Tell us more . Please .
What are you growing, / wanting to grow.
What have you had good / bad luck with ?
We want to know !
Please tell ……
Or even a good fishing story ?
1 Like
I hope you don’t mind me reminding everyone that this is an Introduction thread.
Please keep the content of the thread to be mainly introduction. For further info or inquiry, please create a new thread to discuss it in an appropriate category.
The thread itself is very long already. Thank you.
1 Like
I’m terrible at moderation so I basically have tried to plant a bit of everything… Amongst the few hundred fruit trees planted in the last 2 years have been Apples, Pears, Plums, Persimmon, Pawpaw, Jujube, Mulberry… probably more ! This year we were lucky enough to have a few Asian pears, both Shinseiki and Chojuro have fruited. Also grew our first apple, a lonely Northern Spy on B9 rootstock. Blueberries are super easy to grow here as have been currants, gooseberries, and honeyberries… Wildlife has been the biggest challenge. Lots of deer and rabbits!!
5 Likes
Sounds like you found the place you belong. Welcome to the forum!
3 Likes
Hello all,
Here from zone 6a in Ohio/Great Lakes region. I have used this forum as a resource for a few years now and finally decided to formally join. I am an avid grower of annual plants and have containerized trees/bushes including but not limited to apple, jujube, kaki persimmon, fig, blueberry, japanese plums, hardy kiwi as well as lemon and lime trees - everything grown with varying degrees of success and fruiting, lots of learning along the way. I am fairly low spray. Our newest home has a decent amount of land and a small pawpaw grove; I am hoping to finally establish an in-ground orchard and raised beds. My current dilemmas include fall planting/overwinter plans, learning our new land well, and setting the stage for a great season next spring. I have propagated leafy plants and figs and am interested in learning the art of grafting. Glad to be here.
13 Likes
Hi Geri! You are a ‘fun’ writer as well as a wonderful gardener! Welcome to ‘Growing Fruit’! - Karen in VA AKA ‘Pomgranny’.
1 Like
Hi, I’ve been off the forum for a while having broken a wrist in June and dealing with everything life has been throwing. How sweet to find your note. Hope you are well. – geri
3 Likes
Hello y’all, I am Adam and am new to the forum. Big thanks to Scott for creating this place and to my longtime friend Melinda for suggesting I look up a “facebook group called southern pears interest group or something like that”.
I eschew Facebook/social media, but my quick search led me to this forum instead, and the first 2 threads that I delved into were concerning growing plums here in the south and one about growing pears here. Very important as I am here in the heat and humidity of Georgia, North of Atlanta, Zone 7b, and I am so glad to have found y’all.
I was never big into growing fruit trees, but after my (now ex) wife and I purchased a house on roughly an acre of land I returned to my roots as a gardener. There were 5 well established plum trees that barely bore any fruit, a couple of volunteer elderberries, and a peach that had sprouted from a pit discarded in the past. I slowly created several terraced vegetable gardens to try to tame the elevation changes that were inherent on the property.
As time wore on and I managed to clear the land that had been left to it’s own devices by the previous homeowners, I was able to get 25 free tandem axle dump truck loads of topsoil delivered and spread in our front yard to fill the valley that was there, planted 72 raspberries of 3 varieties, 6 bronze muscadines of 3 varieties, an untold number of strawberries, and was laying out a plan for figs, Asian persimmons and peaches. Then circumstances in my marriage changed.
Here I find myself several years later. In May I purchased 2.3 acres of land, almost entirely covered in trees, with an absolutely beautiful creek running right through the property. Since I do not have the money to build my Rural Studios home yet, I am pouring ALL of my energy into developing the ~338 feet of frontage for fruit and vegetable production. Roughly 1/3 of an acre is designated for 8 bronze muscadines of 4 varieties, crabapple, serviceberry, Asian persimmons, Asian and European pears, figs, and plums. I have decided against peaches, as I am not a fan of using chemicals.
I air layered my mother’s fig (now roughly 30 years old) and have those cuttings potted up, as well as ordered my bronze muscadines.
I had spent lots of time selecting my astringent Asian persimmons, plums, additional fig varieties to purchase cuttings of, narrowing down my peach selection, expanding my plans to include Concord grapes and then pears, and in the process found out from friends John and Melinda (way ahead of me with their orchard) that there are some things I hadn’t considered. I dropped those peaches and Concords, and after reading so much from @coolmantoole and @haldog I feel much better educated for plum and pear selection, having thrown away every single variety that I formerly had, recognizing them as unsuitable for my climate. Oh, and I recently collected about 650 chestnuts from a customer’s house and have them cold stratifying to plant as understory trees on the other side of my creek.
I look forward to all of our time together sharing and gleaning advice. My property in Cherokee County is always open for friends to come visit, and I hope that y’all can help me find the varieties of trees that I am looking for in order to help make my dream a reality. Thank you.
13 Likes
Welcome to the forum. This winter I’ll have plenty of scionwood from various plums and a few pears, if you’re interested. @Auburn is another person on the forum with similar climate, pests, and disease issues who shares some of your interests.
2 Likes
I would love that. @Auburn contributed a lot of helpful information to the discussions. Chickasaw type plums are now at the top of my list, as well as selecting fireblight resistant pears. Saijo and Giombo are the Asian persimmons that I settled on when I was researching the astringent versus non-astringent varieties. I’ve eaten my fair share of the native varieties that come ripe and drop all over in September in this area.
