I've never been a "remover" -- I tend to keep things if I've bought them, whether or not I like them.

The other day, I looked around at a couple of things and said to myself "this is dumb, why do I do this?"

I guess I'm getting to the point that I'm just questioning whether the work and space involved in some of these things is really worth it.

So, some things may start to go.

Last year I took out purple raspberries.
This year I tore out 9 goji berry bushes
and 3 filbert/hazelnuts.

Peaches and nectarines. Too much disease.

I tend to remove what does not perform or requires to much care for the fruit produced. I removed nectarine, Grapefruit, avocado, orange, peach, plum (old age), Asian pear. I added Apple (two), Apricot, Peach (better specie), Lemon, Pomegranate (improved) and cherry. Al

My wonderful "Caroline" rasps have finally succumbed to disease spread by the wild blackberry which is everywhere. Maybe another plot next year, they seem to last about five years before becoming worthless.

My Triple Crown suffers as well. I'm going to give it another year and spray more.

I'm eyeballing my "Methley" plum, ONE fruit in 12 years. Frosts, deer, crows, and PC get them first. Phooey.

Herbert
Mineral Bluff, GA

Herbert if you had gotten more fruit off that Methley you would have pulled it sooner, I did. But I'm always whacking what doesn't produce good fruit. Hard to find the best if you don't get rid of the rest.

I'm not high at all on my figs. Bought six new varieties this year and am not pleased so far. Figs may have their own forum but it's not on fruit quality from what I've seen.

I'm a big puller. "Produce or perish" is my motto.
Sweet cherries I gave up on. Canker, birds, splitting, brown rot on overly vigorous trees. Buh-bye!

I was a "saver" for quite a few years and then realized I was wasting a lot of time on past mistakes. So every year I have been culling more and more, and this winter I have a long list of things to eliminate. My quince and medlar are finally getting axed (too many diseases and bugs), as well as most of my 30-odd European cider apples, which are not tannic enough in my heat. My Red Lake and Jhonkeer van Tets red currants I am replacing with (more) Rovada -- love those big berries. Additionally many average varieties of all sorts of fruits are getting removed, if its not a winner its gone. Plus I have some plantings in not enough sun and I am finally removing those. After eight years of pruning and spraying shaded apple trees for nothing you would think I would have caught on sooner.

I always carry a saw on my waist, and this year I started a new practice: I pick the fruit, I eat it right there, if it stinks I get out the saw and take it out immediately. Ahh, relief from one more bad variety.

Scott

Last year I pulled out my goji berry plant. It was sprawling, tiprooting everywhere, thorny, and never gave me anything tasty. This year, I pulled our my Heritage raspberries as I feel that there are better raspberries out there these days. I also pulled out my 2nd bed of Reveille Raspberries. I never intended to have 2 beds and this year, for some reason, the berries were very watery and didn't taste good at all. Finally, I had a Red Delicous tree that was in just too much shade. Out it came. One of my Liberty's is in the same situation, so it may come out soon too unless I find a good home for it.
-Glenn

I will be removing a mis-labeled plum that was supposed to be a Stanley. The tree is a bug magnet and suckers like a maniac, so not worth grafting it over.

I know I have a mis-labeled cherry, but the birds got the first crop. Didn't leave even one for me, so I don't know whether or not the tree is a keeper.

Yellow Transparent apple tree is a real loser, but I'm using the apples to make dog food, so it will stay around and I can practice top grafting on it.

I thought I'd never be able to raise apples, but I finally got it figured out (with help from this forum) so I've ordered 10 new apple trees for the spring.

I've got a mis-labeled apple tree, but the fruit appears to be promising, so that one is a keeper; I'll just have to try to figure out what it is. It came from the same source as the mis-labeled plum and the mis-labeled cherry.

I gave up on cucumbers years ago. Can't grow one that isn't too bitter to eat.

