Never To Late to Plant Trees!

tnokie · #1 07/14/08, 08:44 PM

Ever get to thinking"No use planting fruit trees at my age,I'll never live to see them fruit"! I went ahead two years ago and planted Four dwarf apples thinking the same thing. Today I picked twelve huge Golden Delicious apples from one tree,Two other variets are still maturing! It was so awesome picking fruit from my own labors. Not much granted but still it was great. And I was surprised(as well as my neighbors) at the size of the fruit. And I bought them at a swap meet for $5 each! So goahed and plant those trees. Theres still time.

agmantoo · #2 07/14/08, 09:30 PM

I have a little incident to share along these lines. I used to live near a father/son farming enterprise. These people put new meaning to thrifty. Father was 89 and son 66. Father was forcing a dying apple tree to create a sprout. Son came by and said "what are you doing?". Father told him he was going to get a sprout started from the root he was uncovering. Son said "whatcha doing that for, you will never get anything from it". Father said, "somebody will" and just kept working. A few of years later I was visiting and the older man had a nasty grubby pocket knife peeling a scrub apple. I asked him where he got the apple? He pointed over to the sprout and kept peeling. For some reason that memory has remained a fond one and often brings good thoughts about the old man.

nehimama · #3 07/14/08, 09:50 PM

Me, too, Tnokie! For several years I'd resisted planting fruit trees because "it'll take four or five years for them to fruit." Finally, this spring I told myself that if I don't plant some this year, I STILL won't have any fruit in four or five years.

So. I'm looking forward to fruit from my own trees in a few years. Four apple trees and three plum put in this spring. Next year, I'm going to plant a couple cherry trees, and perhaps a couple pear. Already put in blueberries last year and this year.

You have to start somewhere, and you have to start sometime - or you'll still have nothing.

NeHi

pickapeppa · #4 07/14/08, 10:02 PM

Those years go pretty fast. We planted a cherry and a peach four years ago. We got enough cherries the next year to make four jars of jam and two cherry crisps for dessert. The peach also gave us about two dozen nice peaches. And dare I say I've never tasted a peach with such perfect flavor. The next year, no cherries, a few peaches.

And this year, their third summer, no peaches and 1 1/2 gallons of cherries, pitted and cleaned.

Can't wait to see what next year brings.

I know someone who planted a walnut tree. It's second year they were getting walnuts, but only a few.

It does give a person something to look forward to later on.

pheasantplucker · #5 07/15/08, 05:26 AM

This past fall I planted three apple, three peach and two cherry trees...
something about a small orchard...

terrythetaod · #6 07/15/08, 12:07 PM

This thread reminds me of the old saying...

"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago; the second best time is right now."

ROSEMAMA · #7 07/15/08, 12:29 PM

We planted two Stanley plums from Starks this spring that currently have fruit on them!

Michael Kawalek · #8 07/15/08, 05:07 PM

I bought some commercial trees and when I had to plant them I trimmed back the long leader branches. I used those for grafting stock onto some one-year-old seedlings I had in 5 gallon pots. At least two of the grafts that are just one year old on the rootstock now have a fruit on them, and I haven't even gotten them in the ground yet. Now that's fast! Remember, the best day to plant a fruit tree is YESTERDAY! The second best day is TODAY!
Michael

MushCreek · #9 07/15/08, 05:37 PM

That old man made a great point about who would benefit from that apple tree- "Somebody will!" I wish more people had that attitude about things in general.

Jim-mi · #10 07/15/08, 10:11 PM

We had a very late frost that caused lots of problems here abouts.
The apples and plums I planted last fall were affected . . .---- . . . . .no fruit this year.

But the spring planted blueberries are rippening . . Oh boy

Ed Norman · #11 07/15/08, 10:50 PM

We planted 35 fruit trees this spring. C'mon pie.

happydog · #12 07/16/08, 08:50 PM

I'm planning to plant a lot of fruit and nut trees next spring. Someone advised me to stick with hybrids because they're stronger and better producers. I thought open pollinated was better because you can reproduce them. What do you all think?

adamtheha · #13 07/17/08, 08:34 AM

I think somebody wants to grow gigantic apples with no nutrients in them (well, less nutrients). Plant the open pollinated varieties. We have never improved on God's ways, no matter what we "think". Make sure your varieties are appropriate for your climate, or you'll be babying your tree way too much.

mary,tx · #14 07/17/08, 07:32 PM

We should have gotten our first fruit last year, but had an Easter snow (unheard of here!) and lost the fruit. This year we had a late killing frost, so still no fruit. Surely NEXT year we will have a good harvest.
I will keep planting fruit trees every year for as long as I am able.

I really like the idea of grafting the prunings from the new trees onto seedlings. Brilliant!

mary