John Gordon Nursery is in Amherst, New York, I think zone 5, he sells Pawpaw and early ripening persimmon. He might be some help as to what will grow in your area.

Herbert, you have 250 apples to experiment on! :-) I usually wait until a couple start dropping then I pick a few every couple days and try them out (well, I also try out the drops first; they often are ahead of the others in ripening due to bug infection which hastens ripening). Apples don't need to be completely ripened when picked, but if they are too starchy they may never ripen on the tree; too sour is usually OK. It takes experience to figure out for each variety which is the optimal time to pick based on the look. The good news is we are strongly genetically programmed to be good at it since getting them at the most nutritious point was a strong survival trait in our ancestors. I don't view published ripening times as of much importance since ripening times vary a lot based on the site itself, they vary each year based on how hot it was etc. Take a a posted time from up north and subtract maybe 3 weeks as your first guess. In my apples list I came up with a first guess for every variety I have so I can have at least a ballpark figure. I have Spitz down as mid-late Sept for me. I had some fruit on my tree this year but then fireblight got to the roots and its history. Scott

Peaches were great this year. The spring was long and cold and the end of summer was dry, for me. I have one tree with peach bore. I will probably remove that tree. All the peach trees set fruit so I was eating peaches a long time this summer. The nectarine tree set two fruit and the japanese beetles ate so much of them I threw them away. I need to start training the trees to the stakes I will be tying them to. It looks like a long fall for me here so I will have a lot of time to do all this. Just hope I can find some cheap cover hay this year. I will spray more for the beetles next year as I think we will be overwhelmed with them. I tried to take picture of the covering process but the trees were small and it was hard to see the procedure. Maybe this year (if I think of it) I'll try to take pictures again.

I feel your disappointment Shauna....I just don't bother with any of those crops anymore. Too much work involved for what I ever got out of it. Cabbage butterflies are all over the place here, so I know the extent I'd have to go to grow the cabbage family vegetables. I tried white beets too for the first time, but they won't need thinning as there are only a few in each row that came up. I also have golden, chiogga, pablo and bull's blood. Carrots...lots of different kinds. We had beets, carrots,chard and peas to eat so far. My sunburst squash is producing like crazy, so we'll eat that in a day or two. No beans yet...just flowers...they came up kind of sporadic,so I won't have as many. Some of the corn is just starting to tassel. I finally got the tomatoes staked yesterday...a little behind I know. I bought a package of small fruit mix seeds from Stokes...almost 100% germination and they are really doing better than I expected. I'm just not sure what I will end up with...lol. Some I could tell needed staking, others are quite short or very bushy, so I'm excited to see the varieties when they fruit. Brandywine have lots of blossoms ...first time growing them. Ildi and Sugary are all in blossom as are all the other varieties I planted. I have about 150 plants altogether...hoping to sell some tomatoes!I wanted to see how some would do in my garden,so I'll be taking notes. I ordered Early Canadian Beef and not one germinated...must have been the seed because my other varieties all germinated and were all planted at the same time and under the same conditions. Believe it or not I have to go and water that garden...we need a good rain here in our area. Betty