Citrus crop is lousy this year. Freeze to 19F killed most of blooms

Out goes:
ujukitsu sweet lemon (not really very good)
wekiwa tangelo (not really very good)
kishu mandarin (fruit too small)
washington navel (too late, cara cara much better)
panzarella orange (way too bland)
valencia oranges (too late)
half my changshou kumquat tree (way too many kumquats to eat)
half my golden grapefruit tree (too bland)
Big Early satsuma (I like others better)
Armstrong Early Satsuma (I like others better.)
Indio mandarinquat
Nagle's seedless kumquat

In their place will be:
cocktail grapefruit hybrid
chandler pummelo
duncan grapefruit(great taste)
miyagawa satsuma
xie shan satsuma
valentine pummelo hybrid
marsh grapefruit
clementine de Nules

Still evaluating:
yuzu
Bloomsweet grapefruit hybrid(branch)
Sulcata sweet lemon(branch)
Pomona sweet lemon
Giant key lime
Norman seedless nagami kumquat

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

Special thanks and Texas A&M Citrus Center for getting the following from the California Citrus budwood Bureau(CCPP):
miyagawa satsuma
xie shan satsuma
valentine pummelo hybrid
marsh grapefruit
clementine de Nules
Pomona sweet lemon
Giant key lime
Norman seedless nagami kumquat
Bream Tarocco

I've also spied a China S9 satsuma a local nursery imported from CCPP

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

"Produce or Perish"! Love it. My new motto.

Removed: All my mulberries except Illinois Everbearing which none of the others could compare to. Mars grape, horrible flavor. Aronia, total marketing hype. Concord Seedless grape, worst grape ever. Concord grape, not as good as many new varieties. Reliance grape, no one in my family liked the flavor. Buffalo grape, not as good as Concord.

Denninmi...well, what is on your 'thinking about pulling out' list then?

Forgot to add to my list...

Giant Cape Gooseberry. Too tough and not as flavorful as the small cape's

Tiger melon - Big as your fist, all seeds no flavor.

Asian melon - (Think it is silverbright?) Odd shaped and not very flavorful.

I'm removing a beautiful Kristin cherry tree because it's in too important a spot for an occasionally useful tree. Too bad though, it has the most beautiful shape of any cherry tree I've seen after I've spent the last 5 years pruning it to a weep- the trees 15 years old.
I'm removing an Erli-red-fre peach tree for lack of quality on my site. I'm grafting over a Bosc and Highland pear that are on a site where I can't seem to keep them healthy (other varieties are fine there).

I'll probably cut down an Italian plum that never produces
well. It was planted 2 to a hole next to a Valor that is very productive of much better fruit.

4 sweet cherries. I have NO IDEA what i was thinking. This one is going to sting since i have over $100 in the trees and have yielded roughly 1 cherry. The hardiness, the BUGS, the frost issues, the splitting...plus i don't even like them.

Anyone needs 4 sweet cherries (Lapins, Stella, Black Gold, and Kristin) let me know... warmwxrules@yahoo.com

I have an Imperial Epineuse plum that needs to go (no idea why i bought it)...

I have 2 sour cherries (Meteor, Northstar) that need to go...

Ahhh! What was i thinking. Maybe i can just send them back for refunds? :) :) (maybe not!).

I ripped out an entire raspberry bed of Caroline. I kept a few of the plants (potted them)... They were in a horrible spot (west facing wall) way too close to the house. Took hours, but will be worth is.

I need to focus my energy on a few good plants that i LIKE to eat and that work in my climate and that are hard to find locally. The plums, pears, blueberries and apricots seem to fit that list for me. The apples, while beautiful strong growing trees may also get the ax. I can buy bushels of perfect apples 5 minutes from my house that taste as good as i can grow.

Part of me thinks i'm joking myself doing all this on a city lot. With the spraying, and space issues, i have a hard time convincing myself to continue on.

Well franktank232...either you get enuf produce from your efforts to make it worthwhile or not. That is the whole idea of getting rid of dead wood that wont produce.

If it does not feed me fairly easily, produce good and taste OK...it is out of here.

I'm like you, short on RE. So can't afford to fool round with deadbeats taking up space.

I've had good luck with Jap plums, some peaches, asian and euro pears, dis resistant apples and berries...and hopefully Nikitas Gift!

