@Ahmad @mamuang That makes perfect sense, I appreciate you sharing the details!
-Jim
2 Likes
Iāve got family that thinks that too many blueberries are like unicorns. You hear about them on the internet but it doesnāt actually exist. 
6 Likes
The hardest thing for me to do so far was a belt high prune at planting. It just seems so drastic. The reasoning makes sense, but for a rookie it just seems extreme to cut off so much āgoodā trunk. I trusted the internet on that though and all of my trees have responded well afterwards, so Iām glad I listened.
4 Likes
Thatās how we feel about Strawberries. We have oh so many. Lol
2 Likes
My biggest mistake: Failing to take the time to find Fall apple festivals where I could taste lots of varieties BEFORE ordering trees. Would save a lot of disappointment.
7 Likes
Basically not starting with reliable producers. Thatās mostly zone pushing. Not entirely. Some fruits are inherently high risk, such as sweet cherries.
Should have done more small fruit at the beginning too.
The multiple trees in one hole thing wasnāt so horrible. The unproductive āMericrestā nectarine went. The āRedhavenā peach stayed.
Iām not suggesting it as a strategy. Just mitigation.
2 Likes
I wish there was an apple festival of any kind around here. The most exotic varieties youāll find around here are Jonagolds and Goldrushes. The Jonagolds are diseased, bug riddled, and picked too early, so they taste pretty terrible. The Goldrushes are picked in September by the few U-picks around here, so theyāre pretty green. Iām jealous of those in the Northeast and out West. I get excited on the blue moons when Walmart carries Jonathans for a few weeks.
2 Likes
3 Mistakes:
- Buying cheap trees from bad nurseries - set me back 10 years.
- Buying trees from Lowes. Wrong varieties, wrong rootstock, mislabeled trees.
- Not supplementing my hard clay based soil with manure (processed or aged manure) and planting in raised containers.
7 Likes
I am on my third location and so here are some important things i have learnedā¦
*Plan your layout before you plant the first treeā¦ When planning, consider spacing and the size things will mature to and consider what kind of access you want between rowsā¦ If you want to run a tractor between rows of standard pear apple etc then dont plan them 15 ft apart and expect that to happen lolā¦
*Get your pollination plan incorporated into the layoutā¦
*Consider your soils and drainage and put stuff in the area more suited to its needs or tolerancesā¦
*Add manure around your trees if you want them to reach a larger size fasterā¦
*Prune to the shape you desireā¦ I prefer tall trees to get stuff above the deers reach so i prune young trees to shape a central leader. Iād rather use a fruit picker pole than share with the deer hahaā¦
*Protect your trees! From deer, from rabbits etc. I think the best deer protection method is 2"x4" wire a 3ā diameter loop around each tree for 6 ft up and an additional 2 or 3 ft tree tube or wire loop to provide rabbit protection to the young trunk.
*Plan to water them in dry summer spells and as needed the first 3 years so that they do not dieā¦
*When choosing what to grow choose things that are more likely to succede in your climate on your soilā¦, its funner to pick bushels of your 2nd favorite fruit than to fight to keep your #1 favorite fruit aliveā¦
14 Likes
I wasted money on marginally hardy items. Arbor day sold me apricot and jonathan apple that dwindled and died for example. Not to mention they were on full size rootstock so Iām actually glad they died. They would have been too big.
I mulched in a circle around my trees but theyāre such a royal pain to mow around in my mid sized yard. I will make all future mulched areas square/included in larger landscaping area.
I planted a cherry tree in a spot that gets too much shade. Itās a fungal haven.
Making rows in my garden too narrow. If itās not easy to get around in chances are youāll spend less time maintaining it. Or maybe thatās just me. 
6 Likes
PaulinKansas I don;t understand what you are saying about the 2 x 4 for deer protection. Can you explain that?
Grafting is intimidating! Donāt underestimate the fear factor when it comes to grafting. If you try grafting on the only fruit tree you have, you take the chance of killing the tree. And as someone mentioned above, then you have wasted several years on that fruit tree and will have to spend several more years to wait until you start getting fruit from another tree. For me, grafting education and trials are my 2020 projects.
3 Likes
My biggest mistake was thinking I could grow apples in
the South, and believing all of the lies that are printed in
nursery catalogs.
11 Likes
āall of the lies that are printed in
nursery catalogs.ā
Yes , this can really set you backā¦, time, $, motivation.
5 Likes
Have you looked at Kuffelcreek Nurseryās website? They are located in California and they evaluate the suitability of apple cultivars for California and the tropics. The nursery pioneered planting apples in Uganda. I think you could find some apples that would work for you on their site. There are also a lot of old Southern apples that work well in the South, Limbertwigs for example.
2 Likes
My trees are all 8ā apartā¦ rootstocks vary, I was told summer pruning would keep it in checkā¦ but others tell me itās too close 
1 Like
Be careful what you wish forā¦
So best case scenario you will be overwhelmed with a bountiful crop.
I have learned to relax about the bounty.
I used to think I had to pick, process , store, sell, give away, every good fruit,
now, most years iam overwhelmed.
Just cannot do it all. And ā¦ That is āOKā !
Could be worse!
Many people ask me what kind of fruit tree to plant if they just wanted one.
I usually tell them to not bother, as āoneā tree full of fruit around here is just enough to feed the wild life " only" !
I tell them to plant 5- 10 trees, so that after the critters get there fill, they will still have some fruit.
But in a good year, that is often too much fruit. And that is ā¦āOKā
11 Likes
My biggest mistake starting out was not planting the best variety for a particular situation. I donāt have much space to plant, just a small suburban yard. And when I was starting out, I didnāt have much money to spend on plants. So sometimes if I wanted a fruit tree, it ended up being whatever variety-on-unknown-rootstock the big box store happened to be stocking. Now I realize that varieties and rootstocks are NOT interchangeable, and I do a LOT of research before buying anything. After all, a fruit tree is a long term commitment. Itās best to choose carefully.
6 Likes
my biggest mistake is not knowing when to stop. I hate to see fruit go to waste.
4 Likes
-
Delayed attempt at grafting. Rootstocks are inexpensive and we have a great community that offers free or low-expense scions. You do not need a fancy grafting knife or expensive wrap for the graft. Some types of trees are really easy to graft.
-
When to pull the plug on a diseased, unproductive, or unpalatable tree and start over. This is a problem I am having now being relatively new to the game.
3 Likes