New fruit grower here 
I sheet mulched most of the lawn in my backyard & started my mini orchard in early spring of 2023. I only dug holes for the trees & sheet mulched the lawn with 2 layers of cardboard & pine mulch. I did not dig up any sod.
I made notes about planting media, fertilizing, disease, tree/fruit protection & mortality in 2nd leaf because some of the trees/vines set fruit. ALL trees are mulched with aged pine bark & some trees were fertilized with washed up dead seaweed, home made bone ash (eggs, chicken bones, crabshells) & coffee grounds (from Starbuckâs dumpster) in fall 2023. Some trees were not fertilized. I deep water trees in the ground once every 10 days & pots based on what the moisture meter says. (Edit Sept 2, 2024: I plan to keep all my fruit trees at 5 feet or less through winter & summer pruning because I have no intention of ever getting up on a ladder or even a step stool to harvest or provide protection. I understand that this opens up my trees to greater chances of infection & I am ok with that). Water was stopped 1st week of August. My backyard gets uninterrupted light from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset. My home is halfway down a hill & days in my garden are a couple of degrees cooler that on top of the hill.
Sorry if my notes & images seem boring. At the moment, I am far from being bored, however. The prospect of waking up everyday to see what fruit I can harvest is my idea of paradise. There are no notes for trees in 1st leaf - I will document them if they survive their 1st winter in my garden. So here goes!
I have (or had)â
Blueberries:
Biloxi
Oneal
Mini blues
Blue gold (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Blue crop (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Plums/plum crossesâ
Flavor Queen pluot
Emerald beaut plum
Italian plum
Rosy gage plum
Coes golden drop plum
Mirabelle Geneva plum
Stanley plum
Purple gage plum
Reine de Mirabelle (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Mirabelle de Metz (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Sweet treat pluerry (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Green gage plum (Died 2nd leaf, cause unknown).
Toka plum
Methley plum (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Oullins gage plum (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Santa rosa plum (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Flavor supreme pluot (Died 1st winter from Coral spot fungus).
Candy heart pluerry
Bavay greengage plum
Methley plum (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Applesâ
Honey crisp apple
Wolf river apple
Cherriesâ
Combination cherry tree (Died soon after 1st leaf. Cause unknown. Bled sap non stop from a single wound on bark.)
Stella cherry
Lapins cherry (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Peach/Nectarine/Apricotâ
Frost peach (1st leaf, no notes, alive)
Cot n candy aprium
Arctic rose nectarine
Mulberry-
White Pakistani mulberry
Grapes:
Himrod grape
Reliance grape
Pakistani white mulberry (2nd leaf, purchased from Restoring Eden nursery): -
Planting date: March 2023. 30 gallon pot.
Harvest date: 1st July 2024, earlier if spring is warm, I think.
Color turns from a green to a greenish yellow & fruits seems plumper.
Ants indicate ripe mulberries. I harvest them as soon as ants start to show any interest in them, thank you ants.
Taste: Very sweet & next to no acid content. I could not detect any tartness. Both my husband & I favor low acid fruit but this is like drinking sweet nectar.
Hardiness: Lost almost all new growth because of the 3 days of below freezing temps in early 2024. This is growing in a 20 gallon pot & still managed to produce a dozen berries. I considered propagating them but decided against it since this cultivar is not particularly long-frost hardy & I am not always home in the winter to provide frost protection.
Protection provided: Bird netting wrapped only around fruit cluster provided successful deterrent against squirrels & birds. Also, squirrels seem less aggressive in their hunt for sugar at that time.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed tea & bonemeal in April 2024.
Stella cherry (2nd leaf, purchased from Bob Wells nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. 30 gallon pot.
Harvest date: 4th July to 10th July2024.
Ants indicate ripe fruit. Dark cherries when ripe.
Taste: Well balanced sweet & tart. Tree managed to produce around 3 dozen in 2nd leaf.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds. The tree was fully encased & closer to the house. Zero attempts were make by squirrels to get in. Ants ate 1/2 cherry before I started harvesting.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April. I wish I had more pictures. They were so good, they never made it to the front of my camera.
