Home Orchard

[Larry Caldwell]

The gooseberries are a great idea. I had a great aunt when I was a kid who made gooseberry jam. It was wonderful stuff.

I also didn't know there were commercial strains of pawpaw. I might order some next year.

Has anyone tried the blight resistant chestnuts? Of course, I'm about 2000 miles from the nearest American chestnut, though there are Chinese chestnuts around here. It might be futile. I already have walnut trees, but don't get many walnuts because the wildlife carries them off as soon as they hit the ground.

 

[forgeblast]

Larry is seems the forest service and then members of the american chestnut society are the first to get the blight resistant crosses.
I have planted a few american chestnut trees from a company that says they were around blight but didnt develop it. There is canopy where they are at so its slow growing for them now.
It will be nice to have chestnuts back in the forests, I want to plant a ton on our property. They have also made a blight resistant filbert(eastern filbert blight)aka hazelnut.
I forgot we have nectarines and peaches and two halls hardy almonds.

 

[Jstpssng]

Is anyone else getting a homestead orchard started. This is not a commercial orchard, it's just fruit for us and maybe the neighbors and friends. This place had some really old fruit trees when we bought it, but they are almost on their last legs, still giving fruit but half rotten, hollow, and likely to fall over any time. For replacement, I have been planting an assortment:

Apples: two gravenstein, a granny smith, a Fuji, a gala, and a honeycrisp.

Pears: a Bartlett, an Anjou an Asian, and a Bosc that didn't make it.

A fig.

An apricot.

A red plum and a Brooks prune.

Two bing cherries, a royal Ann and a pie cherry.

I have seen some other trees that make fruit around here that are not local. I know of one persimmon tree, and peaches are common. I'm also thinking of getting a few grapes going, just table and juice grapes.

Any other suggestions for a homestead orchard?

That seems like a pretty nice mix to me. I might also add a "winter apple" for storing, just because I like fresh fruit. (I buy a bushel of Northern Spy every year, even without a decent root cellar they last through Jan, when I run out.)

I have 2 grapevines, a cortland, and some summer variety which was growing wild when I bought this place. Also a pear tree which I grafted from an old tree on my family homestead.... not sure what kind but it probably came over from the "old country" at some point.
I plan to plant several "antique apples next year, plus a few nut trees and plums.

 

[MossRoad]

We have three apple trees; yellow delicious, red delicious and granny smith.
Two sour cherry trees for pies.
One freestone peach.
Two appricot.
Two nectarine.
One pear.
Two filberts.
Three grape vines.
It turned 80 degrees in early March, they all budded out, then if froze hard two or three times in late April and early May.... we lost everything for this year.
Only fruit will be strawberries and raspberries this year.

 

[California]

This place had some really old fruit trees when we bought it, but they are almost on their last legs

Any other suggestions for a homestead orchard?

Persimmon?

As for your old trees - I have a little one-horse apple orchard (11 acres) that once supported a family but has been operated together with a neighbor's larger operation for the past 60 years. I think it was planted 100% Gravensteins initially in about 1905. 5~10% of the trees in the orchard today are gnarly original Gravensteins over 100 years old.

I think you can save your old trees with some pruning to better distribute the weight of limbs. In this picture, there were just occasional small branches protruding from a solid jungle of blackberries. This row down in the back had been abandoned because it is too steep to disc. (there's a 10 ft dropoff to the next aisle below). The blackberries here must have gotten ahead of the herbicides they used to use. When I cleared access to these trees, I found some had long 2x4's spanning from one side of the tree to the opposite side to halt splitting that had already begun back then. I think my grandfather, a retired engineer, had placed those braces in the 1950's. The trees are still standing today, and bearing, after decades of neglect and random growth to reach daylight through that jungle. I added 4x4 props angled back toward the trunk (so the disc won't hit them) on some heavy limbs that looked ready to fall off. I haven't lost a limb yet, and the trees are back in commercial production.

We have family trees in random spots in the orchard. Several varieties of Pears (very productive), Peach (the deer get most of them before we can), Walnuts (squirrels?? get all of them immediately) Lemon (We thought it didn't bear well. Then this year we hung No Trespassing flagging all over it and we have tons of lemons. Suspects unknown, but likely human). Orange, Fig. Too young to bear. Two mature Hachiya Persimmon trees. These are like a cup of jam when ripe, but few people like them. The Fuyu variety is more popular today.

Persimmon tree down in back.

Fuji apples are excellent for cold storage. We have a dedicated refrigerator and we are still pulling out apples in excellent condition now, in May. The recommendation for this is 32* temperature. I think not storing anything but apples in that refrigerator helps preserve them.

