Small Orchard- What else do I need?

General Fruit Growing
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First time poster here…

I am in Zone 6B in NW Arkansas and have been working on my small orchard over the past year. The goal is to have a steady amount of fruit incoming throughout the majority of the growing season. Below is everything that I have planted. What varieties am I missing or need to add/keep in mind? My area struggles with fireblight and summer rots. I am considering adding a Chestnut crab and Williams Pride to this list.

Cherries- Lapins (2x)

Peaches- Elberta and Belle of Georgia (2x)

Pears- Seckel, Comice, Magness, Korean Giant

Apples- Tennessee Early Strawberry?, Pixie Crunch, Florina

Any comments/feedback/advice is greatly appreciated!

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Hello there @ChikenSkrilla24! If you haven’t yet, check out Ames Orchard and his recommended varieties. He’s also in NW AR and knows what can handle the disease pressure and what can’t. Good luck!

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Welcome aboard! We have a lot of good members who hail from your area to give you good advice. 39th Parallel of Kansas also can advise good Apples and Pears for you.

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MonArk apple, Kieffer or any other sand pear hybrid to replace Comice and Korean Giant when fireblight eats their lunch.

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Thanks, @Ahouse422 for the info. I actually bought my TN strawberry, Magness, Florina, and Korean Giant from Ames Orchard. Good guy with lots of good info

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Thanks, @Lucky_P. I thought Korean Giant was supposed to be somewhat resistant to fireblight. I have also read some on the MonArk apple but wasn’t sure how it would do with summer rots or disease resistance vs. a Williams Pride. I will look into it further

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I would take a look at this recent thread especially if you have no experience with spraying trees or picking trees to plant that have disease resistance. There is a learning curve especially with stone fruits like cherries and peaches. It covers spraying trees, picking disease resistant trees and some of the other issues you will face. The initial poster is in the same situation you are in.

I think you will find my second post in the thread to be especially useful as it gives a general overview of picking trees with disease resistance and how spraying ( and its alternatives) work.

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Korean Giant has been the most FB-susceptible pear I’ve grown. Have grafted it on three different occasions, and in each iteration, once it began blooming, BAM! FB took it out. All other Asian pears are going on 30 years here on KY/TN line. YMMV.
MonArk is ripe here in early to mid-July. No disease problems here, growing for nearly 30 years. Biggest drawback for a commercial grower would be its prolonged ripening period, but for a homeowner, a few apples a day over several weeks - especially for an early variety - is better, IMO. And, it keeps well for 6-8 wks under refrigeration before going mealy.

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Sounds like you have a very good food supply all year to feed squirrels and other with no dry period so all their babies live to super feast next year

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Early everbearing apples to consider? Maiden Blush, Tucker, Primate, Aunt Rachel, Mary Reid and Alexander Ice Cream.

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@ChikenSkrilla24 … I planted a Lapins cherry in 2018… still no fruit. I added 5 grafts of Montmorency cherry to it a couple years ago and got fruit this spring… still nothing from the Lapins.

It is a beautiful healthy tree… just refuses to fruit.

I will never plant another Lapins… planted a Montmorency in my new orchard last spring.

Have you considered adding some fruit that you dont have to have a spray program for ?

Mulberries, Fig, persimmons, pawpaws, goumi, CHE, Jujube, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, muscadines, clove currants, goosberry, strawberry.

Good luck to you !

TNHunter

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Excellent information. Thanks, @mroot. Plenty of notes to take in the process.

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Looking back now, I should have probably planted white gold or black gold cherries but I read a few good things on Lapins and thought they were worth a shot. I guess we will see. I have also planted figs (black mission and Celeste), blueberries, blackberries (Ponca and Quachita) and raspberries (prelude and Caroline) all with help from this site to get everything started. Any opinion on planting Chestnut crab with Williams Pride? Looking for a good eating early apple that is relatively disease free.

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Haven’t considered those but will look into them. Was hoping to find something that was good eating fresh yet relatively disease free

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I’ve got a high powered pellet rifle and .22 to keep the critters in check :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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@ChikenSkrilla24 … I am adding grafts of chestnut and trailman crabs to my two apple trees in my new orchard this comming spring.
Also adding some Pristine.

I have Early Mcintosh and Novamac established there that developed some nice new scaffold branches this season.

Fire blight is a serious concern here (southern middle TN). I have lost many apple and pear trees to FB… still trying to find something that will live thru it.

TNHunter

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You might want to look at Delcon.

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Williams pride and chestnut are awesome!

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I’ve lived in AR, not in the Springdale/Fayetteville area, but in Russellville. It’s hot, humid, not a lot of wind, and generally a good amount of summer rain. As such you’re not going to be able to grow peaches without spray.

I know you’ve already planted Elberta and Belle of Georgia, but any rot protection you might get from slightly rot resistant peaches is going to be nullified by the high humidity and rain.

Elberta is very susc. to bacterial spot. Plus, depending on where you got your trees, it’s likely your Elberta peaches are mislabeled.

Elberta isn’t grown commercially to any extent any more. Even some orchards claiming to sell them, probably are selling something else as Elberta (There’s no way anyone could pick out Elberta peach from blind taste test anyway.) Same thing happens with Redhaven, btw. People sell all kinds of peaches as Redhaven, which aren’t Redhaven.

Because Elberta isn’t grown commercially anymore, few nurseries actually propagate it. So nurseries just label and sell non-Elberta peaches as Elberta. Not all do. I’m sure a few nurseries actually propagate Elberta.

But most nurseries propagate varieties which are grown commercially, because that’s their bread and butter. Sadly, sales for backyard orchards don’t amount to enough for most nurseries to propagate peach trees which aren’t used in commercial orchards.

There are some nurseries which specialize in niche trees. That’s why I mentioned it depends on where you got your trees from.

I grow Williams Pride. I have some issues with it because it ripens in the heat of summer. Sunburn is a problem. Also have more problems with summer diseases because it ripens so early, in the heat. Fall apples are easier for me to grow.

I’d echo Lucky’s comments about your original pear choices being a siren song for fireblight. As Lucky mentions Kieffer is resistant. Most people use Kieffer to can with, although I know Lucky prefers to eat them vs. a traditional buttery texture pear which your planting choices show.

For a softer buttery type pear, you might consider Harrow Delight, or pretty much anything from the Harrow breeding program. You can identify Harrow pears because they will have “har” somewhere in their name (Harvest Queen, etc.) With the exception of Harrow Sweet, they all have good fireblight resistance, I believe.

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Chojuro is my favorite Asian pear, and in my orchard, it almost acts like Kieffer, in that it will have a few fireblight strikes here and there in the canopy almost every year, but just seems to halt progression and wall them off.
Shinko has been pretty much FB free for the nearly 30 yrs its been in the ground here.
I like Warren and Spalding, but i pick and eat them when firm… no soft pears for me, thank you.

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