Blueberry Mini blues (purchased from Gurneys):
Planting date: March 2023. 20 gallon pot.
Harvest date: started 10th of July 2024, continuing into end August. Prolific bearer.
Flavor: Very pleasing & complex. My favorite so far. I did not expect it to be so flavorful. Berries are small though so a bit of a pain to harvest.
Massive growth spike this year.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds. The squirrels may have taken a few but these are close to the house where I do not see as much activity.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & coffee grounds in April 2024.
Blueberry Oâneal (purchased from Gurneys):
Planting date: March 2023. 20 gallon pot.
Harvest date: started 20th of july 2024. Continuing into mid August.
Flavor: Large berries that are sweet but not very complex. Not as prolific as the mini blues.
Massive growth spike this year.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds. The squirrels may have taken a few but these are close to the house where I do not see as much activity.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & coffee grounds in April 2024.
Blueberry Biloxi (purchased from Gurneys):
Planting date: March 2023. 20 gallon pot.
Harvest date: started 10th of july 2024. Continuing into end August. Not prolific.
Flavor: Pleasing & complex.
Massive growth spike this year.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds. The squirrels may have taken a few but these are close to the house where I do not see as much activity.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & coffee grounds in April 2024.
Greengage plum (purchased from One Green World).
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground.
Harvest date: 6th-12th August.
Tree lacked vigor & grew only 8 inches over 2 years. Not much increase in girth of trunk. Was soon dwarfed by a very vigorous neighboring Bavay gage. This year it died. All leaves turned brown overnight. Cause unknown but I suspect root rot. The graft seemed much bigger than the root stock at time of death.
Flavor: Produced 4 very sweet & delicious plums.
Purchased a replacement from Home Depot this year which is vigorous, well branched & healthy.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds, seaweed, kitchen compost & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April & May 2024.
Mirabelle Geneva plum (2nd leaf, purchased from Raintree nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Branches trained by around 10 degree in year of planting by using stones as weights tied to string.
Hand pollinated with purple gage flowers.
Harvest date: 27th-31st August.
Vigorous & healthy. Very noticeable increase in trunk girth. Produced many flowers in spring 2024. Thinned fruit set to 14. Lost 2 to squirrels (after netting) & one to a raccoon (before netting).
Flavor: Produced 11 sweet & delicious, fragrant plums. I can see why the French love them so much. The fruits were not very juicy but do have juice when fully ripe.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided somewhat successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds. A squirrel broke into the treeâs tulle netting & stole 2 fruits on the day my bird bath was dry. The mesh bags were not even torn. Squirrel has squished the juice out of the fruits & licked it dry. Interestingly, it tore a hole only where the tulle netting was âtaughtâ avoiding all areas where the netting was scrunched up & gnarly.
Removed netting on August 31st after picking the last plum.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds, seaweed, kitchen compost & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April & May 2024.
Stanley plum (2nd leaf, purchased from Raintree nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Branches trained by around 10 degree in year of planting by using stones as weights tied to string.
Harvest date: 30th August- September 6th.
Vigorous & healthy. Very noticeable increase in trunk girth. Produced many flowers in spring 2024. Thinned fruit set to 10 but turned out I had missed another 10!
Flavor: (August 30th) Very sweet, complex & delicious plums. Surprisingly juicy. Truly outstanding!
Some of the fruits cracked in the rain we had on 23rd & 24th August. The cracked fruits seem to ripen faster & are sweeter than the others.
Sept 3rd taste: Fruits are now significantly sweeter than they were 3 days ago. There is a big contrast in the sugary sweetness of the flesh & the tartness of the skin. This is easily now the sweetest plum in my garden, rivaling the sweetness of even Coeâs golden drop when ripe.
Sept 4th taste: This is definitely the sweetest plum in my garden. I might be wrong but I donât think I could measure this level of sweetness on a refractometer. The ones that fall into mesh bags on their own are really sugary.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided very successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds. Clusters of plums were additionally wrapped in very scrunched up tulle which the squirrels have completely avoided. See photos.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds, seaweed, kitchen compost & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April & May 2024.
