My husband and I are thinking of starting a small home orchard. We
think we have room for 9 – 10 trees. My in-laws have always had fruit
trees, so we'll be getting a lot of advice from them and also the
nursery, but I thought I'd check here also to see if anyone has some
good ideas on how to get started. I believe I am in USDA hardiness
zone 5 or 6, Sunset climate zone 3. The nurseries around here mostly
sell dwarf, late-bloomers. We are interested in planting pears,
peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, and maybe apples. If you can
answer any of my questions or direct me somewhere else, I would
greatly appreciate it. Any additional tips would be appreciated as
well.

1) I'm looking for a good reference book and have seen mixed reviews
on The Backyard Orchardist. Any other books I should investigate?

2) When varieties are listed as cross-pollinators, does it always go
both ways? For example, I read that a Bartlett pear would pollinate
an Asian pear, but I could not find anything to confirm that the Asian
pear would pollinate the Bartlett.

3) I know that peaches and nectarines are related. Will they cross
pollinate each other?

4) What are the risks of planting fruit trees in the summer? Most of
our nurseries will not be restocking for fall planting and we'd like
to get them in this year. I know we should plant early in the morning
when it's cool.

5) I'd like to also plant some raspberry bushes. Do they do OK along
a fence, or does that inhibit harvesting the backside of the plants?
Also, how wild can they get? I don't want them sending shoots into my
neighbor's yard.

Thanks for all your help.

~ Sher

sher wrote:
5) I'd like to also plant some raspberry bushes. Do they do OK along
a fence, or does that inhibit harvesting the backside of the plants?
Also, how wild can they get? I don't want them sending shoots into my
neighbor's yard.

I've planted a bunch of raspberries and yes, I do regret putting my
first plantings right up against a garage wall because when the plants
are all out and bushy...yes, it is hard to get to fruit at the back.
I'm in zone 3/4 and I've had no problems controlling them...if you
ignore them, they WILL spread but not so fast that you can't catch them.
(unlike Mint, which seems to be able to spread ten feet/three meters a
year)
A simple 8 inch/3 cm. plastic barrier along the property line seems to
halt any raspberry invasions...raspberries are very shallow rooted.

Thomas Dz.

"sher" wrote in message
om...
My husband and I are thinking of starting a small home orchard. We
think we have room for 9 - 10 trees. My in-laws have always had fruit
trees, so we'll be getting a lot of advice from them and also the
nursery, but I thought I'd check here also to see if anyone has some
good ideas on how to get started. I believe I am in USDA hardiness
zone 5 or 6, Sunset climate zone 3. The nurseries around here mostly
sell dwarf, late-bloomers. We are interested in planting pears,
peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, and maybe apples. If you can
answer any of my questions or direct me somewhere else, I would
greatly appreciate it. Any additional tips would be appreciated as
well.

1) I'm looking for a good reference book and have seen mixed reviews
on The Backyard Orchardist. Any other books I should investigate?

2) When varieties are listed as cross-pollinators, does it always go
both ways? For example, I read that a Bartlett pear would pollinate
an Asian pear, but I could not find anything to confirm that the Asian
pear would pollinate the Bartlett.

Keifer is ond that will bear fruit without a second one, but will do better
if there is one. Also, it is less suceptable to cedar blight. Bartlett is
one of the worst. Raintree Nursery can guide you in making the right
decision, and they honor their guarentee. I cant find their catalog right
now, but they are in Washington or Oregon.


3) I know that peaches and nectarines are related. Will they cross
pollinate each other?

I doubt it, but dont know for sure. Again, ask someone that sells them.

4) What are the risks of planting fruit trees in the summer? Most of
our nurseries will not be restocking for fall planting and we'd like
to get them in this year. I know we should plant early in the morning
when it's cool.

If you want a guarentee, you have to buy from a nursery and they probably
wont sell anything now until spring or possibly fall.


5) I'd like to also plant some raspberry bushes. Do they do OK along
a fence, or does that inhibit harvesting the backside of the plants?
Also, how wild can they get? I don't want them sending shoots into my
neighbor's yard.

Plant them in a row at least 20 feet from your neighbors yard, and leave
enough room for you to mow on both sides of the bushes. That way you can
control the spreading roots to some degree.

Dwayne

Thanks for all your help.

~ Sher

sher wrote:

My husband and I are thinking of starting a small home orchard. We
think we have room for 9 – 10 trees. My in-laws have always had fruit
trees, so we'll be getting a lot of advice from them and also the
nursery, but I thought I'd check here also to see if anyone has some
good ideas on how to get started. I believe I am in USDA hardiness
zone 5 or 6, Sunset climate zone 3. The nurseries around here mostly
sell dwarf, late-bloomers. We are interested in planting pears,
peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, and maybe apples. If you can
answer any of my questions or direct me somewhere else, I would
greatly appreciate it. Any additional tips would be appreciated as
well.

1) I'm looking for a good reference book and have seen mixed reviews
on The Backyard Orchardist. Any other books I should investigate?

