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| I am new on this forum.
Just acquired a property large enough to plant few fruit trees. Would anyone be willing to share their experience with starting a mini-orchard? I know this has to be carefully planned. From personal experience - what to avoid (beside being very inpatient, lol)?
Thank you ahead,
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| I would give a lot of consideration to rootstock selection. What kind of tree do you want 20' or 8'? Do you want to have to provide tree support? Do you want to have to prune a lot? Can you provide water? (depending on your annual rainfall). Vigor,precocity, hardiness, soil type, anchorage, disease resistance should all be taken into consideration. I have found that the perfect rootstock does not exist. There are trade offs in one characteristic or another. This is why I asked that you consider what you want out of your trees. Enjoy the journey the planning and learning are part of the fun. |
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| Bruce Thank you. Is there any trees that should not grow close in order to avoid spread of some diseases? (I know about cedar-apple rust for example). Rina |
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- Posted by maplerbirch 4 (My Page) on Mon, Sep 17, 12 at 19:45
| Driving around the neighborhood and seeing who has nice fruit and what varieties they've selected, can give you ideas of what has worked well, of things you like. You may want to start looking at the soil now, so if changes are needed the ground will have the winter to mellow, if you make major ammendment changes. When you decide on plants, ask the nurseryman(person)about any possible disease problems. |
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| If you're thinking about growing nut trees, check out the level of the squirrel population. |
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| Rina, Aside from cedar apple rust, which if you have them around i understand with in 2 miles it is a problem. Either spray for it or go with resistant varieties. The only things I have read about is some varieties susceptible to a tomatoe virus and one mention of a virus from cane fruits. this is apples. I posed the ? here and got no response so I assume that neither are a big issue. I am pretty much a beginner, there are truly knowledgable people here who know a lot. I started back through the old posts when I first found this and found it worthwhile |
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| One thing I notice is that a lot of people plant a lot more trees than they need to. In an effort to have lots of varieties and all the correct pollinator combinations, and to have all kinds of fruit in long seasons, they might plant enough trees to provide -quite literally- tons of fruit every year in just a few years. Even one semi-dwarf apple can give you bushels of fruit. Pears, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries ... they can all come through for you nicely, but they won't help you use it. Why, in no time at all you'll be packing produce to the food bank and hiring help to put up all the preserves you need to make to use it all. So maybe start a little small- choose a favorite apple, a favorite apricot or peach and maybe a cherry and/or plum, and get those going. Learn about the pests/diseases in your neighborhood and figure out how you're going to deal with them. Are you doing berries and such too? That has always tempted me, but I just don't have much space. I would like to talk SO into a grapevine, though. I don't have room for many trees so I try to get varieties by having multi-grafted trees. That is, my one apple tree has over a dozen varieties, and my pear about ten. But that's a whole 'nother thing, and you don't have to rush into it. A lot of fun, though. Good luck, Mark |
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| Thanks everyone for suggestions, remarks. I have way too much to learn. I do have enough room, but am realistic enough to go slowly at it. But as couple of you suggested, driving around & observing what others in the area are growing is great idea - also good way to meet new neighbours?! Rina |
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| Do be aware that any appropriate tree within a few blocks will provide pollen for your trees. And ornamental crab apple trees are good pollenators too for your culinary apples. While chatting with your new neighbors you can find out what they have. There are plums, apples, apricots and cherries all over in my area, an older part of town. |
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- Posted by maplerbirch 4 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 18, 12 at 7:05
| Blueberries from seed is an amazing feat to me. I always wanted to do things like that to see what new genetic mixes came up. |
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| marknmt That is a good tip, thank you - will save some space & $$$ & work. maplebirch He grew them from a blueberry 'too soft to eat'; so we don't know what it is, not even where the fruit came from (he didn't think of keeping container or record growers name).    Rina |
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