Below, left to right: Stanley, purple gage, Mirabelle Geneva.
Purple gage plum (2nd leaf, purchased from Raintree nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Branches trained by around 10 degree in year of planting by using stones as weights tied to string.
Harvest date: Sept 4 - ongoing.
Extremely vigorous & healthy - the thickest trunk in my plum orchard. Very noticeable increase in trunk girth. Produced many flowers in spring 2024. Thinned fruit set to 20 but turned out I had missed another 40! Yikes. This was purchased as a pollinator for Rosy gage, Bavay gage, Ouillins gage, Coeâs golden drop & all the Mirabelles. It is planted right next to Stanley & may have contributed to the prolific fruit set there as well.
Some of the fruits cracked in the rain we had on 23rd & 24th August. The cracked fruits seem to ripen faster & are sweeter than the others.
First tasted on 25th & 30th August. Later taste tests showed increased sweetness but the fruit is still quite astringent. I will harvest them regardless of taste before 15th September (when the fall rains set in in Seattle). If they are still tart, I will make jam from them.
(Edit Sept 4th 2024: Tasted the first plum that fell into a mesh bag on its own. It had lost the eye-watering astringency mentioned earlier & was actually sweeter. Oddly, it was less tart than even Stanley though not quite as sugary sweet. There is still a mild bitterness in the skin but itâs no longer unpleasant. I checked to see if lifting them worked in detaching them, ate half a dozen that came off & was pleasantly surprised at the flavor in most. I am going to let them fall off into mesh bags on their own as those tasted the best! I am marking Sept 4 as the start of harvest for this plum in my garden. I think it might be trailing Coeâs golden drop in ripening because of the 60 odd fruits it held onto. Next year Iâll be more attentive while thinning.
-Sept 7: Plums with ants on them tend to be the sweetest. The ants will bore a hole in the fruit & it will need some trimming around the hole but the fruit will be outstanding! If the tree is shaken a bit, the plums that have been bored into by ants will be the first to fall.
-Sept 9: Harvested all plums regardless of ripeness. Ate half a dozen while picking. The ones with ant/bug holes & splits seem to be the sweetest & best. I pierced all plums with an alcohol sanitized needle. I put the needle in all the way till it hit the pit & wiggled it around. My plan is to replicate the injury caused to the fruit by insects to see if it will set in motion similar chemical processes due to the oxidation. I will be checking the fruit every 2 days.).
-Sept 20: The plums ripened very nicely in the box - just like the bug eaten ones on the tree but without any bugs to clean off. I let them soften considerably before eating them. Some reached the point of just starting to shrivel & they were delicious! I do not know if the sugar content increased or was just more noticeable because the astringency & bitterness were all but gone. I might let them hang on the tree longer next year, if we donât have late summer rain, & pricking holes in them worked out well. Even at the peak of ripeness these are not as sweet as Stanley.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided very successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds. Clusters of plums were additionally wrapped in very scrunched up tulle & tree netting which the squirrels have completely avoided. See photos.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds, seaweed, kitchen compost & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April & May 2024.
Below Purple gage with Mirabelle.
Below: Sept 9 harvest. All plums punctured with needle.
Coeâs Golden drop plum (2nd leaf, purchased from Raintree nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Branches trained by around 10 degree in year of planting by using stones as weights tied to string.
Hand pollinated with purple gage flowers.
Harvest date: Sept 2 - 4 (This narrow harvest window is because the tree only had 5 plums on it & I did not wait for all to fully turn color before picking).
Taste test 31st August: Not ripe yet, I thought. Some of the fruits cracked in the rain we had on 23rd & 24th August. I plucked one fruit on 31st August because it was starting to discolor around the cracks. I trimmed off the cracked portion & didnât expect much but WOW! This is the best plum I have EVER tasted. Incredibly sweet, juicy & flavorful & itâs not even supposed to be ripe yet. How?! My fingers were very sticky from the juice. This falls into the category of âI cannot believe my luckâ good. Also the largest of my plums. I will keep checking on the cracked plums over the next few days.
