New York and New England region
Capital district ny here.
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hello from the Catskillsđź‘‹
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Midcoast Maine checking in 
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Another Catskills gardener — anyone having success with persimmons here in z5a?
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I’ve got some on order. They seem too interesting to not try.
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Here in the Finger Lakes, I think I share more with Vermont growers than Pennsylvania growers.
WNY here, about 50 miles south of Buffalo.
I have meader Persimmon, and it does ok here in 5b, however it is astringent, and isn’t fully ripe until it falls off the tree. More get pulled off by deer and raccoons than I get, and the ones I do don’t ripen well off the tree.
Try another variety- I grow szukis and by the time it drops or is about to it can be delicious and I bet there are other varieties a step up from Meader that can be grown in 5. I am experimenting with a couple of Nick England’s favs. I do expect that they will all have to be mushy ripe before the astringency subsides, but domestic varieties certainly have a more interesting flavor than the kakis.
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Cold Brook, NY here (just north of Utica). I have around 150 varieties of apple and about 20 pear.
Western Maine. Zone 4b where I have a highly diversified trial orchard and nursery operations
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My little bearing age fruit tree nursery is a huge part of my business of installing and maintaining “instant gratification” orchards. Being only about 50 miles from Manhattan means there are a lot of multi- millionaires around as potential clients. Are you located near where a number of such folks go for summer? I often choose varieties that ripen at the best time for my customers- they often aren’t around in August, for instance, although none of them go to Maine.
Many years ago I lived in Malibu CA and rented a room there from a woman who owned one of those little islands off the coast of Maine but protected from the open ocean. When I moved to NY she had me visit her there for a week- she wanted me to study the island for growing potential of a particular herb. Nothing much came of my visit, but the climate there seemed interesting- the ocean certainly raised winter’s low temps. Summer heat units are unimpressive, however.
Incidentally, the majority of my nursery business involves growing trees bare root and transplanting them myself. Besides pears this is an excellent way to grow and transport 2-2.5" caliber fruit trees. For pears I use Whitcomb bags- which allow me to grow decent sized trees with less dirt to move.
I farm dry.
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Downeast Maine here. On the ocean so minimal summer heat and warmer winters.
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I had a nice surprise when I arrived home from work this evening. My persimmon scion order from England´s Nursery had arrived:
H63A
WS8-10 (Barbara´s Blush)
J-59
I-115
100-46 (Lehman´s Delight)
H-120
JCEG persimmon
Knightsville
I-94 (Valeene Beauty)
Some were no doubt better varietal choices for my cool short summer than others, but will be fun to try them all. It´ll be a while yet before I can actually graft. I did it last year (for the first time) around the beginning of June and it work well with Early Jewel.
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Zone 5A Central Maine here. We operate an orchard and grow blueberries, peaches and apples.
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Westchester NY here. Would be interested in chatting with local people who are into grafting. I started 2 years ago and I continue watch videos to better my grafting. I have had good success with Apple. I tried cherry last year for the first time bench grafting. I had only 1 take of 10. I’ve seen that chip and T-budding might be better for stone fruit. If anybody has any advice would be appreciated! I have a small piece of property In the Hudson Valley I’d love to cover with fruit trees! Looking forward to spring time!
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I’m in Putnam County, and if you want to watch how I do it, you are welcome to come by when it warms up enough to graft and I have started doing so. In 10 minutes you will have learned all you need to know to quickly and successfully graft.
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While I don’t currently live in New England, I plan to retire to Hancock County ME at some point. I will be following this thread and will be interested in learning what grows best in that area (obviously I will be planting lingonberry, blueberry and cranberry).
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NY Southern Tier, Chenango County. We have a small orchard/berry patch, along with grafted apple varieties on seedling trees. Will be adding another fenced orchard area in June with 8’ deer fencing. We keep bees. Fully retired 4 1/2 years ago. All my life I’ve wanted a small farm, but kind of hoped for better soils. Anyway I’m having a lot of fun. I lurk on here a lot. I’m more like the kid in the back of the classroom who watches, listens, takes notes and goes out in the field to try putting a lot of your knowledge into practice. Introverts are like that.
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Northern Maine here on the Canadian border. currently grow 60 plus varieties of cold hardy fruit, nuts , veggies and medicinal herbs on 1 acre. still a work in progress. most trees just starting to produce.
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