As fate would have it, I left my computer at the point of entering in my credit card info and when I returned later, the order info was GONE, meanwhile I had researched varieties etc in more depth and have now decided that I will wait to get the fruit trees. The cherry trees probably wont make here (not cold enough) and the one apple I have has been fruitless for 4 years or more, one more season shouldn't matter. The grape vines are a good deal, they are only $5 each and they are 2 year old stock. And I plan to order some blackberries from them too, also decent price, for triple crown, 5 for $12.50. I will check out the place you mentioned too Chuck...All the better if they are kin to you ;)

Most of the names I'd have mentioned have been, with the exception of St Lawrence Nursery. They are good for cold hardy trees and have a very good selection of apples. They are a small, family run place, and as such may take a while to get back to you in their busy season. But their trees have always done well for me (with one exception which they replaced).

I went a tad overboard myself this year. I only intended to replace two plums which had left holes in my 10 tree orchard lineup. But we got irrigation water awarded to us last year, and on the assumption that we'd get it again this year, I folded and decided to put in the second line of trees. Plus it'd be nice to get some highway noise reduction started, so I.. well... I went a little bit crazy and... 1 each: Emerald Beauty Plum Bavay's Green Gage Plum Blake's Pride Pear Bosc Pear Comice Pear Ashmead Kernal Apple Anna Apple Cox's Orange Pippin Apple Sunburst Cherry Montmorency Cherry 1) Western Schley Pecan 50)Pecan: Carya-illinoinensis 50)Redbud: Cercis-Canadensis 50)Tulip Tree: Liriodendron tulipifera So far, I have 24 or so in the ground, 63 potted up, and I'm flogging off the balance to any of my clients who also like to garden. Next year, Tupelos and olives!

"Olpea- great advice.. I think i remember you from a couple years back on this forum.. Do you have acres, or a nice size orchard? If so, i second iltilton, a newcomer definitely wants a lot more guidance! Any tips at all would be helpful. Im trying to be as succesful as I could.." Yeah I've been on the forum for a few years. It's a recreational thing for me - more or less. I don't do Facebook, so this is sort of like a Facebook account for me. What I mean is that I post/read the forum like most folks post/read Facebook. I've got a yard orchard and a very small (emphasize "very small") commercial orchard we started a couple years ago on a separate piece of property. I've been selling fruit from by backyard for about 5 years, as a part-time thing. Drew's given you some solid advice. I would just really emphasize if your ground is clay and poorly drained, you need some sort of raised planting for your peaches. I lost lots of peach trees early on to drowning/phytophthora/crown rot, or whatever you want to call it. Any of the seedling peach rootstocks (Lovell, Halford, Bailey, Tenn. Nat., Guardian, Red Leaf) are going to perform the same on poor drained clay - crappy. Citation is a clonal plum rootstock and may perform a tad better on water-logged clay, but I prefer the seedling peach rootstocks if you can get your clay to drain (which is what you need to do). I've tried a couple different methods to improve drainage. I installed field tile first (in my backyard). This drained a lot of sub-surface water away and peach trees quit dying, but still didn't really thrive. I next started converting my backyard planting to mounds. This can be done by cutting and filling in your own yard (no need to haul in dirt, unless you really want a pristine looking yard). Some of the first mounds I built with just a wheel barrel and shovel. I decided I wanted bigger mounds (plus digging by hand is too hard on my back) so I rented equipment like a Dingo mini track loader (walk behind). I also built some with a skid steer. When I started my new planting at the farm, I didn't even try to plant the peaches without making a raised planting first. I bought a blade (i.e. motor grader) to build terraces to plant on top of. This should give you an idea how strongly I feel about planting peaches in a raised planting in this area. Here's a pic (in the background) of the terraces and me standing on the road blade (I've since sold it.) The pic is a little deceiving because the terraces are bigger than they look. They are 11' wide by about 3.5' tall. Your raised planting doesn't need to be near that big. Any size raised planting is bound to help some. This post was edited by olpea on Mon, Dec 9, 13 at 16:35