(Edit: Sept 2, 2024- the two largest fruits have changed color rapidly in the last 2 days from a warm green to a peach-ish color flecked with red. They have tiny splits on them near the neck but no discoloration. I will lift them upwards tomorrow to see if they come away. They are in the photos below with the gnarly net & receive direct all day sun. All remaining fruit are less developed but are also starting to change color.
Sept 3, 2024 - Picked the first 2 fully ripe fruits. They came straight off when lifted. Very juicy, & sweet but also slightly mushy. I love that there is still some tartness in them. I will pull all the others off tomorrow. They are not as ârosy peachâ in color but they have changed color enough to indicate ripeness).
Reasonably vigorous & healthy. Noticeable increase in trunk girth. Produced maybe 30 flowers in spring 2024. Thinned fruit set to 8 & lost 3 along the way. The 3 just yellowed at the neck & fell off.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over tree provided very successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds. Clusters of plums were additionally wrapped in very scrunched up tulle & gnarly net which the squirrels have completely avoided. See photos. Removed netting on Sept 4 after picking the last plum.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds, seaweed, kitchen compost & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April & May 2024.
Below cracked & split Coeâs golden drop.
Bavay gage plum (2nd leaf, purchased from Bob Wells nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Branches trained by around 10 degree in year of planting by using stones as weights tied to string.
Hand pollinated with purple gage flowers.
Harvest date: Starting September 2 or 3, I think. I only had a data set of one for this tree
Extremely vigorous & healthy - an absolute beast! Requires a lot of summer pruning or will swallow up neighboring trees. Even training the branches to a lower angle didnât do much to dent the vigor on this tree. There is a small window (maybe 1 year) to cut off growth you do not want because the girth of branches increases by the day. Very noticeable increase in trunk girth. Only produced 6 flowers in spring out of which 2 set to fruit & 1 remains to ripen.
Protection provided: Tulle fabric draped loosely over the single fruit branch provided successful deterrent against squirrels, raccoons & birds.
If this tree does not become at least a biennial bearer, I will have to take it down because just maintaining it to a manageable height is a lot of work.
Taste: Sept 5th, 2024. Beautifully balanced sweetness & tartness even though this poor thing was shriveled. Very pleasing taste & dense texture. I would polish off a bowlful if I had more. Some juice but not enough to drip & squirt. The single (very ripe) fruit hanging on this tree had not fallen into the mesh bag so these need to be lifted to check for ripeness. I just happened to feel itâs texture out of curiosity today & could tell right away that it was definitely ripe. It was overlooked because I was more involved with the other plums & my ripening tomatoes.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds, seaweed, kitchen compost & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April & May 2024.
Rosy gage plum (2nd leaf, purchased from Raintree nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Branches trained by around 10 degree in year of planting by using stones as weights tied to string.
Hand pollinated with purple gage flowers.
Harvest date: Did not hold on to any fruit.
Very vigorous & healthy. Noticeable increase in trunk girth.
Protection provided: none.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds, seaweed, kitchen compost & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April 2024.
Italian plum (2nd leaf, purchased from Raintree nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Branches trained by around 10 degree in year of planting by using stones as weights tied to string.
No flowers produced.
Harvest date: NA
Very vigorous & healthy. Very noticeable increase in trunk girth.
Protection provided: none.
Ferilizers: Coffee grounds, seaweed, kitchen compost & bonemeal in November 2023. Seaweed tea & bone ash in April 2024.
Emerald Beaut plum (2nd leaf, purchased from Tomorrowâs harvest nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground.
Many flowers produced but they all fell off. I noticed some pollination but all the tiny fruit fell off as well. Very wet spring
Harvest date: NA
Not vigorous at all but leaves seem healthy. Very little growth. Not much increase in trunk girth.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed & bone ash tea in late spring. I will be fertilizing with organic compost & bone ash substantially in November 2024.
Flavor Supreme Pluot (purchased from Restoring Eden nursery in March 2023).
Died in 1st year (Coral spot fungus). This was a very developed tree with a tiny root system.
Toka plum (purchased from One Green World):
Planting date: March 2023. In a 30 gallon pot.
