Thanks Scott for this forum! I am the owner of a start-from-scratch fruit and berry farm in Zone 5A in Albion, Maine. We are going into our 5th year of growth for our 60 original high bush blueberry plants, 36 apple trees and 12 pear trees.
In year 2 we planted around 100 peach trees (half Reliance and half Contender)
We now have around 1550 blueberry bushes, 140 peach, 96 apple, 16 pear, 4 plum, and 2 apricot.
This spring we are replacing about 20 peach…some died and some have not grown well, have damage or bad growth patterns. We are also adding another 24 apple and 4 pear.
Personally my favorites are Patriot (big and tangy) and Bluecrop (best overall…the perfect berry IMO). Northland are very precocious and produce an abundance of smaller berries. And while I love the tall and sturdy bushes…I’m not too fond of Jersey…I find them to be soft and least flavorful of all of them. Elliott are great berries…big and flavorful…but they also ripen late…almost too late for my location.
I grow Liberty, Toro, and Chandler. I really have nothing to compare to, but I like them all. Toro is extremely sweet, even unripe berries are sweet. I also have Cara’s Choice, Sweetcrisp, Legacy, and Southmoon, but they are too young to comment on. I picked Sweetcrisp because it is just so unique even though a SHB, I had to grow it. Cara’s Choice was picked because the breeder who has Legacy, Sweetheart, Hannah’s Choice under his belt, and help release Raz and Pink Lemonade, was asked if he could pick one, what would it be? Cara’s Choice. Legacy is known for it’s good taste. Southmoon to pollinate Sweetcrisp, and for it’s highly unusual taste. It is a SHB rated to zone 6.
Thanks for the info on those NHB, I have added Bluecrop, Patriot, Elliot, and Northland to my want list!
I had Spartan in my list as an early over Patriot, because it is described as the best tasting early, but first hand experience counts. So now both on my want list.
I am, was, and will forever be John S, PDX OR. I am also on Home Orchard Society, Permies. com, and a few local sites.
You can blame Murky for getting me into Garden Web. Tony Tran told me about this move from Houzz. I think Scott may have emailed me also. Anyway, thank youse.
I was and still am the only one in my family of origin who gardens. Fortunately I married a good gardening girl, and our kids like to eat the fruit, but they don’t like to do the work (imagine!)
I am from here. I have been a schoolteacher for many years. I ran a gardening club for 10 years at the school. My principal started saying, “I don’t care about your gardening club. The only thing that matters is high test scores.” I care about kids learning, so I became a substitute teacher, with more time, less stress, more gardening and less money. I am much happier. I run a permaculture style orchard: No pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers. I let self-seeding leafy greens and edible weeds grow all across the garden. You can’t believe how much I save on vegetables as well as fruit, and now I’m growing mushrooms too, for soil health and personal consumption. Sorry no magic mushrooms, you’ll have to check with someone hipper and younger. I love doing experiments to find new ways to grow things. Thanks Scott for all of your previous, educated answers and for starting this site.
John S
PDX OR
Eric here from Malta, NY. MegaMav on GW and reincarnated the same here.
I run fruitgardener.wordpress.com, a personal blog on my apple growing adventures. I was a user on GardenWeb as well as Cloudforest Gardener. Im a small backyard grower of 5 apple trees, 5 pawpaws, 1 cherry and a red and black raspberry patch.
What I have on my trees:
Apples: Jonamac, Kidd’s Orange Red, Orleans Reinette, Reine des Reinettes, Calville Blanc d’Hiver, Belle de Boskoop, Freyberg. To be grafted: Pomme Gris and American Summer Pearmain
Pawpaws: Shenandoah, Susquehanna and NC-1
Cherry: To be grafted as Montmorency.
Tony reached out to me via email. Im thankful, because I was pretty disgusted with what GW did with advertising and their moderation is inconsistent and faceless. I couldnt even login again after I got the email!
This set up here is pretty nice, minimalist but functional.
Here’s to a new beginning and a tighter knit group. A fresh start! Lets go!
I guess I’d better introduce if I plan on making a nuisance of myself. I hail from central Ia., the Des Moines area. We have about 6 acres of z5a ground. 3/4 acre veg garden and 18 apples in the ground and an ups package due today from Cummins w/10 more trees and a bunch of rootstock. I have been in the green industry for 35 yrs.(turf). Last year I watched a video and decided to topwork a rome to baldwin and it actually worked!! I’m hooked. At Ia. State in the mid 70s, they had 2 lonesome espaliers trees against the old hort building east wall. It’s been my goal since to have espalier trees. We have 18 espalier spots now. I also like fresh eggs and honey. We have 50+ chikns and at one time 400+ bee colonies. When GW changed to houzz and all the info dried up in the fruit forum, I about cried. Thanks, Scott, Thanks for the work! Thanks also to the vast Knowledge from Alan, Olpea, Harvestman, and the others who know fruit so well. It seems we can ask almost anything and get an answer so quickly.
Glad to be a part, Phil.
When I get my kids to show me how to upload some pics I will.
I’m glad you finally got around to introducing yourself @Chikn . We have much less acreage in a suburban setting, but keep chickens, mostly Americauna, and beehives. Three to five hives is plenty for us. My neighbors would probably freak out if we kept hundreds. I hope yours were profitable.
I no longer do many bees, very expensive to keep and I can buy honey as good as mine (every beekeeper’s honey is the best he’s ever tasted ) from the big commercial keeper down the road. He also puts 20 colonies on my property free. Chickens are easy compared to bees.
After reading many of the intro posts here, I am finally getting around to writing one.
I’m relatively new to growing fruit. We planted almost a hundred trees about three years ago, and it’s been a learning process from the start.
At first I couldn’t understand why my hubby wanted so many apple trees (45) but after I started reading about varieties, I found myself with a growing list of apples I wanted to grow. Our first attempt last year at grafting, was so successful that I jumped in with both feet this year, and made some multigraft trees in the orchard, and also bought over 100 rootstocks, which I’m growing in the garden for now.
We have good soil here, and a nice growing season. (4400 ft in central AZ) but do get those late frosts. This year we have apples blooming, and stone fruit setting on the trees.
It’s a good place to grow up, and we’re raising six boys and two girls here with real, old fashioned chores.
We keep sheep, turkeys, ducks and a couple of mules. My husband has kept bees over the years, and now our oldest son is taking an interest in the bees.
That is the short version.
I’m very glad to be here, and appreciate all the shared knowledge of the many members.
Thanks Scott, for a great site!
Welcome to our forum, Jolene, and glad you posted a little bit about yourself. Us ladies are a little bit in the minority, so glad to see another gal on the list Glad to hear your boys have some “old fashioned” chores, too! We raised our 3 girls on a ranch or farm for most of their life. They got used to mucking stalls, feeding horses and donkeys, helping in the big veggie garden, etc. They are all grown into very responsible young adults and have a wonderful work ethic. A little hard work and dirt under the fingernails never hurt anyone, that’s a fact.
Glad to hear your boys have some “old fashioned” chores, too! We raised our 3 girls on a ranch or farm for most of their life. They got used to mucking stalls, feeding horses and donkeys, helping in the big veggie garden, etc. They are all grown into very responsible young adults and have a wonderful work ethic. A little hard work and dirt under the fingernails never hurt anyone, that’s a fact. 
