My New Project

General Fruit Growing
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When I moved to a coastal area of California several years ago, I mistakenly assumed that I would not be able to grow most fruit trees here, other than citrus and avocados. Since then, I have been pleasantly surprised. The apple Franken-tree that I planted in 2015 and have since grafted with 5 other varieties is now covered in tiny apples of 3 different varieties in spite of the fact that it is less than 4 feet tall. The Red Baron peach and Weeping Santa Rosa plum that I planted in my backyard Japanese-style garden last summer are both growing like crazy and set fruit this year.

So this morning I decided I’m going to rip out my front lawn and replace it with an orchard of sorts. It’s not a huge lawn, but most people here don’t have a lawn at all because water is so expensive, which is one of the reasons I’m willing to take it out. I’m going to use Dave Wilson’s high density planting methods, i.e. plant 4 trees 18" apart in one hole. I estimate I will have room for 3 of these holes, resulting in 12 trees.

Hole #1 will be cherries: Craig’s Crimson, Royal Lee, Royal Crimson, Minnie Royal.

Hole #2 will be pears: Seckel, Warren, California, Bartlett.

Hole #3 will be an aprium (either Flavor Delight or Cot-N-Candy), Liz’s Late nectarine, Mariposa plum, and one of the following: Heavenly White nectarine, Santa Barbara peach, Arctic Jay nectarine.

The thing is, other than the Warren pear and Mariposa plum, I haven’t actually tasted any of these varieties. I’m simply going by Dave Wilson taste test results, number of chill hours (relatively low since I’m in USDA zone 10a), pollination requirements, ripening dates, and availability on compatible rootstock. I tend to like fruits that are a little tart along with the sweet, and firm but not crunchy.

Any thoughts on these choices?

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Or you could graft several varieties onto one tree. It would cost less.

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I did consider that. And I may end up grafting additional varieties onto the trees later. But based on the experiences I have had with my project apple tree that I have grafted multiple varieties onto, I decided it would be worth the extra money for the quicker start. Besides, I don’t have to pay shipping on any of these trees because I can buy them all at a local nursery, so it’s not as much as one might think.

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What are the rootstocks of your pears? Warren pear on a standard rootstock coud take 10 years or more to fruit.

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The pears will be on OHxF333, the cherries on Maxma 14, and the nectarine/plum/aprium on Citation.

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I wouldn’t plant aprium/plum together with nectarine/peaches in the same hole. Aprium/plum are more vigorous growers and will shade nectarines/peaches. Also, spraying may be complicated, e.g. you may want to spray your nectarines with sulfur which is toxic to apricot (apriums behave like cots).

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Anyone at the local nursery know how to graft?

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Ahmad, do you think the aprium/plum would be a lot more vigorous even on the same rootstock as the peach/nectarine?

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ltilton, probably not. I can do a basic whip-and-tongue graft.

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My 4th leaf Blenheim cot, on Citation, is 12’ high, and that’s after pruning it twice in May and June, if not for this pruning it would have easily been 15+ foot high. On the other hand, my 4th leaf Arctic Jay nectarine tree, on Lovell, is ~8’ high, and I have not pruned it since winter pruning. Note that Citation is dwarfing and Lovell is full size root stock.

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I’m pretty set on having a Mariposa plum. But maybe I could omit the aprium. If I plant the peach/nectarine on the sunnier side of the hole with the plum behind them, maybe that would compensate for the plum having greater vigor.

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I have Cot-N-Candy on a three year old tree (Citation) that I prune down to 6-7 feet each year. It would be 15+ feet if I let it go…very vigorous!

Based on your desire for fruit with some tartness, you might want to go with something else. When ripe, Cot-N-Candy gets extremely sweet in my area…and not much else to the flavor but sweetness, at least to my palette. My wife loves them though. I actually prefer them before they are dead ripe when there is still some tartness. Maybe try something like Tomcot or Robada Apricot?

Just a note, on Citation rootstock the Aprium would quickly over take peach/nectarine in no time, as peach/nectarine runts out and is slower growing on Citation in my experience. This would require some substantial pruning of the Aprium in that combo, and likely not much pruning at all on the peach/nectarine in comparison. Plum would play nicer with the Aprium.

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Based on everyone’s input, I gave up on the idea of the aprium. What I ended up ordering for the 4 stone fruits were Arctic Jay and Liz’s Late nectarines, Mariposa plum, and Flavor King pluot. The trees are here, and should be planted today if everything goes as planned :slight_smile:

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I have a Seckel pear and they are wonderful. I also have Royal Crimson and one of the others either Royal Lee or Minnie Royal (one died and their tags came off).

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