The thing I forgot was I live in the ‘burbs and 3’ high stuff looks like a weed pit to neighbors.
Re: landscape fabric, it worked OK for me for my blackberries as they were a major pain to weed, but they certainly had their issues.
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Same here
I grow as much bee fodder as i can
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Is there an ascension of types of fruits that are easier to graft than others? I tried grafting peach trees and failed miserably.
Yes, pome fruit like pears and apples are a lot easier to graft.
Stone fruit esp. plums, cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches are harder. Many members here including me find peaches more challenging than other fruit.
As a new beginner, starting with peach grafting is not recommended. Starting with apples and pears, you are likely to have good success. We have so many thread about grafting. Please use the symbol of a looking glass on the upper right hand corner to search for those threads.
Thank you for pointing this out. I was following the DW bandwagon and wondering about sunlight and moisture here in Oregon. I’m thinking 8ft on center is a good compromise.
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Deer damage of my apples. Had first year liberty, freedom, and Williams pride at nice spacing growing quickly, and my daughter wakes me up one weekend morning and says “dad a deer is eating the apple trees!” One deer had stripped the liberty and Williams pride to the trunk. Now they’re caged for the next few years.
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If you have the space (I think you have it) I recommend 10-12’ of spacing for trees that will be trained to an open center (recommended for stone fruits). Modified central leader and V-shape require less spacing.
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That is a great nursery to find. Thanks for the link!
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Good thread, and Merry Christmas to all. I have several things that I would have done differently.
1- Judging by how puny some of my 4th leaf apple trees have done in my first planting area, I would have prepped that area better.
I didn’t realize until later how poor the soil was until I had a soil test done a couple years later. That area has acidic soil (pH abt 5.0), and very low in nutrients. If I’d known then, I would have plowed up the whole area the year before, and laid down about 100lb of lime, some fertilizer and organic material.
I also would’ve made sure to mound up the planting areas so standing water wouldn’t be an issue like it can be in rainy times.
My other trees are in soil below the barn which had been grazing area for years, so it’s really rich, and less rocky. As a result the trees have done great.
2- I wouldn’t have planted as much stuff. We have 29 trees, and many berry (straw, blue, black, goose, tart cherry) plants. As the trees and bushes have grown, I’ve been lax in maintenance- mainly weeding, and to a lesser degree, pruning. The laxness isn’t really because I don’t have the time, it’s mostly laziness, and having other more pressing chores on the farm. In other words, I’d say don’t bite off more than you can chew.
3- I wish I’d done a better job in shaping my trees early on. Some look good, with good scaffolds and good angles, but others not so much. I can’t say it’s all my fault, as some of the trees just wouldn’t put out good scaffolds despite me doing ‘textbook’ heading and pruning cuts.
Other tree’s shapes have suffered because I had to put fencing around them to keep deer from destroying them. The fencing was too close in, and as a result, their shape is a bit too upright for my liking, especially with my stone fruit trees. I remedied this somewhat by pulling down branches by tying them to the top of the cages.
4- I would have used a different mulch for my trees. I put down straw mulch, but within a couple months, the weeds start filling in again. Next time I’m going to use wood chips.
5- Like others have mentioned, I wish I’d painted my trees down low on the trunks to prevent sunscald and borer damage. I had two apple tree suffer bad rabbit damage, and five others have scald/borer damage. Also should have put a physical barrier, like tubing or chicken wire down low to prevent rodent damage.
Since the weather’s been nice I plan on working on my trees more that the weeds are easier to pull.
I am happy with my spacings, none of my trees are crowded at all.
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Things I think I did right:
- Not putting all my eggs into one basket; aka having a variety of different species of fruit. Figs can fruit their first year vs pears take many years before you even get a taste. Keeps things interesting.
- Dense but not too dense spacing. I have found that 6-8" spacing is decent for most semi-dwarf rootstock if you ate willing to stay on top of pruning: 6’ gets you a little more different trees but 8’ lets you experiment (grafting) more and is easier to manage
- Spending a lot of time earning pruning and training early on. Learning about the different methods of pruning and training as well as the cause and effect relationship between each method has opened up a lot of possibilities as well as made me more confident in my ability to manipulate tree growth and fruiting.
- Keeping a video log / journal and reviewing it regularly. I just walk around every couple of weeks with my phone and record a 30 minute video of the state of everything and any recent events or changes that happened. At the end of the year I re-watch the videos to see what I need to work on and get a better sense of how things are progressing.
Things I did wrong:
- Being too afraid to spray for pests and disease. I finally have come to terms that in my climate spraying is pretty much a requirement if I want appealing fruit and a reasonable harvest.
- Not being regimented enough with my spray schedule. You really need to spend the time to research WHEN to start spraying, WHAT to spray and HOW OFTEN you need to reapply. Its not unreasonable to have to spray once per week if you have multiple species of fruit.
- Zone pushing. IMO It’s just not worth the measly yields you might get for all the extra effort you have to put in. Also, having a year (or more!) of work flushed down the toilet because of winter kill really sucks. My exceptions being figs (which recover and fruit quickly) and a potted Meyer lemon (which makes a great indoor plant during the winter).
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My biggest mistake in starting out growing fruit was ordering from Willis Orchards. However, I did like the Gravenstein apple tree instead of a Winesap that they sent me.
Other than that my theory was always right but often the execution was screwed up!
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Having a journal is a great idea. I think it would be a mistake not to have one. You think will remember everything but after a couple of years or a decade you forget. The video log is a neat idea as well.
I write down the variety, and rootstock of the trees I plant along with the date of planting. I also make notes about the pruning/training I am doing, the disease pressure and of course how the harvest goes. And don’t forget the weather especially if it is unusual. It is also in some cases helps to map your plantings if their complicated.
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My biggest mistake is probably in the process of occurring with these raspberries I’m about to order for zone 8. Hoping Anne, Caroline, and Prelude work out well this far south. I NEED raspberries y’all.
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I bought a Snow Queen nectarine on impulse because it is my favorite white nectarine, and matched my hardiness zone. It is highly unlikely to make good fruit outside a cold frame in my climate.
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I’ve tried Anne and Caroline. Caroline needed shade cloth but did make a few berries that were not very good quality. Anne surprising made large good tasting berries.
I too have tried zone pushing and it was a mistake wasting time, effort, and some great looking plants that didn’t make it through the summer. It took me a long time to figure out that the zone rating meant that it would survive my winters but didn’t mean squat about living through the summers here in Texas.
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Planting more than I can manage now, that I am older. Planting trees of likeness in the same area. Wished I would of planted trees with same or near same ripening time in same area for the possibility of maybe having a Pick Your Own orchard. Alleviates people all over the orchard and not in a specific area to pick.
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I do wish plants had both a max cold zone and a max hot zone. Just because something will overwinter doesn’t mean the summer won’t kill it either.
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Like anyone who’s been growing fruit, I’ve made just about every mistake possible. Most that come to mind; planting without raised beds, depending too much on disease resistant varieties (which also tend to be “people resistant”), buying into all the hype on companion planting/organic bla bla, from people who live in climates radically different from my own.
Interestingly one of my biggest mistakes was taking the evaluations of cultivars from reputable researchers too seriously. I have a naturally high respect for researchers. But they are flat wrong many times. As wrong as any of us when it comes to evaluations out in the field (when there are so many many variables).
Here is Dr. Layne (a respected peach specialist in SC) touting Rich May, a peach which was a failure not only in my orchard, but also in @blueberrythrill (NC) commercial orchard. Other members have also lamented their planting of it.
I’ve had to do my own research for peaches which are commercially viable in my locale. It’s been expensive. Some old varieties which people recommend are a joke. They say with confidence how great they are, but they are generally no longer being raised for good reason. It’s not always about color or size either.
It’s easy for people to pigeon hole commercial growers like me, into those who only grow fruit for the best color or size, but that’s an easy pigeon hole and not too accurate.
Some of the problems I’ve had with really old cultivars is that they drop fruit at the tip of a hat (which doesn’t work for even a direct marketer like me). The most problematic though is generally the lack of production of old varieties. It’s sort of like heirloom tomatoes, which taste great but generally only produce a fraction of their hybrid counterparts.
Of course there are exceptions. I grow some older variety peaches like Madison, etc. They produce like crazy and are nicely flavored. Although soft and poorly colored, I’ve been adding more of these trees.
My observation of the biggest mistakes of new fruit growers (especially those wanting to grow peaches) are:
Planting a fruit/peach tree as if it were a shade tree (like an oak). That is, plant and forget about it. No pruning, spraying, thinning, etc. This is death to a fruit tree which requires a fair level of management in my locale.
Fruit trees take a lot of care. That is the first assumption which must be embraced before any hope of success is even remotely probable.
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My biggest mistake was not understanding soil type, npk requirements, fertilizers, soil amendments usda zones, lack of automatic watering and control of it. All of these have resulted in crop failures costing $$$$.00
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I am in California, so my experience may not be applicable to others. I used intensive planting per DWN, placing 12 peaches/nectarines in a 20’x5’ planter box in two staggered rows 4’ apart, arranged by harvest dates. Of course I use summer pruning to keep the trees small. As they ripen, each tree produces enough fresh fruit for my wife and I for a week or two, which is fine for us and we freeze any excess. I am not unhappy with this arrangement, but kinda wish I had spaced them a bit further apart.it does simplify spraying and protecting them from birds and other critters (deer are not a problem in my area, just squirrels, racoons and 'possums).
I have a neighbor who tells me that I get more fruit off my little trees than he gets off his few big trees.
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