I recently purchased a home in Queens, NY. In the backyard there is a
peach tree with roughly 100 growing peaches, a small fig tree with
mostly shade, and grapes which are growing horizontally along a fence.
I also would love to add a pear tree from a pit that I cracked and
have the seed from. I am new to all this so any suggestions or tips
are very much welcomed. Thanks in advance.

On 13 Jun 2003 11:28:39 -0700, (Ray G.)
wrote:

I recently purchased a home in Queens, NY. In the backyard there is a
peach tree with roughly 100 growing peaches, a small fig tree with
mostly shade, and grapes which are growing horizontally along a fence.
I also would love to add a pear tree from a pit that I cracked and
have the seed from. I am new to all this so any suggestions or tips
are very much welcomed. Thanks in advance.

If you have the room for a pear tree, go get one & do not rely on a
seed. The seed will not necessarily grow to the fruit variety from
which you obtained it, and it may not be a variety hearty to Queens.

If you have access to a car or can manoeuver by train, there are an
awful lot of wonderful nurseries on Long Island and I bet there are
in Queens, too, or you might be able to find what you want online.

Thy asking around here for local recommendations & advice:
http://ny.gardenweb.com/forums/nygarden/

Oh...protect that fig over the winter....I lost mine here in NJ last
winter(.


Finding plants that grow well in your zone is a great step up on
success. That said, I am an inveterate seed planter & will take almost
any kind of pit, pip or seed & drop in a bucket of dirt just to see
what comes up.

Boron

Thanks Boron,

Can anyone else help especially if you have any ideas or helpful hints
my grapes. Also this weekend, I noticed a nice size drop off off
my peach tree. I was once told remove any fruit that has fallen off
the tree. How important is that ans is it normal to have 10+ peaches
drop off like this especially this early??

(Ray G.) wrote:

How important is that ans is it normal to have 10+ peaches
drop off like this especially this early??

A friend who knows more about this than I (Don't get too arrogant, Voni,
that ain't hard to achieve) suggests that this is likely normal behavior.
If the tree had really good pollination and heavy fruit set, there may be
too many for it mature well, so it drops the excess. Are there still good
numbers of peaches on it?

Rain today, earlier than predicted. What a shock.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

In fact, if there are really a lot of little peaches it might be good to
"fruit prune". This is removing some of the peaches so the ones remaining
will grow bigger. Peaches are one of the easiest fruits for southern New
York.


"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
(Ray G.) wrote:

How important is that ans is it normal to have 10+ peaches
drop off like this especially this early??

A friend who knows more about this than I (Don't get too arrogant, Voni,
that ain't hard to achieve) suggests that this is likely normal behavior.
If the tree had really good pollination and heavy fruit set, there may be
too many for it mature well, so it drops the excess. Are there still good
numbers of peaches on it?

Rain today, earlier than predicted. What a shock.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

I just got done pruning about 50 little peaches from one tree alone in order to
increase the size of the remaining peaches and also to relieve some pressure on
the limbs. My peaches don't thin by themselves, I have to do it. Thin in
either case is good for the tree and the peaches.

Marty
Northern Illinois - -zone 5

On 6/18/2003 5:04 PM, Tom Eisenman wrote:
In fact, if there are really a lot of little peaches it might be good to
"fruit prune". This is removing some of the peaches so the ones remaining
will grow bigger. Peaches are one of the easiest fruits for southern New
York.


"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...

(Ray G.) wrote:


How important is that ans is it normal to have 10+ peaches
drop off like this especially this early??

A friend who knows more about this than I (Don't get too arrogant, Voni,
that ain't hard to achieve) suggests that this is likely normal behavior.
If the tree had really good pollination and heavy fruit set, there may be
too many for it mature well, so it drops the excess. Are there still good
numbers of peaches on it?

Rain today, earlier than predicted. What a shock.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at www.albany.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1200' elevation. NY WO G

Thanks for all these tips. I will be sure to use them. Does anyone
have any suggestions my grapes?

Ray,
Grapes grow in most soil types and are easy to grow. The biggest thing about
grapes is in the pruning and training of them. The pruning of the grape vine is
where you reduce the old wood so that new vine growth is promoted and on the new
growth is where the grapes grow. New growth will occur even if the vine is not
pruned so you should get grapes without doing anything to the vines. Pruning
should take place in the late winter, well before the vines begin to bud. It
helps to know what variety of grape you have because there are different pruning
methods for different varieties. I have 6 different kind of grapes; Concord,
King of the North, Reliance seedless, Catawba, Wordon and seedless Concord. I
prune all my grapes the same, I don't follow the different methods. The
different methods are based on how many buds are left on the vine after pruning.

This spring I called my mom (the cause of my fruit growing passion (4 peach, 3
pear, 6 apples, 2 cherry, nectarine, blackberries, red, gold and black
raspberries, currants and blueberries)) and told her I killed my grapes by
pruning real hard. By the way I call her every spring and tell this same story,
I don't know why. And she always says just wait and she is always right,
because right now my grapes look great. I should post the pictures of the
pruned vine versus what the grapes look like now. It is really neat how grapes
grow and so quickly.

Ray, don't prune your grapes now, it will just hurt them. Let them go this
season and look up grape pruning where ever you can. You should have grapes
this year and more next year if you prune. Plan to prune in late Jan to late
March. Don't prune to late or the grapes will bleed.

I hope this helps a little. If you have a specific question let us know.

Marty
Northern Illinois - zone 5

On 6/19/2003 1:16 PM, Ray G. wrote:
Thanks for all these tips. I will be sure to use them. Does anyone
have any suggestions my grapes?