 

[oldballs]

Forty years ago I planted 20 assorted variety fruit trees in my orchard. Being a newbie city boy, it took a lot of study and labor. But with a hearty wife and four kids along with big gardens, strawberries, grapes and a knowledgeable MIL we enjoyed it. The MRS was good at processing the fruits and vegatables along with the many hands we had and we ate well.

At first I did the spray cycles but gradually got away from all that and just let nature take it's course. Some years were good, some weren't as you might expect. Any orchard or garden can produce more than a family can consume, even with freezing, canning and other storage methods.

Now at 80 years old and just a few interested children/grandchildren there are still some trees producing and God has given me the health to still maintain a large garden without the MRS, MIL and kids. Some of it is given away. It is a good life.

 

[ultrarunner]

I have to chuckle... bought my first home from a Swiss Family with roots in Sonoma.

Can't think of the horticulturist at the moment... anyway the Swiss people were friends of his. (Bancroft???)

The little 1922 city home had apples with several varieties on each tree, plums, persimmons, apricot, peach, nectarine, lemon and oranges...

When I moved I rented the home to a family and the mini orchard became a constant source of problem for me... the family wanted all the trees removed because the rotting fruit attracted yellow jackets... when they moved in the ground as spotless.

I suggested they use the produce from the yard and was told they only eat "Perfect" fruit... can't help some people.

The best apple tree gave up the ghost when it was 74 years old... have a black and white when they planted in 1923...

 

[California]

...Swiss Family with roots in Sonoma. ... Can't think of the horticulturist at the moment... anyway the Swiss people were friends of his.

Luther Burbank? Legend has it that he started out near here, then abandoned this farm and moved to Santa Rosa after he was defeated by gophers. He gave the first farm to the local cemetery district.

 

[dmccarty]

We want to plant an orchard. Though we have lots of land we have limited space due to lot lines, the house, well, driveway, septic field, and the forest. There is a strip of trees between the house and one property line. We own both sides of the property line but we are trying to keep the orchard located on one parcel. The trees need to go for the orchard and though the trees are away from the house if they fall they could hit the house. They gots to go.

Once the trees are gone we will have a maybe an acre of land to expand the garden and grow some fruit trees. The apples will be dwarf or mayb semi dwarf. I have a list of varieties that are rust resistant which is a must have for us since the woods are filled with cedar. With the deer and tree rats we will have to fence in the orchard. A neighbor has a few peach trees and they have gotten very few fruit over the years because of the tree rats and deer.

I really want to plant some Paw Paw trees though I have never had the fruit. I do remember a Paw Paw tree I found, with fruit, when I live in KY. I knew it was a Paw Paw but for some reason I did not try it. I kick myself now. :laughing:

Apples need certainly varieties for pollination though a crab apple will usually pollinate most varieties. We want the Apples for eating but also for making cider.

We also want to plant Blueberries, cherry, figs and a couple Pecan trees would be nice. Maybe next winter I will build some raised containers to grow strawberries.

So much to do and so little time....

Later,
Dan

 

[MossRoad]

We want to plant an orchard. Though we have lots of land we have limited space due to lot lines, the house, well, driveway, septic field, and the forest. There is a strip of trees between the house and one property line. We own both sides of the property line but we are trying to keep the orchard located on one parcel. The trees need to go for the orchard and though the trees are away from the house if they fall they could hit the house. They gots to go.

Once the trees are gone we will have a maybe an acre of land to expand the garden and grow some fruit trees. The apples will be dwarf or mayb semi dwarf. I have a list of varieties that are rust resistant which is a must have for us since the woods are filled with cedar. With the deer and tree rats we will have to fence in the orchard. A neighbor has a few peach trees and they have gotten very few fruit over the years because of the tree rats and deer.

I really want to plant some Paw Paw trees though I have never had the fruit. I do remember a Paw Paw tree I found, with fruit, when I live in KY. I knew it was a Paw Paw but for some reason I did not try it. I kick myself now. :laughing:

Apples need certainly varieties for pollination though a crab apple will usually pollinate most varieties. We want the Apples for eating but also for making cider.

We also want to plant Blueberries, cherry, figs and a couple Pecan trees would be nice. Maybe next winter I will build some raised containers to grow strawberries.

So much to do and so little time....

Later,
Dan

I just discovered Paw Paws growing next door. They are an "acquired" tasted. I do not care for them very much. So, I would recommend eating them first, before planting them. :thumbsup: