We just fenced a small pasture with deer fencing an d are now planning our new veg. garden. We will also have room for a small greenhouse and I am also planning to keep the hens in there.[ Hopefully coyote proof] We are planning a new orchard in there and I will have room for about 6 or 8 dwarf fruit trees. Its been quite a job trying to decide what type of trees to plant and what varieties. Both hubby and I have our own favorites. Got me to thinking, what kinds of fruit would you plant and what varieties, if you could only have 6 trees? Also why would you choose that particular tree?

-- Judy Schumacher (TootlesTheBrit@aol.com), January 24, 2002

Answers

Lemon (nice to add a real zing to foods), although in your area you might have to containerize it (on wheels for ease of movement) so you can bring it in on cold nights.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 24, 2002.

Apples! They're hardy, and I can't think of a more versatile fruit, not too mention they store well, the perfect homestead fruit!

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), January 24, 2002.

6=trees 1 plum ( not prune type ) 2 cherry any kind 1 apple that has different kinds ( been spliced ) 1 apple granny smith

-- julie (jbritt@ceva.net), January 24, 2002.

6=trees 1 plum ( not prune type ) 2 cherry any kind 1 apple that has different kinds ( been spliced ) 1 apple granny smith 1 peach ;)That is my choice then add to it.

-- julie (jbritt@ceva.net), January 24, 2002.

Where you are at has much to do with what you can choose.

Outside of a heated greenhouse citrus of even the most hardy sort is not an option for folks north of the Deep South. Here in North Florida you can forget about cherries and most varieties of plums.

I'd say if you're limited to just six trees I'd make two of them apples and two of them pears. Between the two you can do quite a lot. There's at least two or three varieties of each that'll grow nearly anywhere in the U.S.

The remaining two trees would have to depend on location.

..........Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), January 24, 2002.

Only six! yikes that is hard.

have you considered, belgian fence or espalier style trees?

eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/garden/Fruit/espalier.html

What is your growing zone? 3 or 9, that naturally limits kinds & varieties that will thrive for you.

personally i am hard pressed to name something better than an apple off the tree [easy storage too], well maybe a sun warmed peach... and of course pears-european or asian out produce everything else.

plums are fun ,but one is expected to make jam for everyone & cherries have such a short harvest season, a short window for persimmons as well but large #'s at harvest.

i like the idea of a rolling citrus grove & it fruits when nothing else is and takes up little of your pasture!

-- bj pepper in C. MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), January 24, 2002.

Alan, you can get dwarf (2-3 feet high) citrus, and bring them into the garage or a glassed in sunroom (if you have one) when it is cold. No, they don't do well in areas with really cold winters (i.e. snow on a regular basis), but with a little thought and effort, they can do well in more areas than one would think.

I know people in the San Francisco Bay area who have citrus, outside, year round, and they do fine. Also, even in in Southern CA you get the occasional freeze (they use smudge pots and fans in the groves), so a small one you could haul in and out wouldn't be too impractical.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 24, 2002.

Alan,

If Atlantic.net covers the area I'm thinking of you can surely find the ag center at the University. Their research gardens are beautiful and bountiful as Eden. They hold plant sales regularly.

Everyone can grow something wherever they live, and NorthCentral Florida is no different.

We are north of you. We grow many different kinds of edible trees, shrubs, vines, as well as manure crops, grains, pasture grasses, and of course a prolific veggie garden. This week we are planting potatoes!

See your ag extension agent, get a ph test done, and then visit the ag center to choose your favorites from knowledgeble people.

Good luck and happy growin'!

-- Michaela (flhomestead@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002.

Hi Judy, be sure to find out if the tree variety that you plant are self feritle or not. It will make a big difference in your choice. I would plant two peach , a pear, two apples (one for eating and one for cooking, and a cherry . I started my orchard last year (space is not a factor). I planted 2 fig, 4 peach, 10 apples, 8 blueberries, 2 cherry, 2 plum, 6 blackberry, 5 raspberry, two pear,3 pecan,12 mucadines and 2 seedless grapes! Only lost one fig and a plum so I thought that was great. Good luck and let us know what you plant!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), January 24, 2002.

I planted 30 fruit trees when I moved back to the Country 6 years ago. I sure do like fresh peaches off the tree!! I have sweet cherries-not bearing :(, sour cherries, pears, peaches, plums-mixed luck with these, and apples. I also have elderberries (great lovely landscaping for large spaces), raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and anything else I could find to plant. I would suggest planting IMMEDIATELY. You have to wait for most to bear. Mine have born slowly because the soil is acidic (I am repairing it). Try to make sure your trees aren't in a low area ("collects" frost). I would opt for the peach trees over and over again. Store peaches are hard baseballs. I have a Reliance peach that is wonderful. Bosc pears are luscious. Real plums - European prune plums are exquisite fresh. A heavy bearing apple (two different ones to make applesauce - gives a nicer flavor. Maybe Winesap and Cortland). Good luck! Have fun and PLANT NOW!!

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), January 24, 2002.

Michaela,

UF is only a stone's throw from me and I've pretty well looted them out of useful info. Pretty much all of it is online now through their Edis database at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

We just bought the DunHagan property last Fall and I've been a planting fool ever since December.