Yeah...my stuff is just packed in. I really wish i had a vacant couple acre lot to put trees on. On top of this, if we ever want to sell, i'm pretty sure i'd have to go clear out all kinds of stuff. People aren't going to want to deal with this jungle. My family owns 60+ acres, but its an hour away and a zone colder then here. Doubt sweet cherries are going to do anything up there.

When it comes to trees/plants, I have no maternal attachment. I say, if it ain't growin' it's goin'. (Although Scott's motto is more catchy).

This year, I've either pulled out, or will soon pull out 15 trees, one bramble, and one strawberry patch. The casualties:

6 Apricots - They bloom too early for a reliable crop. No one in my family (including myself) got real excited about them. Most of the time they sat on the table till they rotted.

4 Japanese type plums - Same story as apricots. Obilnaya was the worst flavored. AU Roadside was a little better. AU Rosa was better still, but not good enough to keep.

4 Euro plums. Three had sub-par flavor. One died. (Hman, if your Italian was like mine, cut it down.) The other two plums that weren't that great were President and French Petite. President was the best of the three.

2 apples - One died from water issues. The other, Redfree, productively produces junk.

1 peach - Indian Free. Way too much rot. Even without that, I don't think I could sell the fruit easily. Although very unique, my family let them rot on the table. I had three other people try them and they weren't all that excited either. I think Indian Free is a connoisseur's peach. People who are very familiar with peaches probably like Indian for it's unique qualities, but most of the people I deal with expect to buy a peach that tastes like a regular peach. If I didn't need the space, I'd probably keep this tree.

1 bramble - Jewel blackcap is gone. I don't like black raspberries (wild or domesticated). They're not as sweet as blackberries, and they taste like egg.

Got rid of one strawberry bed, and kept one. Plan to put asparagus were the strawberries were removed.

Frank, I know what you mean about having to undo a lot if we ever sold. I've got so many dirt mounds, my place looks like a prairie dog town. One of my neighbors once asked me, "Are you raising trees, or dirt?"

2 trees just got dropped by the Husqavarna... Felt good... real good :)

I'm growing more melons next year...Galia/Crenshaw type melons. Good stuff.

Tcstoehr, in reading back through the list, I see it was you who had the catchy phrase, "produce or perish." My mistake.

Forgot to mention, I also got rid of a row of Ouachita blackberries. Plan to replace w/ more Triple Crown.

Murderers! All of you!
Maybe I have spent too much time nurturing my "pet trees" to even consider killing them--or maybe it's my mothering instincts that makes it unthinkable. Am I correct in assuming all of you are of the male persuasion?

Carla in Sac

After reading these reports of unsatisfactory fruits I don't know what to plant. My trees have been in the ground about 3 years so I have no tree fruit and only a few strawberries (too much work for an old man, get down and can't get up). Unfortunately I see the names of some of mine on your lists: Stella Cherry, Bosc Pear, Imperial Epineuse Plum, Fall Gold and Latham raspberries.
Dan

I have lost a lot of stuff to a few unexpected heat waves this year but the only thing I pulled do to lack of taste was a Anna Apple I planted about 6 years ago. It was about 7 feet tall and had an abundance of fruit but

I told the wife who didn't want me to remove it " why keep it when we don't even like those apples". I have since planted a Pink Lady and plan to replace a Granny Smith I accidentally killed with a weed wacker and just maybe add a Honey Crisp if I can get one next year.

I have a lot of other fruit trees but most are under a year old so I will keep nurturing them and waiting for good production.

I had a pair of Pineapple Guava's in the front yard mostly for decoration. One died recently from the heat but the other 4 feet away is doing great. I was pleasantly suprised a few days ago when I gave the living one a closer look and found about 8 fruit growing on it.

