I got trees!

[milivica]

I got trees for myself for Mother's Day (knowing dh would have to bite his lip, heh heh heh).

I got two Honeycrisp apple trees, two Keiffer pear trees, two Bing cherry trees. All dwarfs. I don't know much about fruit trees other than you need 2 so they can cross pollinate and bear fruit. Except peach and nectarine trees (I think).

Well, I was all happy, got online, and well well well, turns out apples trees and pear trees (still need to look up cherry) cannot pollinate with the 'same' kind of tree. So, I need NOT a Honeycrisp to go with my Honeycrisp and NOT a Keiffer with my Keiffer pear (so will have to lug one of each back). Probably the same for the Bing Cherry.

Ironically they were half off, and I will be bringing half back.

My neighbor has flowering crabs, one is a pretty magenta/purple and the other all white blooms. They wind up with tiny cherry type fruits but they don't look edible, but, maybe it can cross pollinate with my apples??? The puter said crab apple trees could, but these are flowering crabs. Anyone know about this?

I hope by next year to have at least a few wee fruits. There are already cherries on the Bing cherry trees (green of course). I didn't know all these dwarf trees are grafted. I'm going to pay close attention to the sunniest areas of my yard tomorrow, we have mature trees, but still get lots of sun in some areas (where the grass winds up brown by the end of summer, lol).

So, that was one fun day, mostly imagining the picking and eating of delicious fresh fruits (in my fantasy, the trees have no bug and worm infested fruits and no mess on the lawn, hee hee). I can't wait to get the right trees and get these planted. I'm going to build up with old rail ties, a box to plant them to avoid so much digging...our city sells compost for $10/truckload. I'll put a tarp in my Honda Element (seats go up so back is similar to a pick up truck).

For some weird reason, I cooked and cleaned lots this weekend - should have planned that part better!

[roadracer]

The fruit trees have to be from a different cultivar, ONLY if they are not partial self fruitful, then they pollinate from there own cultivar, OR the self fruitful kind can be planted alone, BUT only in certain climates. Some apple trees can be self fruitful, so it is best to ask before you return them. You have to read some books (or ask around) to find the perfect combination for your area/climate. And you can NOT expect to get fruit off them for many years from now, and not every year, so if you want fruit every year you will have to go with more then two, probably a half dozen or more :D. Also your soil acid levels are important if you ever want to get good fruit from them, and you have to watch for disease, as apple trees are good at getting them.
The crabapple tree you said about is good to use to pollinate (depending on area), will grow pretty much anywere, and usually has nice looking flowers, but they are not good for anything else, and you would never want to eat them

[tgrimes]

You are so lucky to be able to grow those trees! I did grow a flowering crab way down here in zone 9 one time, it actually bloomed and got fruit, I think a flowering crab is the same as a crab so it will pollinate. but hey, no hatrm buying another apple tree if you can grow them. I love to hear about gardens. Friday the kids and I planted so much stuff, mostly potting flowers in these really great ceramic containers we got from dollar store so they could give them to teachers at the end of the year.

[roadracer]

also wanted to add that the "flowering crabs", lol, is just a crab apple tree, flowers in the spring, with red cherry looking fruit, and has small apples that mature by late fall, but you cant eat the apples from it unless you want a horible stomach ach.
My last job one of the guys thought they were normal apples and he was eating them all summer long, said they were nasty tasting, but still eat them, he didnt get sick, but I wouldnt advise anyone eating them.

[Isabelle]

uh uh no capice but if i got trees i would choose apple, pear, peach like you !!!!....and bushes of blueberries, raspberries, black berries, gooseberries....hmmmm!!! yam yam !!!

[milivica]

Wow thanks for the info RR.

Thanks for getting psyched with me Grimes!

Ok, I'm sure my neighbor has a flowering crab (the kind with white flowers) and another crab that has burgendy/purpley leaves, sounds like for sure the flowering crab should be able to cross pollinate the apples.

The nursery these trees grew in is in Minnesota, so I'm hoping that's good since I live in Wisconsin. They happened to mention it at the store or I would have never asked. I got a tree from them about 4 years ago (has wee orange berries, a mountain ash I think) and it's done sooooooo well.

To be on the safe side, I might want to return one of the keiffer pear trees and get variety of pear, maybe a bartlett. What do you think RR?

One cherry will have to be exchanged too, for another sweet cherry...I know they have one that begins with a T and had dark cherries that were sweet. I'll keep one Bing, so will have 2 sweet cherry of different varieties.

Grimes, I'll have to juggle for sunny space in the back yard, probably shouldn't have gotten 6, but plan to put some in the front. I'll be one of those people with front yard landscaping that is an eyesore but effective for our needs. The front gets tons of light, southwestern exposure. But has a big huge stupid Elm in the middle of the yard...it's gigantic and useless, other than to our neighbor - it shades them (not us) from the western sun. We had a bolt put in that's holding it together cause when we moved in 9 years ago we noticed it was split down the middle from the first fork to the roots! Dh was standing on one side of the trunk, me on the other. First I noticed the sun hit my eyeball 'through' the tree trunk. Then I saw him 'thru' the trunk and was like, "Hon? Why can I see you through the tree?"

Anyhooo....this is like the most exciting thing ever for me, fruit trees.

I can hardly wait to post a couple years from now....these d@mn messy trees, why didn't any of you warn me, lolol.

[roadracer]

Ok, I'm sure my neighbor has a flowering crab (the kind with white flowers) and another crab that has burgendy/purpley leaves, sounds like for sure the flowering crab should be able to cross pollinate the apples.
There are, I am thinking, over 500 kinds of flowering crab apple trees, each one slightly different, and they usually get to be around 20 feet tall. You can grow a crabapple pretty much anywhere, but they are really known for getting diseases. I would fertilize them often with something like 20-5-10 fertilizer (unless your soil has high levels of nitrogen, then I wouldnt worry about that.