I like Mel Westwood's text on fruit as well as Childers Modern Fruit
Science.


2) When varieties are listed as cross-pollinators, does it always go
both ways? For example, I read that a Bartlett pear would pollinate
an Asian pear, but I could not find anything to confirm that the Asian
pear would pollinate the Bartlett.

It does not always go both ways. I'd use Bosc to pollinate but upon
thinking about it I'd select Bosc over Bartlett as the variety.


3) I know that peaches and nectarines are related. Will they cross
pollinate each other?

They can pollinate each other to no detrimental effect. Peaches are
self-pollinating by wind. Bees are unnecessary.


4) What are the risks of planting fruit trees in the summer? Most of
our nurseries will not be restocking for fall planting and we'd like
to get them in this year. I know we should plant early in the morning
when it's cool.


Normal planting times are spring and late fall. Water must be given in
all cases to fill the vacuum left by air and pull the roots in. I've
been amazed by orchardists that don't water in their trees.

5) I'd like to also plant some raspberry bushes. Do they do OK along
a fence, or does that inhibit harvesting the backside of the plants?

Just so you can get around to the other side and in many of the newer
varieties you can mow down the bushes in the fall. With fences that
would not be possible.


Also, how wild can they get? I don't want them sending shoots into my
neighbor's yard.

Depends, I like varieties that spread and fill in their spaces AND that
you can cut down each fall such as Heritage. Other varieties such as
Autumn Bliss will not spread as well.


Thanks for all your help.

John Cummins
http://www.cumminsnursery.com


~ Sher

4) What are the risks of planting fruit trees in the summer? Most of
our nurseries will not be restocking for fall planting and we'd like
to get them in this year. I know we should plant early in the morning
when it's cool.

Sher,
I'd like to suggest waiting until evening to plant. This way they
get a better head start before having to deal with the sun. Another suggest
ion is to keep an eye on the weather and, if possible, plant on the last ni
ce day before a few cloudy / rainy days.

KEEP THEM WATERED. Although they may seem to have a nice root ball, the
truth is that most of the hair roots ... the ones that do the actual
feeding ... will have been damaged or severed. By the end of this season,
the hair roots will have re-established themselves.

Let us know how things turned out, eh?

Bill

--
Zone 5b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.

On 7/9/2003 2:03 PM, john cummins wrote:

5) I'd like to also plant some raspberry bushes. Do they do OK along
a fence, or does that inhibit harvesting the backside of the plants?

Just so you can get around to the other side and in many of the newer
varieties you can mow down the bushes in the fall. With fences that
would not be possible.

Also, how wild can they get? I don't want them sending shoots into my
neighbor's yard.

Depends, I like varieties that spread and fill in their spaces AND that
you can cut down each fall such as Heritage. Other varieties such as
Autumn Bliss will not spread as well.

In general all raspberries spread some are really bad other not as bad.

The Heritage is an everbearing variety that will produce 2 crops a year if they
are cut to the ground in the fall or early spring. This plant spreads by send
roots (suckers) that come up where they may. They would more than likely start
coming up on the other side of your fence, into your neighbors yard. These are
very hard to get rid of once started

I have Lathams and they are a summer bearer or only bear once in the summer. The
new and old canes grow pretty much from the same clump. They can be a little
spreading but nothing like the suckering that Heritage does. I have friend who
really like the Heritage.

Marty
Zone 5



John Cummins
http://www.cumminsnursery.com


~ Sher

On 10 Jun 2003 12:11:42 -0700, (sher) wrote:

The nurseries around here mostly
sell dwarf, late-bloomers. We are interested in planting pears,
peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, and maybe apples.

Try to get larger ones, full size or semi-dwarf. Dwarf trees are
commonly devastated by deer, at least up to 5 feet high. If the dwarf
survives to above 5 ft then it might have a chance, especially with
plastic netting and/or chicken wire layed in a 5ft radius around the
tree.

4) What are the risks of planting fruit trees in the summer? Most of
our nurseries will not be restocking for fall planting and we'd like
to get them in this year. I know we should plant early in the morning
when it's cool.

Main risk is that the trees have been laying around the nursery in a
rootbound pot for 3-4 months. The bonus is they're almost always on
sale.

If you want to risk the purchase then go for it. I just bought a 6ft
royal gala semi-dwarf apple for half price. The leaves started
falling, and it started to die when I planted it, but luckily I pruned
back some growth, limed a little bit, and now 3 weeks later it's got
bright green sprouts all over it. I believe the century-old
record-smashing 7-inch June rainfall caused some of the problems, but
luckily I installed some very good drainage around it.

5) I'd like to also plant some raspberry bushes. Do they do OK along
a fence, or does that inhibit harvesting the backside of the plants?
Also, how wild can they get? I don't want them sending shoots into my
neighbor's yard.

They can get very wild in the pacific northwest. Here in the
mid-atlantic blackberries are aggressive, but containable.

Dan