Line property in fruit trees

[jwh20]

Have you ordered from them before? The prices and sizes are good.

I have purchased bare root fruit trees from Stark Bros. in the past. It was a number of years ago but currently I have an orchard on my property. I planted a mix of several apple varieties as well as a few pear trees. I think I originally bought 20 trees and 19 of them survived.

 

[CA expat]

Menard's has $20 fruit trees on occasion. Fair warning before you buy a bunch though, I had 1 of the two I purchased die, the other had peach leaf curl and and after treatment is still alive in its 3rd year, but has been a poor producer so far.

 

[philo]

If anybody want to learn to graft fruit and nut trees, pm me. I do a lot of that at work and I'm always happy to show others how.

 

[Dosproduction]

I would like to see some pics of the chicken wire around the trees. I think I will need this the deer are pretty bad here.

 

[Leadeye]

To keep deer off my trees, I make square boxes of 16 foot cattle panels tied to metal fence posts. Deer can jump over them, but don't for some reason, maybe the confined feeling.

 

[jwh20]

Menard's has $20 fruit trees on occasion. Fair warning before you buy a bunch though, I had 1 of the two I purchased die, the other had peach leaf curl and and after treatment is still alive in its 3rd year, but has been a poor producer so far.

The problem with most trees, fruit or other, that you buy at a retailer is that generally they are raised in the SOUTH. Nothing wrong with that except that these trees don't do well in our climate. Most will die within 2 years. They grow them in the south because the mature faster. Most give you a 1 year warranty which sounds good but they know it's the 2nd year that takes them out.

Get trees from a nursery that has a similar weather pattern to ours. With retail you really don't know where they came from.

 

[mrjarrell]

The problem with most trees, fruit or other, that you buy at a retailer is that generally they are raised in the SOUTH. Nothing wrong with that except that these trees don't do well in our climate. Most will die within 2 years. They grow them in the south because the mature faster. Most give you a 1 year warranty which sounds good but they know it's the 2nd year that takes them out.

Get trees from a nursery that has a similar weather pattern to ours. With retail you really don't know where they came from.

That's why I like Gurney's. They're right here in Indiana and that's where the trees come from. Already acclimated for us.

 

[dusty88]

I haven't been happy with Gurneys myself. The varieties they advertise have not met their advertising (in my experience). I also find their shipping time so long that I don't know when to order. When those trees and shrubs come with wrapped roots, you need to deal with them as soon as possible. That doesn't work if you try to plan deliveries close to your days off but then the product comes when you can't plant them for several days.

 

[dusty88]

If you are planting more than a few, check out newfarmsupply.com
It is operated from Versaland, a permaculture operation in Iowa. He also has a section with protective tree tubes.

 

[Loco179]

My problem is that most fruit tree's are not adapted to my heavy clay soil. On top of that they are very disease prone. Their root structure also sucks and they need lots of care that just is not possible for most.

What I am doing is making my own this year. I bought apple scion wood and root stock. Its going to average about 3 dollars a tree. This includes all the tools. Its called grafting. I am doing about 100 tree's this year. I am using EMLA-111 ( disease resistant and awesome for heavy soils ) and C A R ( Cedar Apple Rust ) resistant scions.

The root stock is about 2-3 years old at the least ( I bought the largest they had ). So in the next few years I should actually get apples. Cider apples are huge and there is a 2-3 year waiting list just for the trees. So alot of my tree's are going to be cider apple.

I have had great luck with pears! I would also suggest nut trees. You can pick up pecan ( cold hardy, the same they sell at starks etc etc ) and hazlenuts from the DNR for cheap.

 

[Dorky_D]

Hazelnuts from DNR??
I did not know that!

 

[nra4ever]

I'd also love to see pics and ideas on how to keep the deer and raccoons away. They a
wasy seem to destroy my fruit trees. I just ordered more from root of David. I sure wish they would answer the phone or return calls.

 

[Clay319]

If you want a lot of interesting varieties look at "Trees of Antiquity" or "Vintage Virginia Apples". There may not be a lot of trees in stock this late in the season. You can also find a lot of the standard types at the big box stores. The trees are usually bigger but may not be the root stock (dwarf, semi-dwarf,or full) that you are looking for. My favorite trees are Fuji (so much better than store bought) and Liberty (disease resistant, sweet and crisp). You can also graft different varieties onto your trees. This is easy to do and gives you more variety without planting new trees.

 

[10mmMarc]

I was actually surprised to find apple trees and nectarine trees at Kroger over the weekend, we had just been talking about planting some apple trees in our hunting area.

 

[CathyInBlue]

If the bait is growing naturally, can it legally be called baiting?

If you ring your property in fruit-bearing plants, wouldn't that tend to attract unsavory types to your property's boundary? I'd rather ring my property in thorn, nettle, and bramble bearing plants and ring my house in fruit-bearing plants.

 

[teddy12b]

If the bait is growing naturally, can it legally be called baiting?

If you ring your property in fruit-bearing plants, wouldn't that tend to attract unsavory types to your property's boundary? I'd rather ring my property in thorn, nettle, and bramble bearing plants and ring my house in fruit-bearing plants.

Planting an apple tree is hardly baiting. No more than someone planting an entire field of corn and then passing judgment on someone without a farm for planting a tree. Believe me when I say that most of the time the deer get after the fruit it'll be long after legal hunting hours and any form of daylight.

Scattering fruit trees throughout property builds in redundancy so long as each one is fully self sustaining. I've tried to do this same thing to some extent at my place and the hope is that I can try different pruning techniques and different varieties with varying results. If disease hits one orchard hard, there's another to back it up.

 

[BigMatt]

We have and will continue to buy from Gurney's. We had 2 peach trees and a nectarine last year that never took off. They gave us our money back with no questions asked.

Our 3 apple trees and 2 pear trees we got there are doing great and are ready to start leafing out.

 

[teddy12b]

I like the idea of shopping local as much as the next guy, but after looking at Gourney's website, I think I'm still going to buy my trees from Lowes.

 

[dusty88]

I'm going to put in a plug for Brambleberry Farms, in south central Indiana. I've just now gotten some of their plants so I can't personally attest to long term production. However, I know they work at improving the Indiana-appropriate varieties. I've wanted to try them for a while but didn't want ot make the drive. I happened to find out the owner was coming up here for a grafting class, so he brought some plants for me to buy.

The DNR is a super-cheap deal for seedlings, but these are aimed primarily at reforestation, wildlife, etc. I like to try the but I also like to forage. It's however not the same result as a fruit tree bred or grafted for production for human food.

 

[bobjones223]

Okay I will start out by saying I did not read the entire post so this may have been covered but I know a guy that got his by hitting the big box stores in the fall like Lows and Home Depot when they are shutting down their nursery and got them for 75% off! He bought a couple of truck loads for a few hundred bucks.