Many flowers produced. None made it to fruit. Very wet spring.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed & bone ash tea in late spring. I will be fertilizing with organic compost & bone ash substantially in November 2024.
Candy heart pluerry (Restoring Eden nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In a 30 gallon pot.
Many flowers produced. None made it to fruit. Seems to have bacterial shot hole. Very wet spring.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed & bone ash tea in late spring. I will be fertilizing with organic compost & bone ash substantially in November 2024.
Himrod grape: (2nd leaf, purchased from Bob Wells nursery)
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Trained to metal fence post & rebar mesh.
Flowered in 2nd leaf & produced a small bunch of white grapes.
Harvest date: NA
Taste: NA
Not very vigorous but healthy. Vigor may be lacking as it only gets late morning to mid afternoon sun. It also has competition from the neighborâs trees & bushes.
Protection provided: a single mesh bag which was stolen this morning. Regular mesh bags have become a âflagâ in my garden. They now basically mean there is something worth stealing in them. Raccoons & squirrels wont leave them alone. They never work unless they are additionally protected with a very gnarly mess of fruit net.
Ferilizers: bonemeal & seaweed tea in February 2024. I will be fertilizing it substantially in November 2024.
Reliance grape: (2nd leaf, purchased from Bob Wells nursery)
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground. Trained to metal fence post & rebar mesh.
Flowered in 2nd leaf & produced 3 medium bunches of red grapes.
Harvest date: today (September 1st). Some of the grapes are not quite ripe but I will get the ones that are so the squirrels donât get them. The tree mesh protecting them is not gnarly enough.
Taste: These produced a small bunch even in first leaf. I learned that in hot summers, Reliance will have seeds. They were sweet & delicious.
-Sept 10: I noticed that some of the grapes had started to fall into the mesh bags, so I harvested them all. Clearly the green ones never made it to ripeness. My husband & I sat & ate all the ripe ones after lunch. They all had seeds & the skin was thicker than I expected but the core has a very sweet, pulpy texture which, along with the crunchy seeds, makes them very addictive. It felt like eating one of those candies which, at the start, make you wish you hadnât bought them but you end up going through them really fast because the taste & texture hook you. Clearly an acquired taste for me but then we did eat them all in less than 10 minutes, so thereâs that. They reminded my husband of âgrape juice flavorâ.
-Sept 20: While taking off the mesh, I noticed a bag Iâd missed picking. It was a smallish bunch of grapes. They were sweeter, more flavorful & more fragrant than the bunch picked on the 10th. I no longer regret planting this. One of the grapes had shriveled a little, so this is a good time to pick them all in my garden.
Vigorous & healthy despite being close to a plum tree, a rose bush & 2 squash plants. Good increase in trunk girth.This gets 10 hours of sunlight in the summer.
Ferilizers: Compost & bone ash in November 2023. Bonemeal & seaweed tea in February 2024. I will be fertilizing with organic compost & bone ash substantially in November 2024.
Applesâ
Honeycrisp (Raintree nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground.
No flowers produced.
Not vigorous (on a mini dwarf root stock) but healthy. Not much increase in trunk girth.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed & bone ash tea in late spring. I will be fertilizing with organic compost & bone ash substantially in November 2024.
Wolf River (Raintree nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In the ground.
No flowers produced.
Somewhat vigorous (on a dwarf root stock) & healthy. Not much increase in trunk girth.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed & bone ash tea in late spring. I will be fertilizing with organic compost & bone ash substantially in November 2024.
Peach/Nectarine/Apricotâ
Cot n candy aprium (Restoring Eden nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In a 30 gallon pot.
Many flowers produced. None made it to fruit. Some branches are bleeding sap.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed & bone ash tea in late spring. I will be fertilizing with organic compost & bone ash substantially in November 2024. I will give this 2 more years before it goes.
Arctic rose nectarine (Bob Wellâs nursery):
Planting date: March 2023. In a 30 gallon pot.
Many flowers produced. None made it to fruit. Massive leaf curl in spring.
Ferilizers: Some seaweed & bone ash tea in late spring. I will be fertilizing with organic compost & bone ash substantially in November 2024. I will give this 2 more years before it goes.
