Hello and thank you all for your knowledge and expertise on growing fruit! I hope my intro post is in the right section, if not I apologize but I just wanted to give an introduction and explain a bit about my little orchard project this past season.
I am in zone 7a, and my backyard leaves a lot to be desired in terms of aesthetics but plants and trees seem to love the soil. It’s sandy, but with good amendments most things take off. I wanted to bring a bit of life to the backyard so my wife and I decided to start a mini orchard. Seems to be the fad these days right? So far we have:
Red Haven Peaches (3)
Winesap Apples (3) - needs a pollinator, my parents have some variety of self-fertile apple tree. Nobody is really sure what it is. I was considering grafting onto a rootstock of one of my existing trees to assist with the pollination. Seemed like a fun experiment.
Meyer Lemon - potted
Russian Pomegranate - potted
Berry Patch:
Pink Lemonade Blueberry
Patriot Blueberry
American Cranberry (ground cover)
Heritage Raspberry
Canby Raspberry
The trees have taken off tremendously. The ones in the ground were all bare root, the potted ones were seedlings. The trunks at least doubled in size and are already at a point where I need to prune for an open center on the peaches. I got a hefty crop of Heritage raspberries which was surprising year 1. Not sure how old the canes were when I got the plant.
The life an orchard can give a backyard even year 1 is tremendous. There have been challenges, like battling apple aphids in what seems like perpetuity of the season, but documenting the progress is a confidence builder.
This orchard on top of just a general vegetable garden and a front yard meadow/pollinator attractor project kept us busy since early March. It’s a ton of work, but I really did discover a passion I didn’t know I had until I got started.
Welcome dj! What general area are you in? I’m impressed when folks have good success from the beginning. We are in S. Texas with depleted range soil, so things happen more slowly for us. Glad you are here! D
Thank you for the kind welcome! It has taken a good amount of lurking, YouTubing, etc. to be successful. And of course, things can change very quickly, but I do feel like I am ahead and am able to react to any challenges which is a nice feeling! I am in the Northeast USA, surrounded by beautiful commercial and residential orchards. I’m lucky, I don’t have to go far to support local nurseries and they are pretty good at only stocking stuff that is hardy in my zone.
I am not expecting 100% success, so that’s why I frontloaded a lot of stuff now, but I am very happy with the progress!
Thank you all for the kind words. I will post some pics as I get them and hopefully keep tabs on my progress moving forward. Looking forward to learning and growing (literally)!
I am trying to convince my parents to join the forum. They have a nice small orchard. Apple, peaches, berries. Tis the season they give me apples. It was a big box store buy but everyone forgot the cultivar. Might be a mislabel. Ugly but tasty apple. Anyone have an idea what this one could be? It’s the only apple tree on their property with none nearby.
If you aren’t planning to do a lot of canning, and all at once, having 3 peach trees of the same variety may not be the best thing for you. When trees mature in about 5 years they should bear bushels and bushels of fruit and, to many, the most enjoyable use of the fruit is eating it fresh. In my nursery most of the peach trees I sell have a scaffold branch of a separate variety because it would otherwise require about 6 trees to span the entire potential harvest season.
The solution for you would seem to be to learn how to graft… not a very difficult feat if you follow recs on this forum.
Hey Alan, I have been seeing your posts throughout my reading here on the forum and your knowledge is really appreciated. You have a lot of good advice. I have not tried to graft yet, but like above I think my first attempt will be to try and graft that apple tree from my parents onto one of mine. I’m not expecting much because we don’t even know what it is. I feel confident enough to try a graft after reading here and watching videos. You’re right though, and having a frankentree is definitely something I am interested in and I know will benefit my orcahrd. I still need to get some good photos to attach here and document my progress.
Eventually, I do want to spread out my harvest for my prunus like I am doing with my berries. My main goal is fresh eating and brewing my summer wheat beer except with my own fruit. It’s been fun. Always something to learn!
That would be pretty cool! They are delicious apples, I am planning on juicing the rest and making an apple ale with them. I am confident it will be totally delicious!
Well, the apple ale wasn’t all that great unfortunately, but the apples themselves were delicious!
Back to the orchard, it looks like we are hitting that dormancy point so I can get a good look at what I want to prune before early Spring (always thinking ahead). I brought my Meyer Lemon inside, and it didn’t like the location change but I do have it in a south facing window and some of those clip on grow lights. I think it’s starting to get used to it!
I don’t think I mentioned it here… but I forgot I had an apricot seed going through stratification in my fridge since July. Later in October it finally sprouted and so far it has been growing! It has slowed down a bit, but healthy looking leaves. That was a fun one, mainly an experiment. I don’t even really care for apricots. Who knows if it will fruit, but I plan on either giving it away or going through the local municipality and seeing if I can get it planted or potted somewhere with not a lot of fresh fruit options for the taking.
Even though winter is approaching, I still find myself busy with my little orchard. Next will be planning what else to add and graft for next year. I have high hopes… take care all!
I figured I would use this thread to continue to document my progress with my orchard. A spell of warm weather and the peaches are starting to wake up which is really exciting! We are cooling off, so hopefully no blooms to be damaged by potential frost.
My south facing windowsill is absolutely stacked right now. The Meyer lemon is flowering again, so hopefully I get to try one of these bad boys later on in the year! My pomegranate also took off after a few months of being bare when I brought it in for winter. The new growth has taken over the barren, woody spots! I am also trying to root some cuttings of my Heritage raspberry, and some cherry and almond wood from Fruitwood Nursery (awesome products there)! I’m not expecting much, I know stone fruit can be especially tough to root. I have the rest stored and hoping to graft soon. I may need some interstem to graft to peach, but I have the trees to afford an experiment. That’s what it’s all about, at least to me!
I’m seeing some nice looking buds on my raspberries, and not much activity yet on the blueberries which I expect. I know they are a bit later than the others. This will be my first year to be able to document a rough estimate of bloom time order in my specific orchard. It’s been a busy winter, but I can taste my second year being a success!
I still need to get some good photos to attach here and document my progress.