Welcome Alex. Lots of good people here and very useful information. Enjoy!
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Hi all,
New guy here, and really excited to have found this forum. I live in Pittsburgh, PA (zone 6B) and am a lucky owner of a decent sized, topographically challenging, neglected by the previous owner urban backyard. Since moving in last spring we have almost finished fencing in said yard, put some raised beds in (more to come) and are awaiting the arrival of the first trees and plants.
So far, I’ve ordered six varieties of apple trees (five dwarf ones will be espaliered along the fence, the Arkansas Black semi-dwarf will be free standing), a quince, a self-pollinating sweet cherry, raspberry plants, strawberries, asparagus and rhubarb, in addition to some annual crops grown from seeds. I have to sit on my hands not to order more trees untill i have the initial batch in the ground. I am also looking forward to try my hand at grafting, which I haven’t done before.
I look forward to learning from this great resource.
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Welcome @urbangardener! The pictures of your raised beds, fence, etc are really nice! You do good work! Sounds like you are off to a great start. You will find so much helpful information here.
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Welcome Alex!
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Welcome Alex (again)! I lived in Pittsburgh for several years and I still miss the city. This is a great forum to learn a lot about fruits and gardening. Looking forward to your updates on your espalier trees.
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Welcome!
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I’m in San Mateo and used to live in Sunnyvale. You can grow just about anything there - from citrus to Avocados to any stone fruit, apples, etc. Sweet Cherries of course do very well as Sunnyvale used to be home to one of the largest cherry growers in the state. Good luck!
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Welcome. A friend of mine from Pittsburgh grows a rooftop garden, but no fruit trees up there.
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Hi there everyone,
Wanted to say hi and introduce myself. I’m in Central Illinois (Zone 5b), with a couple of acres land. A couple of years ago we planted a dozen or so trees (apples, pears, plum, quince, mulberry, medlar, persimmon). I decided to expand the orchard this year and have spent the past few days grafting. (I did 30 apples and 20 pears already and will do 10 plums, 5 quince, and 5 medlar in the days to come. This is my first time bench-grafting so I’m waiting anxiously to see how many take 
).
Anyway, in the course of looking up info on grafting techniques, I came across this forum and after lurking and repeatedly sucked into interesting threads, I decided to join and am excited to learn so much more.
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Welcome Jaime!
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That is definitely an expansion!! Good luck with it and WELCOME!!
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Hi there, I live in the Pacific Northwest, zone 8a with maritime influence growing on about 0.5 acres and trying to cram as much into that space as possible. Goal is to shape fruit trees in dwarf form and use close spacing as in the book Grow a Little Fruit Tree by Ann Ralph. List of currently growing /will plant this year:
2 old Apple trees and one old cherry, unknown varieties and not producing very much. Nostalgia trees.
Liberty Apple
Akane apple
Lapins cherry
Montmorency cherry
Vandalay cherry
Black Forest cherry
Frost peach
Summer Salish peach
Pacific Pride Nectarine
Elephant Heart Plum
Satsuma Plum
Toka Plum
Imperial epineuse plum
Cathay Quince
ECOS pear
Mulberries (M. alba seedlings)
Blueberries (Hardiblue, Earliblue, Spartan, Darrow, Chandler, Draper, Legacy)
Raspberries
Blackberries
Strawberries
Honeyberries (6) (Keiko, Taka, )
Serviceberries (2)
Blue Elderberry (1)
Black Elderberries (2) (Korsor, Cutleaf)
Gooseberries (Jahn’s Prairie, Invicta, Friend, Black Gooseberry)
Currants (White Imperial, Gloire de Sablons, Jonkheer Van Tets, Unknown Black Currant)
Red Gem Goumi
Puget Gold Apricot
A.C. Sweet Pomegranate
Early Golden American persimmon
Saijo Asian persimmon
Paw paw unnamed seedlings (2)
Lingonberries (Koralle, Erntesegan)
Orange Glow and Male Seaberries
Muscat Grape
Chico 74-49 and Male Hardy Kiwi
Passionflower (P. incarnata)
Akebia (ornamental variety, very bland fruits)
Magnolia vine
Figs in pots (Desert King, Latarula)
Olives in pots
Citrus in pots (Kishu Mandarin, Improved Meyer Lemon, Bearss Lime)
Flying Dragon Trifoliate Orange
Babaco Papaya in a pot
Caper Bush
Sechuan/Sansho peppers
Phoenix Tears Goji berry
Hazelnuts (Jefferson, Eta, Yamhill)
English walnut
Evergreen huckleberry
Salmonberry
Red huckleberry, salal, thimbleberry growing wild
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Welcome Margaret!
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Welcome Margaret. Lots of great people and helpful information to be had here.
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Hello Letsski,
Thanks for saying hi–I got a notice about your post but I haven’t logged in until now. I have stayed in this house longer than expected, I should have planted some trees in the ground earlier. Currently I have an apricot in ground and some citrus in pots. Trees (in ground) grow so fast here.
I did plant some trees in Yuba City that have had good success, and we have friends here with navel oranges, figs, lemons, apricots so we are well stocked.
I just planted a bunch of sprouting pawpaw seeds in pots, I bought some pawpaws to eat at Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill last September and kept the seeds in a bag with soil in the fridge all winter. I moved the seeds to a dark cabinet about 6 weeks ago, and 5 out of 40 seeds have started sprouting, I planted them. I will look for your other posts and see what you are growing.
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Hi,
I am a backyard gardener from southwestern Ontario Zone 6b. Trying to cram as much as possible in my backyard. Just planted Apples/Pears/Apricots and Peaches. Hoping to figure out what grows best/easiest in my climate and grow more of that.
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Hi, I’m in Delaware zone 7B. We have a small orchard on about a quarter acre of our 5 acre parcel. We started it 3 years ago and have added more trees each year. We have a total of 38 trees now, mostly dwarf and semi-dwarf. 12 peaches, 14 apples, 5 cherries, 3 pears, 2 plums, & 2 hazelnuts. We have yet to get a crop of anything yet. The first 2 years were a lesson in spraying for me. Last year despite spraying, I still got hit hard by the oriental fruit moth and lost all of my peaches. This is my first year getting a significant number of apple blossoms so I’m hoping for more success this year. I’m also going to try bagging fruit for the first time. I’ve been browsing the forum for a couple months and have found it incredibly helpful. Thank you all for your help so far!
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