and more…So far my back yard is full , well, not really, I can always squeeze another one into it just like my closet 
I have couple of peach tree, a nectar, a sweet cheery, two Asian pear, an apricot, and two J, plum , a mulberry and some fig trees in ground and in pot. I also have some current and goose berries. The list will get longer for sure as year goes by. Besides the fruit trees, I also grow few orchids which cheer me up in such a plain winter day.
This year, I plan to practice grafting for the first time. I think it will be very fun thing to do. I will ask a lot of question in the forum and hope you will help me out.
Enjoy growing things!
Hi all! Just got a chance to respond here, signed up a few days ago as another refugee from Houzz. Appreciate the new forum, Scott.
I am 59 y o, been gardening my whole adult life, and started with fruit trees in about 1987 - 2 houses ago. I now have a small orchard of peaches, apples, Euro and Japanese plums, pears, a nectarine, an apricot, a pluot, plus some raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. My grape vines are in poor condition but rehabilatable. Over half of the fruit trees have been planted in just the past 2 years, so no fruit on some yet, and still have room for several more. My latest fruit additions are figs, most of which will be grown in pots.
I have really appreciated the things I have learned from the experts on the former GardenWeb orchard forum, hope to continue my education here.
Ed
EDIT: not sure how this old avatar appeared - I used it on a gaming forum about 10-12 years ago??? Guess I will keep it for now.
Welcome aboard. Happy you found us.
Mike
Welcome Ed! The avatar was pulled from gravatar.com, you must have set up an avatar there at some point. If you want to change, just go into your preferences here. Or upload a new one at gravatar.
Scott
Hello Everyone! I’m so happy I found this forum on Fruit Growing.
My wife and I bought some land in the country just outside Greensboro, NC in 1982 and planted two acres of Blackberry and two acres of Blueberry. In the beginning, we had no clue what we were doing but we learned by trial and error. We sold this fruit PYO and at several Farmers Markets for about 10 years. I recently retired and we revamped the berries and added Apples and Peaches. Local food is a lot more popular than it used to be and we are hoping to have a lot of fun and make a moderate profit selling the fruit directly from the farm. So far we have learned that Apples and Peaches are lot harder to grow than Blueberry and Blackberry!
Welcome Aboard. I wish I could say the same, but for me, blueberries and blackberries are harder
to grow than apples and peaches. Maybe we learn from each other.
Ray
Hi everyone, I’m glad to have found this site. I have been a GW member but was more of a lurker than a contributor.
I look forward to participating more frequently in this forum.
Z…
Good to have you here.
Please realize that JUST BY ASKING a question you contribute. By coming up with an answer the responder also benefits. Formulating an answer causes the mental juices to flow bringing up old forgotten memories, facts and contexts.
So asking and partaking is also contributing.
Mike
We should frame that and put it somewhere. For several years I learned by asking questions, then I learned a lot more by switching to answering them 
Scott
I did not copyright it, so … so have at it.
Mike 
Hi Mike & Scott,
I’ll keep that in mind…
Hi Growing Fruit Forum.
I was on GW as Bear_with_me and figs4fun forum as eukofios. I’m not super active on those forums but have learned a lot and try to contribute from time to time. I’m quitting Houzz due to the format, and fig forum because my interest in that one has declined.
I have a growing home orchard vs. “food forest” in Battleground WA, which is about zone 7b or 8a. Battleground has a maritime Pacific NW climate, with cool summer, rainy chilly fall and spring, and occasional cold spell in winter.
My fruit trees range from just-planted, to about 7 years old. Among them, Euro plums, Asian plums, peaches, paw paws, persimmons, apples, pears, Asian pears, mulberry, tart and sweet cherries, figs, grapes. Almost all of the figs, I started from cuttings. I have been grafting scion onto the apples, pears, and plums, for a couple of years. Almost all of my apples, pears, and Asian pears are multigrafts. I have yet to taste my own paw paws (3rd year) and persimmons (3rd year), so I hope this is the year they start to bear.
In my climate, the Asian plums often bloom before a freeze, the peaches can be devastated by leaf curl, and deer eat about anything that is not fenced in. Apricots do not survive here - 5 tries - and next try is to grow a genetic dwarf one in a container.