Carla in Sac,
I am with you. I have a different take with many on this post that seem to pull up plants, especially fruit tree so easily and readily. I disagree with the motto: "produce or perish". For one thing, there are many factors with poor performance, location, weather, adjustment to conditions, many of which are the cultivator's job to help. The quality of fruits for the first couple of years tend not to be very good, they will become better given them time. Plants that are not in right location, not enough sun, too wet a spot, etc. need to be relocated. In a way, a fruit tree is like a pet, you carefully select them, plant them in a nice location, watch them grow, take care of their problems, why kill them so thoughtlesslly. Do you at least carefully thought about what's wrong and what could be done about it? All plants have reason to evolve until today. To me it is a joy just seeing them being full of fruits.

annie-lee your idea is fine for those with time, $$ and land. But for many of us, we need to eat and can't fudge around.

Annie, I don't think anyone wants to pull things up that may eventually work. Its hard to decide exactly when something has failed, but after enough years it becomes obvious. I agree moving plants is often a good idea and I have done lots of that, but some things will just never work however much time and perfect location in your yard they have. Once I realize that, its gone.

Scott

I only plant for my own household use, so while I don't have a lot of space, it's more than enough for my needs and I usually end up giving away a lot of fruit to the food pantry. So I don't mind taking some space for a bet that will possibly fail, like growing apricots here. I LIKE apricots. If I get some in some years, I'm happy. If not, oh well, wait for next year.

I like nectarines and peaches, too, but when they develop disease that might spread to other trees that are healthy and productive, it's time to get out the saw.

These are clones not babies and not even individuals in a genetic sense. I prefer a pet with warm blood. I'm male, but I've known plenty of ruthless female gardeners and men who can't stand to kill a tree.

I have very little success on my site with apricots although I've spent 20 years trying to find the perfect site on my property for the right cultivar. These trees are like my spoiled worthless children that I will continue to indulge in for the occasional crop they provide me. I flat out love a juicy, tree ripened apricot and suspect that Olpea's site produces dry ones.

The funny thing is that if my property was just a short walk uphill the apricots would probably do fine as lots of nearby customers have productive trees. I eat more of their apricots than my own.

iammarcus, I have Bosc Pear and Stella cherry. They are favorites around here, so just because they didn't work for someone else, doesn't mean you won't like them.

My trees are pets, but I've never hesitated to put down a sick dog who can't be saved. I'll put a lot of money into a pet if I know they will come out OK at the other end of it, but not if it is hopeless.

It's the same with trees. I'll put a lot of effort into saving one, but if it is very clear that the tree is never going to be any good, I can remove it and put a better tree in that space.

Unfortunately, with fruit trees, you can't know whether the tree will be a good one or not under your growing conditions until you have grown it up and let it fruit for a few years. That's a lot of time invested for fruit you don't like, so it is hard to let go. Better to have something delicious and satisfying in that space, though.

My Quinault strawberries are on probation. They've been too soft this year. They get next year and if they aren't better, out they come, and I'll fill in the space with Seascapes, which are super delicious.

> Am I correct in assuming all of you are of the
> male persuasion?

Putting on my Mr. Spock ears. Possibly men are capable of making the difficult but logical decision to get rid of trees that don't make sense to keep, without illogical emotional attachments.

And really, how do you know what trees will be worthwhile? Where I live, every nursery will try to sell you a variety of sweet cherry trees. They don't tell you about the necessary spray regimen for canker and brown rot. Or that they grow 8 feet every year. Or that you have to keep a net over them to keep the birds out. Or that rain will ruin the ripening fruits. Or that a hard frost in April will destroy the blossoms. These are things I had to learn for myself. I love sweet cherries by these trees are not suitable at all. Pulling them is much like pulling a weed.

Where I took out my sweet cherries there are now Boysenberries and Triple Crown Blackberries growing. I'm now eating wonderful berries all summer instead of fighting a losing battle with uncooperative cherry trees. Yeah... I'd like some cherries but it's not to be.

That reminds me, I've had a Seneca Plum for 7 years. It's extremely difficult to keep to a manageable size and it gives only a handful of fruits during a good season. Pollination isn't an issue. No diseases. It just won't produce. My other euro-plums produce fine. This year I'm not pruning it so that I can see if the hard pruning I've been doing previously is the problem. If it doesn't improve next season... buh-bye!

