Help with homestead fruit...

15 years ago

Hi all -

Sorry to post in the fruit tree section when some of my broader questions cross over, but answer anything and everything you can, throw out advice. We could use the help!! My wife and I are starting a homestead up in the Queen Charlotte Islands. We understand that it is a challenging area to be doing this but we are hoping that some of you more experienced folks can help us out with information!

So it never gets horribly cold, never gets terribly warm. It is quite windy, which we are hoping to use for wind power. And is cloudy 3 days a week during the sunny season (6 days a week in fall and spring). We aren't sure how much land we will finally be given (this is on a Native Reserve...can't beat free land!) but it would probably be no more the 15 acres. We don't intend to cultivate all of it, as a matter of fact we are going to start small and grow each season. What we would like to have is...

Several dwarf or semi-dwarf apple trees - Enough for a couple (or Jr. Trio LOL) + enough to bake and sell some apple fritters, pies, pastries at the local co-op/grocery store.

This is a small, small town so we are thinking of a diversity of product so we don't saturate the market and as always biodiversity means, hopefully, something will rippen even in bad years.

We'd also love maybe just a duo or trio or Cherry and pear trees. Varieties? Are these feasible with this weather? What about plums?

We know that crab apples go crazy up here, and that a few people have had the odd cherry tree or little plum(fruit size) trees...but we are pretty sure they just planted em for fun and so don't spray, don't fertalize etc... for instance with 1 4 yr old sweet cherry tree my wife's grand parents harvest a five gallon bucket. Is that a lot, a little...does it tell you anything about the area?

It seemed like it would be feasible to plant under the trees something chickens would enjoy grazing on and just free run (or chicken tractor) a bunch of chickens under the trees to control weeds, bugs, slugs etc...as well as to fertalize the trees. Is this a good idea? Bad idea? Upsides? Downsides?

We also want to grow root veggies, potatoes are almost an invasive species up there and grow 10months out of the year (or more)...but what else should we be considering? Carrots, parsnips, potato, lettuce, maybe a berry patch? In the herb family mint comes to mind...any others?

Lastly, if this isn't the best place to post can someone recomend a good part of the forum to post under?

Here is a link that might be useful: Our weather

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Comments (2)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
15 years ago
organic bob:

I pulled up your earlier post in case anyone has anything to add. It is on this page now. Titled about too cold and too humid.

The Fruitnut
softmentor
15 years ago
First of all, tree crops are great, I love growing them but remember you are going to have a 3 year wait before you pick enough to make any money and perhaps 5 to be profitable. You will need to be able to finance that and live for 3 to 5 years and pay the upkeep for the trees until they start producing.
If it is windy that much you will need to have a wind break. If you have a wind break, it will interfere with the wind power production. one or the other will have the best of it. You can compromise by having the wind production as the last "tree" at the end of your wind break. (I hope that made sense) Try to arrange your living space and things that need power near the wind generation.
You are wise to start small and grow. Try a FEW things and see what works well in the area and what works well for you. Grow what you like growing and what likes growing for you.
Next, make sure you have a market before you plant. If you are in such a small place, you may want to consider something that packs and ships well so that you can build a mail order business or ship to a market. Mail order, done right, takes time to build but can be very profitable with the right product and the right time for the market.
How ever much you think it will cost, double it and then add 20%. You think I'm kidding but I'm not. There are always things you never thought of and you do NOT want to loose your investment for lack of funds to buy a box to pick into at the end of the journey. Literally, figure EveRyThing, times 2 + 20%.
Read. Read lots. But LOTS of good ideas take WAY to much time and energy. Compost is a great example. It's great stuff but it takes a lot of hard labor. Find easier methods like mulching. Read but take all ideas as a grain of salt.
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Help with homestead fruit...

Comments (2)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX

softmentor

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