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beginner fruit tree

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Canesisters

Guest
I want to add a couple of fruit trees this fall, but I keep hearing about having to spray this and dust that and net the other thing. Is there an easy fruit tree that I could start with?
 

Mike

Might know the answer
Messages
977
Location
Kentucky
Planting Zone
6b
I have not started one yet, but plan on buying one very very soon. But from what I've heard Banana trees are a good tree to grow and pretty easy to take care of. Minus you'll have to bring in during the winter.
 
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Slowngreen

Guest
A peach tree is easy, just keep it watered. I have one that has done great. Had a couple apples but they died.
 
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Northernfox

Guest
Regardless of we're you are you can do an apple tree. The feat winter if you frost you should cover the trunk for about 2 feet with burlap. After that just keep up with pruning and you will have great production.

You can get varieties that are grafted with a a bunch of varieties of apples on it :)
 
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ErnieCopp

Guest
Sister,
What you have heard about trees needing care is true. Not all trees need all the items you mentioned, but most of them will need something sooner or later. You do not have your location posted, so hard to make suggestions, but ask your local Nurseryman what varieties of different kinds do well. For instance, there are many different cultivars, "cultivated varieties" of Nectarines. Some can stand more heat, others stand more cold, etc, so a variety that does well in a low hot valley may not do as well at a higher altitude. Nurserymen will mostly sell trees that do well in your area.

Ripe fruit usually needs to be protected from birds, and you may need to spray, but fruit trees in general are a lot less work than raising vegetables, when everything is considered.
Ernie
 

whistech

Well-Known Member
Messages
322
Location
Spring, Texas
Planting Zone
9a
Canesisters, I don't know what part of the country you live in, but if you are in the south, you might try a fig tree.
 
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ErnieCopp

Guest
Fig trees may be a very good suggestion. I have not had any pests or disease with mine, but do have to prune quite a bit, and cover to keep the birds from pecking them as they ripen.

Ernie
 
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Mr_Yan

Guest
I'll dig up this old thread.

I have a 4 year old peach I got from a co-worker that started as a volunteer in his yard. I have no clue about the cultivator and no prior experience with fruit trees and have had success. So far this year I have puled over 2 pounds off of it and it is still covered with fruit needing harvest. I have never sprayed or dusted but I have babied it during some late spring frosts to protect flowers from freezing. I have read that growing onion or garlic under and around may help prevent some peach pests and have generally done this but I also just need space to grow my garlic in.

When I got this tree it was about 8 inches tall and no larger than a pencil in diameter. Now it is over 10 feet tall despite my HARD pruning each spring and the roofers that took off several branches.

I think there are cultivators of peach that will grow as far north as USDA zone 3. People think Georgia for peaches but fail to realize that the second most peach producing state in the US is Michigan.
 
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ErnieCopp

Guest
Mr. Yan,
It sounds like you have a winner in your seedling peach tree. How do you rate the peaches? Fair, Good, or Excellent?
With seedlings of any kind, it is a crap shoot as to how the fruit will turn out, but there are both winners and losers.

More people are starting seedlings, and some of them, if exploited, will become popular Cultivated Varieties, or Cultivars, as seedlings and grafting accidents are how new trees are found.

Ernie
 
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Mr_Yan

Guest
Ernie,

This was pretty much a no risk tree for me and really just an after thought when I was out at my co-worker's getting some raspberries. I rate the peaches as really good but there is the fact that I am comparing tree ripened peaches to those shipped two thirds of the way across the continent to my local grocery store. This is a free-stone fruit tree and self-fertile. I got lucky in this respect as no neighbor anywhere near me has a peach tree.

Grafting accidents eh? Grafting is something I've been reading about. Thinking about trying to graft some edible apples into a crab apple tree I have.
 
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Mr_Yan

Guest
Oh yeah the other thing with this tree is it is not on dwarf or semi-dwarf root stock. Since I have no clue what the parent(s) stock was it is a crap shoot on how big it will get and I don't have much space for it to keep going in.
 
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ErnieCopp

Guest
Someone has probably grafted Apples onto crabapples, but i just realized when i read your post, that while i know hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of Flowering Crabs are grafted on to Apple rootstock, i have never personally heard of it being done the other way round.

To help you get started, Chip budding is the fastest, and gives good results once you get the hang of it. That is what the Nursery Industry uses mostly. I had a lot of it done, but only had time to do small amounts myself. After moving down here, i did some Tee budding, just experimenting, and that looks to me like it would be an easier way for beginners that are not in a hurry. Cleft grafting is done more in Greenhouses and for Topworking mature trees.

Google has lots of accurate instructions and pictures. Main thing is to be sure the cambium on the scion makes good contact with the cambium on the understock, and use grafting tape, not garden tape, to wrap it with to keep it from drying out before it starts growing together.

Ernie
 

Rahab222

Well-Known Member
Messages
354
Planting Zone
9B
Depending on where you are, anything citrus - oranges, grapefruit, etc. - are very low maintenance. Fertilize with ground stakes twice a year - spring and fall. As long as it gets full sun and sufficient water, citrus trees are a breeze. In considering any type of fruit tree, you need to know the number of "chill hours" you get in your area each year and the number of "chill hours" required for the tree you are planting. Your county's Master Gardener's Group should be able to help you with determining how many "chill hours" you get in your specific area, then you can shop for fruit trees. I just transplanted a 7 year old avocado three three weeks ago that I purchased last spring. That and a new peach are my two big fruit tree purchases for the year. Other than that, I have citrus.
 
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