Whether it's Carla's light-hearted post, or Annie's more serious one, the removal of a tree doesn't create a void. It offers the opportunity for something better in it's place. In nature, most of the time something has to die for something new to arrive. In my case, 20 new trees will have a new opportunity next Spring.

In the past, I thought I was careful in my cultivar selection. Most of the time, I read lots of info. and sought opinions (BTW, you can find a glowing opinion for any fruit or cultivar, regardless of how worthless the fruit is.) But for some reason, the negatives of various fruits didn't seem to be that significant. For instance, KSU Extension indicates apricots fruit once every 5 years. However, I talked with another Kansan who said they fruit every three years. I thought that was enough until I actually experienced it. It's just not worth the work and worry. In a similar fashion, early on I thought I had to have extremely disease res. cultivars in spite of the fact I was hearing some warning signs regarding quality on some of them. Again, I had to taste the fruit myself to learn the tree's not worth it. Now, if someone with some experience convinces me a cultivar is superior, I say - why not try it. If it doesn't work out, try something else. Part of the journey.

Fruit trees tend to have a short life span in town anyway. My Grandmother (may she RIP) used to reminisce fondly about the fruit trees growing in her yard in her youth. We drove by her old place once, and much to her surprise (but not mine) there wasn't a single fruit tree left. It's likely the trees you plant won't outlive you.

That's your happy thought for the day :-)

Not here, I manage apples on M7 rootstock almost 100 years old and showing no signs of quit. I manage lots of apples and some pears well over a century old on seedling rootstocks (fewer pears because fewer are planted- they're extremely long lived).

I suspect I have trees much older than that that broke off above the graft and regrew new trees. I've seen this happen with very old trees where I regrew it from a low watersprout after the main tree snapped off of a rotten base.

Some trees I manage are named varieties with multiple leaders starting close to the ground that are clearly close to a century old. The multiple leaders coming right out of the ground suggest this is a "second generation" at least.

Also have some really scary huge cherries that I know to be close to a century old.

One reason I like growing apples on 111 is that I feel I'm planting a legacy when I install them.

Peaches, however, can be extremely short lived, depending partly on the cultivar.

The midwest is made for prarie, not forest.

Pulled out a bunch of Triple Crown blackberry stumps today. They fruit here, but its so borderline and they have incredible dieback and then grow 20ft in one summer trying to take over the entire veggie garden, putting down roots everywhere, that they needed to go.

I'm male. Have no problem cutting trees down, pulling bushes etc. In fact I feel good getting rid of them.

I'm usually pissed that I had to spend $$ and waste time and energy to find out it is crap. So, the sooner I get finished with that pain the better.

But I do not like thinning seedlings. I generally let them grow and suffer from it. Feel bad that they just starting out in life and have to kill them. Some toms were stunted cause I let 2 grow in a sprout tray instead of picking 1. Have to get tougher and not be such a wuss.

I do try to give things a try. I never had a gooseberry or currant. Bought $66 of them. Planted them in 4 - 5 hours of sun. Some died others were stunted and got moldy. Moved some of the survivors. They still did not have enuf sun. Moved 1 last currant and gooseb and finally tasted them. Didn't like them for the trouble, so pulled them in the 3rd year.

Maybe could have saved that trouble and $ if I could have bought some in the market. but no go. And nothing at the local farmers market either. so had to pay for the experience. Guess there is a reason some things are not sold in the store.

Well, Carla, I may be a guy, but I'm either sentimental, soft hearted, or stupid, because I too have never been able to just rip something out if its alive and healthy, but I do really think I need to just toughen up and get used to it and start doing it.

The reason being, I think majority of folks here who aren't wasting space on non-productive items are correct. There are so many things I want to grow, I guess I shouldn't waste space on junk.

Dan, just got to try lots of stuff. I use the shotgun approach. Then if some of it turns out good, I expand and plant more of it.

I got a Saturn donut peach. People here poo pooed it. Said it was tough to grow. It was my best peach, very disease free for me with 1 copper spraying.

