Long Time lurker, first time posting

General Fruit Growing
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Hi everyone!

Thought I’d finally introduce myself. My name is Cody, I’ve been lurking for years but never got around to making an account. My grandfather was a hobbyist orchardist, gardener, etc etc, and I must have caught the bug from him. First thing I did after the wife and I signed on the dotted line for our house, I went out and bought 60+ fruit trees that day and planted them the next spring lol. We have about 4 acres near Olympia, Wa. USDA Zone 8.

The little 1920s house and property had been sorely abused for decades, and we hauled 5 dumpsters of trash from inside the house, and another 12 from the property, and needless to say the soil wasn’t in great shape. The home use to be in the middle of about 100 acres of apple and apricots, and over the decades little bits of the property got sold off. We have 2 surviving gravenstiens on the property that are about 70 and 90 years old, and its taken 3 years, but we managed to save them and the fruit they produce is crazy good! We’ve got big plans for the property, the wife is an avid gardener, and I’m apparently the orchardist, so we should have plenty to eat in the coming years! If anyone has questions or comments or suggestions, please comment!

So in March of 2022 I planted the following:

Apples:
2x Binet Rouge
4x Gravenstien
2x Braeburn
2x Dologo Crab
6x Newtown Pippin
3x Fuji
3x Shogun Fuji
2x Puget Spice
4x Honeycrisp

Peaches:
2x Redhaven
2x Galactica
2x Snow Giant

Plums:
2x Bubblegum
2x Rosy Gage
2x Santa Rosa
2x Shiro

Pears:
2x Flemish Beauty
2x Maxine
2x Shenseiki
2x Shinsui
2x Yoinashi

Cherries:
3x Rainer
2x Burgundy Pearl
2x Sweatheart
2x Francis

The Apples are mostly semi-standards. The stone fruit are dwarfs or semi-dwarfs. I have to say, all the Japanese variants have done really well here. I’m particularly excited for the Pippins, as they featured in many childhood desserts growing up, but they’ve all grown tremendously. Both the Puget Spice apples unfortunately bloomed early in 2024 and got caught in a cold snap and died (and are being replaced like for like this year). The Cherries have had a hell of time, that blight that is running around has really done a number on them. I’ve lost all 3 Rainier, and 1 each of the remaining varieties.

2023 was a slower year with the birth of the first kid and a lot of rehabbing to the property!

In 2024 I added:
1x Giant Tilton Apricot
1x Moorepark Apricot

This year I’m adding:

Apples (these are mostly semi-standards):
2x Jonagold
2x Baldwin
2x Spitz
2x Golden Grimes
2x McIntosh
2x Jonathans

AND if I can find time to build the raised beds for them:

Citrus:
2x Washington Naval Orange
3x Valencia Orange
2x Owari Satsuma Mandarin
3x Dekopon Manarin
1x Ruby Grapefruit
1x Pink Meyer Lemon
1x Meyer Lemon
1x Eureka Lemon

and tenatively for 2026 (if I can fit it in around the 2nd kids arival):

1x Wonderful Pomegranate
1x Sirenevyi Pomegranate
4x Hojiblanca Olive

I also planted 2 American Elm and 2 American Chestnuts last year (2024) that I started from seeds in 2021.
I have 2 White Oak, 2 more American Chestnuts, 2 Hazelnuts, 2 Pecans, and 3 black walnuts that are all in 100 gallon bags that i’ve been growing for years now with the intention to plant them in the back acre now that we’ve cleaned it up.

The wife thinks I have a tree problem lol. I’ve promised no more trees after that!

I spray Immunox about 10 times a year. Neeam oil couple times a year, and Bonide Copper 3, maybe 4 times a year. The cherries still took sick, so I tried the desperate approach and took a blowtorch to whatever couldn’t be pruned off. I really torched them, including a little healthy wood on either side of the sick wood. Surprisingly the 3 trees that were really sick and oozing all over all survived and are all doing fantastic today. Not something I would recommend for the faint of heart, but if you’ve done everything else and the trunk is sick and you’re gonna cut it down otherwise, its a handy tool.

The Citrus will be an interesting experiment. It’s technically too cold here by about 10 degrees for 2-3 weeks every year. My hope is that between being in a raised bed, and bagging the tree during winter, wrapping the trunk, and keeping a massive pile of chips on the base, I’ll be able to provide enough warmth. I looked into a fan setup, but couldn’t find something that wasn’t meant for 20+ acres (but if you guys have any suggestions, let me know!)

I know there are oranges alive in Seattle, but they are consistently warmer (and wetter) than we are down here, so this might all be for nothing. I would be tempted to try spray freezing the citrus, but it doesn’t get THAT cold here to snap freeze water like that.

