Yay! Amen, sister.

Peaches and J. plums tend to be much quicker. A peach stick can bear bushels within 4-5 years in very good conditions. You should start getting meaningful fruit in 3.

Peaches have been so good for my business. Even my 2.5" apple trees can take 3-4 years to crop heavily, more with some varieties, and the people I work for are not used to waiting for what they want.

As for apples, there are certainly some great varieties that will not keep you waiting too long, such as Zestar and Goldrush. Also, M26 and similar rootstocks will speed up the process a great deal.

I left my peaches out of my post, and probably should have mentioned them. Mine have taken about three years to really produce and they do. I left out Japanese plums because I don't like them. That said, yes, those trees can speed up the process. Thanks H-man! My focus was apples and european plums. Mrs. G

I'm glad that you're seeing light,..yes, the tunnel can get very long.

Yes, I've yet to find a E plum that bears real young, but Citation knocks off a couple years from the wait.

I am in year 2 for most of my 80 fruit tree plantings, lost all my peaches this spring to a late freeze so i was pretty much shut out for tree fruit but my 2nd year blackberries sure helped fill the fruit void, boy those triple crown berries were sure tasty. Planting some berries along with fruit trees can usually give new fruit growers the taste of home grown fruit in year 2 while waiting for the trees to do their thing.

Chris, I am sorry for your loss of trees, and you're in GA!!! Growing fruit trees is not for sissies'! Replant, it will be worth it. I didn't even get to 'force majeure'. Mrs. G

Thanks MrsG!

And let's not forget all the different variables in the equation based on location, species, and variety of fruit too… Where I am spraying is just about the last thing that impacts whether or not you will have fruit (it is just not necessary and most people don't do it), after freak cold snaps, late spring frosts, poor pollination, hailstorms, etc...

In terms of precocity, it sounds like you are mostly talking about apples, which I have found to be very slow too, but on the other hand, apricots, like the peach trees you mentioned grow quickly and can produce in a hurry.

It is funny you would mention grapes along with berries as something to harvest while you wait for tree fruits, because I have found the exact opposite to be true -- grapes have taken 3, 4, or more years to get going, while apricots, peaches, plums, mulberries, and even some apples have been more in the 2 to 3 year ballpark. Of course you are right about berries, at least brambles, which will nearly always come into production by year 2.

I do wish there were some more folks on this forum from my neck of the woods though!

I think harvestman may have said this a while back, that gardening is the drug of entry for having an orchard. It certainly worked out that way for me, and so much for the better. If you can maintain a successful garden year in and year out, you can easily grasp a somewhat different skill set needed for fruit trees and other fruiting plants. It's just an extension of the same basic concepts. That doesn't mean to plant your trees the same way that you plant tomatoes. You should already know (through trial and error) that you have to plan and keep things small in the beginning. :)

Had you started with a garden you would have already learned so many valuable lessons, mostly about yourself, your strengths and limitations, but also about your locale.

Considering my age, I have no plans to plant apples or E plums. plus moving in a few years, I'll be in my 70's before fruit comes. No point. I will plant peaches though!
The berries and vegetable garden is enough for me actually. Very fun, easily rewarded. This year was the first year I was able to have garden product in my meals everyday. Some days I had garden product for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Very cool!
Also where I live apples and E plums are excellent at the farmer's market, so not like I have to go without. I didn't consider the time, I decided not to grow them as excellent product is available, peaches are hit and miss.Thanks for info, sounds like a made a good choice not to grow, Cider mills abound in this area. I do forage apples from a number of abandoned orchards. I enjoy foraging a lot, Mulberries, mushrooms, raspberries, and blackberries are all over the place.
At some of the abandoned orchards are trees with hardly any pest damage. Interesting. One virtually had no worm holes at all. The flesh is red, makes excellent juice.

"drug of entry" , Mr. Clint, I think that might be your coinage, but I like it.

Mrs.G

I am glad that you wrote this thread. There are nothing come easy in a backyard orchard, continuing learning, caring, hard work, trial and error, and patience. I used my orchard as a means of relaxation. After 8-10 hrs passing gas in the OR for ruptured AAA or colon resection, I am at peace in my edible landscape.

Tony

We all have one common bond. We have a thing for being outisde, getting our hands dirty, watching things grow. eating the fruits of our labor, and sharing our experiences with everyone on this forum. To our nongrowing friends, we're all a little bit off, but that's their problem, because we don't have one, and we eat a lot better than they do..

Drew, if it helps, my mom is going to be 91 and is enjoying the new fruit trees we are adding. Even if it is just a couple of fruits that we leave on.

While we are being honest, I am not loving those Triple Crown Blackberries (though they do root quite quickly if a cane touches soil) The flavor tastes like a rotten berry to me, do they get better as the plant ages? Glad I only planted two)

I think I was lucky with fruit trees. My first apple trees were Liberty from a local nursery, they are very fruitful every year and also disease resistant so I got apples the first year off of pretty good sized trees. It's a good idea to start with fruit trees like that so you are more successful early on and not put off.