The nursery these trees grew in is in Minnesota, so I'm hoping that's good since I live in Wisconsin. They happened to mention it at the store or I would have never asked. I got a tree from them about 4 years ago (has wee orange berries, a mountain ash I think) and it's done sooooooo well.
I am thinking you better ask them what they recomend you do, tell them you are new and dont know much, as you dont want to wait two years down the road to find you screwed something up and your trees will never get fruit, or you dont want to be buying extra trees if you bought the self fruitful kind.

To be on the safe side, I might want to return one of the keiffer pear trees and get variety of pear, maybe a bartlett. What do you think RR?
I think you should do the above, ask the experts, although I know a bunch about this stuff I am far from a expert
There are a ton of things to factor into what you want to get, how far the root base expands acording to how much room you have, how big they get, the type of soil they need, how much sunlight they require, what kind of diseases the tree gets compared to if a neighbors trees get diseases, what they need to pollinate, if they will pollinate with the neighbors trees... I could think of a hundred other things, and you really cant have all the answers really, but to have the healthest trees posible I would learn as much as you can on the subject and ask the experts opinions.

I can hardly wait to post a couple years from now....these d@mn messy trees, why didn't any of you warn me, lolol.
I warned you, lol, and wait till you bite into your first nice fresh all natural apple and bite threw a big juicy worm :D (no kidding, eventually it will happen)
I will never forget the time my mom made stuffed peppers with fresh peppers from the garden, and my dad was eating his and found a HALF a worm in his :D I think my dad is still afraid of stuffed peppers

[callyflower]

Using old rail ties for food growing is not the best idea. There are soooooooo many toxins from the creosote used to treat the ties. And doing a raised bed in a your cold climate may also increase your chances of losing the trees over winter as there is more exposure to the cold.

Good luck with your orchard.

C

[milivica]

CALLY HI!!!! How's your champion swimmer doing over there! Thanks for the tip on the RR ties...I decided after posting I'll go with big rocks around a raised bed....I so happen to have a pile in my yard just waiting for a purpose, maybe start it with untreated lumber from my garage till I get enough rocks. I won't raise the bed much I know what you're saying about frost around here.

RR...the 'experts' that sold me the trees sold me the same variety so I'm on my own for figuring the rest I think, aye? It's just a Walmart type store, I didn't expect much info.

Isabelle, yes, mmmmm, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries....lots free from neighbors! Cauliflower, green pepper, poblamo pepper, lettuces. All vegies will be patio/container grown now that I got the trees. Since I have no real garden yet (still have to move the shed) the lettuces are interplanted with the flowers in my front yard. I got that thing called Topsy Turvey for my tomatoes, I hate it so far. Plants can't get light hanging upside down from the shadow of the thing.

I just pray I'm not doing what I do best, start out with a bang and end up with dead plants! The trees should do fine with me though.

[peglem]

OMG- I got that topsy turvy thing, too! I don't hate it though, kinda excited about the experiment, just seeing if it works and hoping we'll get tomatoes by the end of summer. Too much sun in this heat wouldn't be great for the plant anyway.

[mrsjerome]

This reminds me so much of the old days after we built our house. Before we put grass down we bought trees and put in a large garden. Like you I was envisioning having our own fruit and vegetables. My hubby was working 3rd shift and he would come home and we would be doing all of this planting. We planted apple peach plum and cherry trees.
We had a raspberry patch along with a section for blueberries too. There was a wait for the trees to bear fruit and we had to maintain them too. I remember having to put little fences around them because our dog that we had (a male would do his thing on them) That dog killed a couple of my peony bushes too. Alas though the only trees that made it were the apple. The others died out. The peach trees were the first to go Then later on the apple trees just got to be too much of a nuisance. Kids in the area throwing the fruit in neighbors yards and then the bees making their hives in them and being attracted to the apples that fell to the ground. After getting stung it was time to cut them down.

Thank you Milli for reminding me of a time that I had forgotten until I read your post
Oh what nostalgia!! Time to listen to the oldies but goodies music LOL.

[milivica]

I remember sitting in apple trees as a kid and eating them. The trees seemed to be 50 feet tall. In the south especially they were huge and had delicious fruit.

All the trees I got are dwarf, so won't produce the size and fruit your or I remember MrsJ. You and Grimes ought to get yourselves a couple columnar apple trees...they just grow one stick straight up, can be grown in pots even. Check it out http://www.thegreenhead.com/2008/03/columnar-apple-trees.php

Ok, so returned now I have one Anjou and one Keiffer Pear tree. I have the two Honeycrisp apples but that's ok cause they are early bloomers like the crab apple trees in my neighbor's yard. A Lapin and Bing Cherry...though Lapin is self pollinating it is also a good pollinator for the Bing. I got a self pollinating nectarine and plum.

Got berry bushes from a neighbor, have a tomato in the Topsy Turvey planter, strawberries fill 2 strawberry pots. Lettuce is planted throughout my flowers, as are the green and poblano peppers, cauliflower, broccoli.

I think that's it. Oh and parsley too, my birds love it.

If anyone likes mint, I have a ton of chocolate mint. I could send you some (but only in the states I think). It should survive the shipping. If not, dry it and use it for dishes that call for mint or for mint tea. I love how it looks and smells, but don't like mint flavored teas, it's like drinking toothpaste.

Ok, now the best part...I actually saved my receipts from last year, so, after returning everything I killed (sorry plants :confused: ) this whole shopping adventure cost $66 dollars. Bare root is the way to go!

Again, lets hope I don't kill everything. I'm really committed this year!!!