Rudolf’s garden fruits in Brescia,Italy

Hello guys, I don’t really know if this topic may interest anyone. I’m a 22 year old guy that just started planting a bunch of fruit trees all over the propriety. As I harvested my very first good tasting fruit ( an out of season lemon that ripened despite the snow and the -2 C) , I decided that I might open a thread to just share my progresses in fruit gardening. I’m so thrilled to see what I might achieve in a couple years from now. Also, feel free to share your experience as well and give me any kind of tip!

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Welcome! Are you growing the Prima pawpaw?

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Hey, YES! I have different paw paw trees but none of them has bloomed yet. I own 2 Prima 1216 , a mango and a susquehanna that was very hard to find in Europe!

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Wow that’s awesome! You have some great varieties there. Keep us posted on their progress.

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I will for sure! For now I have planted them in a partially sunny area , that doesn’t get more than 5-6 hours of sun. I had them in a sunnier position but the sun would just scorch their leaves in summer. I also never tasted a paw paw before so I’m also pretty excited to even see one

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Hi Rudolf, I am in the south of France. The shape of that lemon is interesting. What variety?

Yeah, I thought that as well! I was expecting regular shaped lemons like the ones you buy at stores, yet I find it kinda of funny! It should be a “lunario” variety, or at least that’s what the nursery told me!

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Hey Rudolf! I wanted to mention that for the first few years, pawpaws like to have partial shade. As they mature and become established, you might want to get them as much sun as you can for better fruit production. I look forward to following your progress!

Thank you very much for the tip! I’m so curious to see what’s gonna be next! Also I have a question for any stone fruit expert. Do you think it’s possible to grow some apricots/peaches and plums at a 3.20 meters spacing between the trees ? The rootstocks should be all standards , but I wanna keep them let’s say 3 meters tall max for easier harvest. Thank you very much !

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Hi Rudolf, I’m also in europe just across the alps in bavaria. 3,2 m should be ok on St. Julian rootstock that a lot of nurseries use and you can prune them to a spindle. I personally use more vigorous rootstocks for peaches and apricots because high vigour and lots of pruning are my best bets against diseases but your climate is a lot more stonefruit friendly. Wavit is another popular rootstock here in Germany that is semidwarfing. Full size rootstocks (like myrobalan) need a bigger spacing.

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I think mine might be mirabolan or similar so that worries me a bit , I’m sure they are kinda of vigorous rootstocks for sure , so I have no idea how this will turn out .

Cheers from Colorado and great job at starting your fruit obsession so early! Come here for any of your crazy ideas we will nurture them :grinning: and help them grow :tulip:

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Thank you very much !!
I hope to bring something useful as well!
All of my plants are super small right now but I’m expecting the first small crop from trees that I planted 2 years ago. Now I’m just trying to understand how to space those damn peach / apricot / Pluot trees! I’ve been thinking about that all night but I don’t know how to make them all fit in my “stone fruit patch”

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Rudolf,
If you plums, peaches and apricots are on Myro rootstocks, they will grow well. At 3.2 meters/10-11 ft apart, they are quite close to one another but you can contain them with pruning. You can structure your trees the way Scott Smith has done in the thread below.

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Wow that’s actually pretty impressive!
I’m still new in the whole orchard thing and I have to say that I’m pretty damn envious! I might try a similar approach to pruning , also, today I’m going to go on the field and see if I can reach at least a 4 meters distance to make it at least a tiny bit easier. Thank you very much for all the response you are giving guys !

Hello guys! Today I’ve been planting a lot of different trees in my stone fruit garden, all at a distance of approximately 3.20 meters.
The first one is an honeysun tree, which should be a peach and apricot crossing that definitely looks more like a peach. This one is also my very first attempt of training.


The second one is a 1 year old Honeykist nectarine,
Then I have a sunrosso and a Big bomba apricot and last but not least my aprium cot n candy.

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Looks great, with some pruning they should be far enough apart. When the buds start to swell I would cut off any weak or inward facing branches and head the rest back by at least half to an outward facing bud. You can hardly prune peaches too much in this state

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Yeah, i still have to do this year’s pruning so im still trying to figure out how to prune all of the new plants. I want roughly an open center on all the plants, especially the apricots, but with the shape they have right now, it doesnt seem easy at all to achieve.

Now I know that my containers came from Italy, same thing. Paid $8.00 for one.

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So, my aprium had an incredible flowering! Problem is , it’s now loaded with small fruits!
Any tip on when and how many fruits should I remove? I believe some thinning is required!

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