Mr. Clint, I have had gardens my entire life. I started gardening with my father at a very early age. He enjoyed hybridizing orchids. Hands in the dirt is just something I grew up with and just will not change. My gardens by the way are still with me; both veg and perennial. I waited until I had time for an orchard. I still write and paint avidly. With two books under my belt ('A Garden of Recipes' and 'A Botanical Touch') you can see my love of growing things is not new. I do have a pal that saw my orchard and wants to replicate a smaller version on her property. She has a gardener to do all of the work, will not listen to anything regarding spraying but wants fruit just the same. She has never gardened. H-man she needs your help! Thank you all for your in-put. More needs to be said about watering and soil. Also, Fabaceae, I think apricots are far easier to grow in your zone. Fruitnut's picutures of his yearly apricots leave me wishing my trees would speed up! Thanks, AGAIN!

I started planting apple trees in 2009 because I liked the apples I got from 2 trees I planted in 1999. Since then I've planted a total of approx. 200 trees, about 60% apple, 25% cherry, and the rest plum, pear, and peach.

So far my major lessons are:

1. Check multiple sources for zone ratings. I bought and planted 50 Van Cherry trees 3 years ago and lost them all this past very harsh winter. When I began looking for replacements I found most suppliers rated them Zone 5 vs. the Zone 4 from where I purchased them.

2. 1/2 dozen peach trees planted last year all died above the graft. Hope to graft on to the surviving rootstocks in the future. I'm still skeptical about peaches in central MN but will try again.

3. For me plums have been easy and early bearing.

4. lots and lots of parasitic organisms like apples.

5. birds will strip a cherry tree of every single cherry (even the unripe ones) in a single day.

6. pheasants don't like crabapples but will eat them when it snows heavily in April 3 times like this year. (I had as many as 5 birds in a tree at once.)

7. this is a great forum. Orchard management is not for anyone that is easily frustrated.

Yes, the old landscaper's adage of 'the best time to plant a tree?' A: 20 years ago. The second best time is right now. For orchadists it is A: 5 years ago.

http://www.starkbros.com/blog/how-many-years/

http://www.starkbros.com/blog/nut-trees-how-many-years-until-harvest/

http://www.starkbros.com/blog/how-many-years-berries/

Thinning can help avoid alternate bearing, but in arid or windy environments preventing fruiting the first 2-3 years by removing ASAP (dime sized) helps establish roots for a better growth and yields for the rest of the fruit tree's life.

If you want instant gratification plant melons or papaya. :-)

This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 13:16

Great comments by both oldryder and fascist! Lessons are the best way to learn almost anything. Just listen! Mrs. G

Drew, if it helps, my mom is going to be 91 and is enjoying the new fruit trees we are adding. Even if it is just a couple of fruits that we leave on.

Yes I forget that really the journey is the prize, It really doesn't matter if they bear or not!

4. lots and lots of parasitic organisms like apples.

Oldryder, that reminds me that this was the real reason i wanted to wait on apples. It's tough to get them without problems.
The worst is I'm moving in 3 or 4 years so I feel like I'm frozen in amber. I can't do anything and time is going by. I decided to concentrate on herbs and vegetables and learn how to grow them. Tomatoes and peppers are very rewarding to grow. I'm keeping five pepper plants. 4 I'm turning into Bonsai plants. One I want to turn into a tree!
Here is the cultivar
Manzano Pepper, Orange - (Capsicum pubescens ) Extremely hot, orange
colored pepper looking much like the habanero. This pepper is a rocoto
tree pepper relative and is noted for its cold hardiness, as it naturally
grows on Andean mountain slopes, this pepper will survive several
degrees below freezing. Plants grow to 2-6ft, can live for many years.

I like the unusual, also i discovered if you boil the peppers in salt water about 4 times, it removes the heat, and are great stuffed. They look like small oranges! Well not really but look cool.The tree is doing fine, 3 feet tall the first year. Hope to get it to 6 feet. 2 weeks inside so far under lights.
No leaf loss. Here is the fruit
{{gwi:125793}}

Being a rare Capsicum pubescens species pepper, it's not like your normal peppers. The seeds are black. Anyway stuff like this is keeping me occupied and extents the growing season to indoors. I want to grow more plants indoors to keep me busy. Here is a cross section of the pepper. A thick walled pepper great for stuffing. Can be used in the Rocoto Relleno dish.
{{gwi:125794}}

@tonytran, fruit trees are pretty easy in my locale. I jumped on the DWN, BYOC, successive ripening train and rode it all the way into fresh-fruit-every-day-town.

@rayrose, well said.

@harvestman, now I remember, you called gardening a "gateway drug" into orchard keeping. Sorry for misquoting you. :)

@Drew51, I'm right there with you, the pluot or peach is no more important to me than the best tasting onion, hot pepper or spinach. Each has its place on my plate and each has its season.

MC, I didn't even remember terming it a "gateway drug", but I like that too.