I've either already planted or have sitting out back waiting to go into the ground:

4 apple trees - 2 Annas, 1 Golden Dorsett, 1 Tropic Sweet. 3 pear trees - 1 Hood, 1 Flordahome, 1 Golden Boy 12 blue berry bushes - 6 each of Tifblue and Powderblue 3 pecan trees - Elliot, Stuart, Desirable 3 fig trees - Celeste, Brown Turkey, Osborne Prolific 1 Chickasaw plum - primarily ornamental but sometimes has fruit 1 pomegranate - variety Wonderful 3 Cattley guavas 1 Manzanillo olive 3 swamp chestnut oaks 3 camellias - Don Mac, Pink Perfection, Rebel Yell

Of course, that's not all I'm going to put in but we're already getting warm weather so I may have to stop there for the deciduous fruits until next winter. I'll put in peaches and the few plum varieties that are recommended for Florida then and maybe some persimmons. The place came with two persimmons already but weather they're reclaimable or not I won't know until this summer. Also had a muscadine grape arbor too so I'll probably punch in bunch grapes to compliment it.

Don't know about the tropical/semi-tropical stuff yet. Depends on how busy I get this spring/summer. I'm looking at cold hardy avacado, satsumas, grapefruit and oranges. Of course, I'm far enough north that all of those are somewhat chancy given our winters of the last few years. That's the annoying thing about North Florida - too many hard freezes to make tropical fruits very safe yet not enough chill hours to have much luck with all but a very few varieties of decidous fruits. Fortunately UF has really been working on low-chill blueberries.

........Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), January 24, 2002.

For ease of handeling the fruit I would seek trees with different blooming times so you do not have feasts one month and nothing other times.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 24, 2002.

"North Star" sour cherry. Wonderful trees, great fruit, and they are natural dwarf trees. Apples for the smell of the blossoms in the spring! "Jonagold" is a terrific variety, and a winter keeper.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), January 24, 2002.

I think a lot of it has to do with where you are located.

I could grow some hardy cherries here, zone wise, but black knot is so rampant around here that it would be a waste of time to even try.

I have limited space, and I have planted 3 semi-dwarf apple trees (Honeycrisp, Sweet Sixteen, and Duchess of Oldenberg) selected for their type, flavour, zone hardiness, and disease resistance (as well as nostalgia -- my grandmother had a Duchess and it was a wonderful multi-purpose apple). I also planted a Ballerina type apple tree, Northpole, out of curiosity, and as a test, because it can be put into a pocket-sized area. If it works out, I may use them elsewhere along a fenceline where they are out of the way, hide the fence from the inside view, and produce a crop.

Peaches, nectarines, citrus, apricots, and most pears are out of the question around here. Plums are more likely, and useful if you like plums -- if you don't have a use for them, then it's pointless. I'd love to have a fig outdoors, but since I can't, I have one in a pot that I am trying to grow for a crop and haul into the semi-heated portion of the house to overwinter.

I am experimenting with bush fruits as well -- Juneberries and Honeyberries (lonicera), Black currants & Jostaberries, all of which grow well around here, and domestic elderberries. Some of those can approach the size of a dwarf tree at their full size.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), January 24, 2002.

Judy

May I ask what type of fence material you used (is it 8 feet high?), where did you acquire it?

Thanks

-- Rick (WV) (Rick_122@hotmail.com), January 24, 2002.

We live in apple country in Washington and some time ago they had a taste test of all the apples grown in our area and the one with the most votes went to Fuji and second to Gala. We personally love the Fuji as it is an excellant storage and fresh eating apple. The Fuji's you buy in the stores do not give it justice. They will keep in the root cellar until late spring if we don't eat them all. They are also grown organic locally. I was able to get several 50-60 lb boxes of organic direct from an orchardist for $10.00 each in October. Delicious!!

-- (Mamafila@aol.com), January 24, 2002.

Judy, As you can see from the replies so far, you are plugged in to what could be the world's best source of homesteading knowledge - people who have done it, learned from others successes and failures as well as their own, and are well qualified to give advice. If only they would give a clue to where they live, their advice would be invaluable, especially to me, a retiree now living and learning gardening these last nine years on the central Oregon coast. For twenty years previously, we (family of four) raised our own meat (did our own butchering, except steers) and vegetables a mere 130 miles south west of here, in a microclimate (read "Frostpocket") at a 1000 feet in a narrow east-west valley and toward the end, were starting to get it right. Almost none of that hard-won knowledge applies here, so at the risk of appearing to be a whinger, PLEASE help out Judy and me with at least a USDA Zone with your tips. It will make them valuable. Thanks.

-- griff in OREGON (XPat@hangnail.com), January 24, 2002.

You might enjoy a look at Raintree Nursery's website at www.raintreenursery.com. They carry many more fruits than that which grow on trees, and it might give you some new ideas. Always a way to stuff another plant in! Also- you may have already thought of this- chickens can destroy newly planted trees if they decide to make the root zone their favorite scratching spot. The little guys might need an apron of chicken wire if you plan to let your flock in right away.

-- Kate (toinfinitynbeyond@hotmail.com), January 26, 2002.

I guess my first questions are: what kind of fruit do you like to eat and what is not available or outrageously expensive in your area?

Since you are limiting this to 6 trees, I have chosen varieties that are all self-pollinating. If I could have more than 6 trees, I would change to a couple of pears that need a pollinator, rather than one self-pollinator. I have also chosen varieties that are hardy in my zone, which is 5.

I would plant a Golden Delicious Apple first, because it is a good cooking and fresh eating apple that stores well. I would then add a Honeysweet Pear, the flavor isn't as good as Comice but it's a lot better than a store bought pear! I would add a Sunglow Nectarine and a Wilson Delicious Apricot, since both are outrageously priced and poor in quality in stores. Either an Elberta Queen or Redhaven Peach, as both are an excellent peach for all purposes. Last, a Montmorency or North Star Pie Cherry. If you would prefer a plum rather than, say, an apricot or cherry; then I would suggest Green Gage or Ozark Premier.

Good luck with your orchard!

-- Polly >^..^< (tigger@moultrie.com), January 26, 2002.