As if that wasn’t enough to keep us busy, we also planted the following for what will be about 200ft of hedge on one side of our property:

HoneyBerry:
Boreal Beast (x3)
Borealis (x3)
Boreal Beauty(x3)

Currants
red
Van Tets(x3)
Robada (x3)
black
Minaj (x3)
Crandall (x3)
white
Golden (x3)
White Imperial (x3)

Gooseberry
Black (x3)
Josta (x3)
Black Velvet (x3)
Jeanne (x3)

Siberian Pea (x12)

Serviceberry
Regent (x3)

All in all, we’re having fun with the property. Between two full time jobs, soon to be 2 kids, 2 dogs, 15 chickens, and all the plants, we keep busy! This year most of the stone fruit should start fruiting, so that’ll be exciting.

If people are curious, I can throw photos up. I’ve been taking them here and there along the way, and I finally broke down and bought a drone for aerial shots as well.

Anyways, thanks for your time, and I’m happy to join the community!

EDIT: Forgot my pecans!

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Welcome to the forum. great introduction post. And quite the collection of fruit trees and bushes already!

Just curious. You’ve talked about adding a lot of trees. Have you grafted any yourself? If not, learning to graft might be a logical next step for some one who clearly is as (if not more) addicted to fruit trees as the rest of us on the forum :slight_smile:

It’s also a good way to “keep collecting” varieties after your really really really not allowed to plant any more trees XD

Just graft them onto existing trees.

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Hello!! We’re practically neighbors :face_in_clouds: i just moved from Olympia.
There’s a lot of us from the pnw in here :grin: i think you’re missing some figs… :speak_no_evil:

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And red fleshed apples. Welcome to the site💚.

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I’m interested see how your collection and property develops! I’m not too far from you either.
I plan on putting a couple citrus in-ground at some point this year! I’ve got one yuzu and a kumquat grown from seed that I will try.

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Grafting is the next logical step, isn’t it?

My grandfather had cherry trees that he had about a dozen different types grafted on to, and he was quite proud of that. As a kid I was never as interested in it as I am now as an adult. I should have paid more attention!

I think once the lack of new tree plantings hits home, I’ll probably start lol.
By then I should have a good idea which trees are the healthiest and which rootstocks have done well.

Any favorites you’ve grafted?

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Ya, I might add one or two into a pot somewhere for the Mrs.

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The Yuzu seems a little more cold friendly than other citrus, but I’d still be curious to see how yours turn out!

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And you’ll need at least a dozen kids to even begin to eat it all.

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Welcome to posting on the site. Looks like you have a pretty good start of your different varieties. You’ve been lurking long enough to know there is a lot of good information and helpful people here.

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Welcome! Grafting is next, yes. Grafting and propagating is very rewarding for me. You get to a point where some varieties are not purchasable as trees so you have to graft or root a cutting if you want them. And some cuttings don’t root well.

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Hi Cody,
That’s quite a list.The only thing I don’t see,is a partner European Plum for the Rosy Gage,as they are self incompatible.
Or maybe there are some nearby,that bees work with.

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The Shiro actually is a pollinator for the Rosy Gage, or so I’m told. Despite the name, it’s a hybrid from 19th c California. But if for some reason it isn’t, I can always try grafting on additional pollinators!

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That’s interesting.Shiro was one of Luther Burbank’s developments.There is Apricot Plum(Prunus simonii),Japanese Plum from China( Prunus salicina),Cherry Plum from Europe(Prunus cerasifera)and North American Munson Plum( Prunus munsoniana)in the makeup.
Prunus cerasifera is where the connection is to the European varieties.Very nice.

’

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I actually lucked out and got most of the heritage apples I wanted. The one cultivar (recent tho it be) that keeps avoiding me is Braeburns. I’ve got two spots carved out in the orchard for a pair, but haven’t been able to actually get any. They may end up being the first thing I graft.

Any apples cultivar you think are especially hard to find and worth grafting?

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That I couldn’t tell you, I actually don’t grow any apples :smiley:. I just have one rootstock that I plan to add to someday.

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[Ulflander]
You are so rucky livin n Gods country. Count your blessings.
My 2 cents:
AND don’t plant those Black Walnuts. Bring em to a local forest and gurella plant em. I am tellin you that you will regret it later. Those roots travel thirty and forty feet away and then your Apple and Peach etc trees start dying. No one in our fruit club of 200 members grows Black Walnuts 100 feet from any fruit tree.

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Agreed, walnut trees will play nice with some trees, apple trees are not one of them.

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I grew up with black walnuts, so I’m familiar with em. I’ll be happy if they reach a medium small size in my life time lol.
As for location, they’re not going anywhere near the orchard, they will be about 3 acres away and I plan to give each of them 75ish feet spacing.

All the nut trees will be on their own acre way in the back. Tannins in the soil aside, I just don’t have room for them in the orchard lol.

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Update!

I got all the citrus ordered. So the grand experiment has begun! This will either be a train wreck or a brilliant success.

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