1 Like
Hello friends, I am Rahul, it’s been great here pleasure for me I have read many discussion I have gained many things.
7 Likes
Welcome, Rahul!
Hi everyone,
I’ve been lurking and reading the forum for some time now and decided it was probably time to join. A couple years ago I added a few apple trees to my yard, and have been adding a tree here and there since. I have a 0.4 acre city lot. I now have 5 apples (McIntosh, Honeycrisp, Empire, Gala and Fuji), 2 pears (Bosc and a 2in1 asian pear [Chojuro and Drippin Honey]), 3 Redhaven peaches that barely grew this year, 2 manchurian apricots, a Rose Princess nectarine and a Santa Rosa plum. A few berries: blueberry, Honey berry, gooseberry and strawberries. I also have about 23 figs in pots, but of only 3 varieties: Chicago Hardy, Green Ischia and Celeste. I found 30 cuttings for $30 and couldn’t pass it up, but of only 3 varieties.
Before finding this forum, i mostly bought what ever the big box store had, but have since gotten more particular about which varieties i want to add. This year I want to add a couple plums more suitable to my area probably black ice and toka, maybe Dapple Dandy pluot. And a couple more pears. I might try a potted citrus as well, and may add another fig variety or two. My growing area is limited by shade trees but I still have a few spots that get 6-8 hours of sun.
10 Likes
Welcome Justin! Looks like you have just enough space! You in Michigan?
Yes, I’m in the Lansing area.
I’m west of you in Holland/saugatuck area. I also have chojuro and just got dripping honey. Should be eating in a couple years. Hopefully you have no deer!
Hi All! I’ve been reading and catching up on old topics for awhile now and am really impressed with this community. My name is Nathan and I live & garden on the south end of Kansas City, zone 6. I’m in my mid 40’s and stay busy with business and kids, but love to be in nature and grow plants and animals. I have a big (for suburbia) garden at home with a small orchard, and a lot more projects on a small farm about 15 minutes away. We had a big garden and canned food growing up and while I know I complained at the time about helping, I guess it grew on me because I do the same & more now.
I’ve always had a handful of fruit trees but really started getting interested in the universe of varieties out there around 10 years ago. I’m lucky enough to be in an area with good growing opportunities and access to resources & inspiration from people in the area. I started expanding the orchard buying trees from 39th Parallel, and talked more with Mike who encouraged me to try grafting. That was great and opened up a whole world of possibilities, and I highly encourage folks to buy from him. I’ve also been inspired by Steven Edholm (Skillcult) and his apple breeding projects where I’ve grafted some of his varieties and am in the first year of growing some seedlings from his intentional crosses. At this point, I probably have north of 150 apple trees in the ground with unique varieties plus a growing number of frankentrees with backup grafts & varieties I want to try but not commit much to. I’d guess another few dozen pear trees, both European and Asian varieties, and have been expanding that by top working callery growing in my pasture at the farm. I don’t have any real aspirations of commercial production, but I suppose down the road I’ll have to find people to buy / share fruit with. I’m still working to get past my disdain for spraying, but the need is pretty clear to me at this point and I just need to get better at it.
Beyond the apples and pears, I have jujube, peaches, cherries, currants, goji, aronia, persimmons, blackberries, elderberries and plums. I have native hazelnuts that produce and should see some improved variety production starting next year. The farm also has mature pecans along the border that date back to the 1940’s based on what I can tell from old aerial photos from the county. They produce a lot of small but tasty pecans and the squirrels have helped me get seedlings planted all over the place. A friend turned me on to Bill Reid’s work and I started grafting some improved varieties a few years ago and got my first few nuts from that work this season - it was awesome and there should be a lot of pecans in my future even the planting isn’t to commercial design.
I view a lot of these projects as long-term investments, and even though it’s a lot of work for little reward now, I’m learning and having fun. At some point when I have more time there should be a lot to enjoy.
For livestock, I keep chickens for eggs & have raised them for meat in the past. I also keep bees and should bring around 25 hives through the winter. I’ve been getting better at making my own queens and keeping everybody alive year to year, so now it’s just a matter of keeping that project at a reasonable size. I took on some cattle for the farm too and rotate them around using electric fence paddocks and I’ve already seen improvement in the variety and density of growth in the pasture. Plenty of learning on that too, but it should get easier from here on.
When I first start reading here I came across the saying “why just do it when you can overdo it” and I thought that fit me well. I’ve never been big on social media but I try to keep up here and will be happy to help however I can within reason. Thank you all for sharing and hopefully I can do my part in the future too.
18 Likes
WoW!!!
YOU GO!!!
Nathan, a warm welcome with best wishes and prayers for a blessed and contended farm operation.
@nhaskins Quote above just hit me. Thanks for posting.
Nathan, I would like to pick your brain on livestock
Chickens: We have over a dozen chickens for eggs for the past 3 years and now the production is almost nil. How do you handle when chickens stop laying eggs, additional light during winter etc. My kids won’t let me eat them as they are all named pets. I also want to keep meat chickens away from the animal pen but predators stop me from doing so. Have you ever free ranged them in your orchard etc.
Beehive Management: Please write a post on hive management. I have 3 hives and with traps on my farm every year I catch 2-3 swarms but loose them to poor management.
Cattle: I aspire to have a few heads of cattle for meat and dairy. All ears to words of wisdom for fence management and other aspects to consider. We have 2 Nubian goats (Pets again) and I would like to have a small herd for both meat and dairy also.
4 Likes
Love it all!