Now maybe I got lucky and it will never produce fruit like that again for me. But I am willing to try and see if it wants to have a home here or not.

Posted by ltilton 5 (My Page) on Mon, Oct 11, 10 at 10:19

Peaches and nectarines. Too much disease.

-------------------------------

I got disease on most of mine. But store bought peaches and nectarines are inedible in my opinion. (At least in my local) I don't care so much about some disease spots as long as the fruit is OK. I just peel off the bad spots.

My Hardy nectarine was not only extremely diseased but the fruit was all cracked. Too nasty even for an old forager like me. Pulled out my tree saw and put it out of its misery.

I'm also pulling out a Shinko Asian pear. Small fruit, watery, poor taste. Will put in another Raja or Hardy Giant Asian pear.

Posted by franktank232 z5 WI (My Page) on Mon, Oct 11, 10 at 19:32

2 trees just got dropped by the Husqavarna... Felt good... real good :)
I'm growing more melons next year...Galia/Crenshaw type melons. Good stuff.
-------------------------------

You must know what your doing then. I'm in Z6 and can't grow any melons other than watermelon. I gave up on the rest of the melons after 3 years of failure.

Sure, I can get some crappy muskmelons, but they are small and taste poor. So I would rather just use my limited space for WM, which comes out very good. (generally)

And some of us can grow cucumis melons but not watermelon!

Keepitlow, my tipping point with the nectarines came when the disease seemed likely to threaten healthy productive plum trees.

Hman,

I almost didn't write about the short life of fruit trees because I figured there would be posts splitting hairs with examples of old trees.

I too have seen very old fruit trees, but I restricted my comment to trees in towns (not farmsteads or abandoned orchards) and used language that allowed for exceptions.

Maybe it's different in NY, but here in KS there are very few 100 year old trees in town. I'm sure it would be much less than one in a hundred houses. It's not that apples or pears can't survive that long here, it's that new owners cut them down.

There are almost no fruit trees in my area. Just big ugly maple trees.

Olpea, sorry. I wasn't really thinking of towns in the sense of a completely developed and compressed area. I guess I didn't read your post carefully. I'm always pushing the legacy concept- after all, I sell expensive fruit trees.

I've only been doing this for four years, so I haven't had enough time to figure which ones are worthless.

Frank, I'm going to try and lay a few Triple Crown branches on the ground and bury them in hay. Maybe they won't die back so much this winter...or maybe they will be mouse food.

Camp, I heard TC is iffy in Z5. But I don't know for sure.

Maybe throny blackberry is more hardy? (I pulled mine out this year. Not much fruit on them, just lots of thorns.)

I also had good luck with Chester blackberry and the Injun varieties...Navaho, Apache, etc.

What about raspberries?

TC is iffy... the tops all die back (last winter was -17F) and this is in a very protected location (south facing side of the house...house blocks all north winds) and we had a huge amount of snow in Dec that sat on the ground covering everything until March... Everything covered by snow was fine...and fruited... The problem becomes...what happens if we finally get small amt of snow during winter, but still drop to our normal -20F or colder... i bet the vines would get killed back to the ground in that situation.

I have some extra room and am going to create an experimental fruit area. (Same exposure as the regular garden.)

Do well, and you get promoted to the real garden area. Not so well, and you go to the compost pile. Tough love, baby!

A dedicated area just for fruit would be awesome. There is a vacant lot about 50yds from my house i'd love to own and convert to a small orchard... I'd rip all the fruit trees out of my yard and put in pine trees!

A row of peach trees are also on the chopping block. This winter will decide if i continue on with growing them. If they fail to produce/or have a lot of die back, they are gone early next spring. They are all seed grown (Reliance/Red Haven)... so no loss.

franktank232...why rip out your fruit trees and go plant down the block?

Why not grow fruit both places?

I asked a neighbor if he would let me plant some trees and we split the fruit. He agreed and I put in 6 fruit trees.

I never grew a tree from seed. Maybe you would do better if you grew from grafted trees? Some of my trees produce the first year or two after planting.