Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It seems a general place to discuss home fruit trees including methods, varieties, types, climate and pest concerns is missing in the garden forum. I jumped in with both feet with an unknown to me climate, soil type, as well as pests and diseases. My first loss out of 30 fruit trees planted was a sweet cherry that was apparently the victim of fire blight. From research a simple spray of a copper solution could might have prevented the loss. Borers are driving me crazy in the peaches as well as Japanese beetles in cherry trees. Tree painting starts tomorrow with a 50/50 mix of white flat latex paint and water. The fruit trees and garden are like a nest of birds with both crying for attention when I walk the door.
Are we discussing our failed attempts on fruit tree planting and what we learned?
If so I'll point out a few things I learned. I live in South Texas where the soil is more clay so it doesn't drain well. We have rain and if it rains it can pour. Rule of thumb is planting the tree in an elevated bed.
I have two pomegranate trees that are healthy and putting out fruit. The problem is the season. One was full of rain and the fruit rotted. Another time bugs burrowed in, a really bad infestation. Some years are better than others and I have the utmost respect for farmers that do this and base their livelihood on these fickle trees. !!
We can't grow cherries at all since it doesn't get cold enough around here so I dunno what would help. Maybe that copper spray that Nomadicus mentioned.
Cherry and most other stone fruit doesn't do well around here but citrus does well. There's a navel orange and an air layered orange from one of our old neighbor's trees. Dunno what kind it is, but it has the tastiest oranges. We had a grapefruit, but it got taken down when the excavator was clearing out some shrubs for our neighbor. The roots had been tangled with the neighbor's shrubs and it was torn out inadvertently. It's okay, though, they're going to buy us a new grapefruit tree, a ruby red one this time instead of the white grapefruit that was taken down.
I've gotten some fruit trees from Bay Laurel Nursery because they list the required hours of chilling time the trees require each winter so we can hope for some fruit on some varieties of apples and peaches, but the trees aren't old enough to produce yet. I planted a lot of them at our old house which is now a rental, maybe they're producing over there, I've not looked for several years.
I planted peaches, apples and a small almond tree here. The little almond tree was doing well, but the excavator dug that one up since it wanted to drive over that area and the container it was put in didn't have drainage holes and I didn't find out about the lack of holes until most of the roots had been water damaged. We will see if it's gonna survive that or not. One peach tree got ringed by a kid with a string trimmer (now I put tin cans around the trunks of young trees) and it died. The other peach tree is doing well. The pear is just kinda hanging out growing roots, I suppose. The two apples were planted in the same hole so they'd stunt each other, I didn't need big apple trees. They're healthy, but not growing very much. Probably still putting out roots.
From what I've noticed with trees planted is that the first several years they just kinda hang out and don't seem to do much, then they settle in and start growing. I'm suspecting they grow roots first.
So far the only really producing tree we have is the macadamia nut tree and that was here when we moved in. Plus the neighbor's avocado that drops avos on our side of the fence. Bananas don't count as trees, do they?
Help! I also have the same problem, I tried to grow cherry tree at first it was awesome suddenly it turns the way you see it in the picture. Can you tell me what can I do to help them regain their health? I'm tired of getting solutions online.
Is your tree a variety that is supposed to grow in your climate zone? Until now I had no chance to grow them. Here in zone 6B several varieties will grow but not with challenges. If it is fire blight as I suspect copper is the only solution I've found so far. I'm spraying this second tree today with copper hoping to save it. All of the other sweet cherries show no signs of problems. If I remember correctly fireblight is a bacterial infection. With all the battles underway in a new place I think it's time to make a written list of problems and course of action. If it was just cherry trees to keep after that would be one thing. My haste to get a complete mix of trees in may have been a mistake.
I too have a small orchard, about 20 big plants and the rest of the plants are citrus type. I found out what I did wrong with the citrus in SoCal, I overwatered it, the leaves are yellow and no fruits, so we cut back to water once a week, and voila lots of citrus on the plants. We drink lemon water everyday in the morning so it's nice to be able to pick a lemon from our trees everyday.
Another plant I have problem with is Kiwi, no fruiting ever, beautiful leaves, but that's it.
And Asian pears that I ordered from Gurneys never took off. Maybe I ordered the type that should do well here but I didn't pay attention. I had Asian pear tree before but it was in cooler climate, like NorCal.
Tennessee can be a difficult place to grow fruit. The eastern edge of the USA is infested with plum curculio and assorted fungus diseases and so a lot of spraying can be required.
You might try figs, pawpaws, muscadines that are more or less naive to the area. Also look for resistant varieties and that will help. You might have to order specialty varieties of fruit trees because local sellers usually only carry the names that the general public will recognize. Those are many times not the best choice for your area.
Is it true to get better fruit production to thin back your tree? I have an apricot tree that doesn't fruit. I started it at last 8 years ago from a small store bought tiny thing and now it's over 5' and growing strong. I've fertilized it but not regularly. Is the next step trimming it back to encourage fruit?
Tennessee can be a difficult place to grow fruit. The eastern edge of the USA is infested with plum curculio and assorted fungus diseases and so a lot of spraying can be required.
You might try figs, pawpaws, muscadines that are more or less naive to the area. Also look for resistant varieties and that will help. You might have to order specialty varieties of fruit trees because local sellers usually only carry the names that the general public will recognize. Those are many times not the best choice for your area.
Thank you. I did plant 6 Muscadines with two of them specified to pollinate the other two pair. The two pollinators are growing fine but 3 never came out of the dormant bare root state. Figs don't really interest me as just I nor my wife are fond of them. Pawpaws are a possibility. It's the peaches, plums, pluots, pears, apricots, pie cherries, sweet cherries, and apples that bother me. I have been preparing for saving fruit crops with late spring frosts during blossom but the diseases now are new to me. I grew up working around FL citrus but no way for me to return to it. The plum curculio and assorted fungus diseases will be my research for tonight as to how to prevent and treat.
This afternoon I'm doing a plain copper spray as a fungus prevention and hopefully save what might be the loss of another sweet cherry. Hopefully when all planting is done there will be 40 trees here to eat from, donate from, as well as turn the landscape into a showcase come spring.
I've never heard of spraying copper except as a dormant spray (where it works rather well). There is a very good anti-fungal spray for trees in leaf, which my mind has gone blank on the name of it. Please read the directions to make sure it is OK to use your spray in the summer.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