I am a novice beekeeper. Very happy they survived and stayed in their hive over the winter, now out buzzing around on warm days.
My garden diary is a blog, http://growinggreener.blogspot.com/ no ads, completely noncommercial, just a notebook of what is going on in my garden and what I am thinking about, garden-wise.
I hope to see some interesting topics here.
Peace and happy gardening.
Daniel.
Welcome Daniel. We glad that you joined.
Tony
Scott here, was Chills on both f4f and GW.
I live in a part of Michigan which places me directly north of Canada, and since I’m close to a lake its not a bad place to be. I am originally from Rhode Island, but I’ve been here gardening for nearly 20 years.
My 1/8th acre is densely planted with mostly edibles and while I love the obsession I really need to get better at pruning and controlling the growth so that I can better harvest my fruit.
I would list out what I have, but suffice it to say that if it possibly could be grown in my zone 6b (ish) area that I’ve tried it, killed it or still have it. I still place an order each year, but every new plant I bring in means something else has to go (my wife hides during those two weeks when new plants arrive, she is also on the fence about me getting bees)
I am a high school math teacher most of the year, but come June all I do is wander my garden and play with the kids (now 10, 12, 14, and 21). I started a blog a year and a half ago with the goal of writing about my teaching and gardening, but math has pretty much been all I have had the time to write about.
The school in which I teach has a huge immigrant population from Bangladesh, India, Iran, Pakistan and other places. Fruit is a good way to connect with these students. My Bengali students were shocked I knew what a Jujube was, and even more surprised that they can grow in Michigan.
Anyone local (or crazy enough to drive) willing to help with my pruning (or better yet, help me learn to prune properly) will be sent home with as much scion wood, cuttings , etc… (just kidding…ok, not really)
Scott
Hey Scott! I’m learning myself, I’m probably the closest person to you. Although we have a few from Mi here. I’m in Sterling Heights. I would help but I barely know what I’m doing, and don’t know much about apples. Other stuff yes. But like say trying to bring something under control, not sure? My trees were pruned from the start. None are that old except one cherry tree.
Just ask here about what you need we can guide you. Scion wood sounds good though! I don’t need any this year, but yeah in the future, that would be cool! I grow blueberries, currants, peaches, plums, pluots, blackberries, honeyberries, elderberries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries and various vegetables.
Thank you Scott for making this forum available to us. My name is Richard Stephens - online name of Letsski, another refugee of GW. I am a 55 year old married father of two daughters. The youngest played basketball for UC Davis, an ag. school/resource mentioned on the GW site many times. I own a Printing Brokerage business that helps pay for my Fruit hobby.
I live in the SF Bay area on a 1/3 acre suburban lot in an Eichler home. I have 27 fruit trees - Apple, Pleach, Cherry, Nectarine, Almond plus many citrus and two Avocados. Also have a decent vegetable garden with Asparagus and the usual assortment of Tomatoes and such.
Throughly enjoy learning from all of you.
Drew. Practically neighbors. I’m in Saint Clair Shores. My apples aren’t what I really need help pruning. Any interest in hardy kiwi cuttings, as many as you want? I’ve had great success rooting cuttings and would be happy to share!
I’ve got cherries, apples, a Seckel pear, an Asian pear (Yoinashi), figs (20+ varieties), 4 jujubes, blueberries, 2 mulberries (IE and Sweet Lavender), Che, passionflower (incarnata and 3 others), poncirus, goumi, named autumn olives, sea berries, named saskatoons, hazelnuts, grapes, 4 different kinds of pawpaws, many currants (clove, black, red, white), cornelian cherries, blackberries, raspberries… I’m sure I’m missing some things.
I’ve even got an Australian finger lime and meyer lemon and other plants that come in and go out with the seasons.
I was over on the other site a couple days ago and saw Tony mention this site so I thought I’d have a look-see.
I honestly wasn’t in love with the changes over there, but I thought my issues we mainly because I’m kind of a Dinosaur and that eventually I’d maybe get more used to it.
But when I took a peek and saw all the big hitters were over here, I didn’t feel so abandoned…
WOW, what an awesome alternative! I once again have a one-stop-shop with all the experts I’ve come to rely on so much.
So thank you for making this happen Scott!!!