OK yeah your PH is a bit high but nothing to worry about at this point IMHO. Best way to deal with it is to use a urea based fertilizer. YOu are in DFW so there are a lot of John Deer Landscape dealers in town go buy a product # 000777 a 39-0-0 slow release urea fertilizer. Apply 3-lbs/Kft2 every 30 to 45 days up until the end of October.

Tom: Let me give you a few more of my thoughts/observations about growing Norway spruce stands. As for provenance/variability. In addition to the general differences in the adaptation of various strains/provenances to different parts of the country, another thing I have observed in the 15 or so substantial NS stands I have seen and collected seed from in the nearby MD, WV, VA, and PA area, there is also a distinct variation in the amount of variability from tree to tree in each stand. In some stands, the trees look more like each other than in others. As luck would have it, in my own two older stands I see more variation than I have seen in any of the others I have visited--I have no idea why this should be so. The trees were planted between 1962 and 1966. But the variation is such that I can sit now and picture in my mind dozens and dozens of individual trees and the color and weeping character of their foliage, branching angles, bark color. I have quite a few special favorites. This may seem strange, but you have to understand that in addition to walking through my NS stands very often, I have pruned each individual tree in several phases up to at least 25 feet, and in some cases well over 30 feet. Anyway, one of the things I especially like about NS is this variability--with the possible exception of red maple, I have never seen another species of tree like it. For me, the effect in a forest stand of NS is glorious. Next, if you plant 6 X 6, or even 8 X 8, in about 12 to 15 years what you will have is a really dense "thicket" of NS trunks and branches that you will not be able to walk through. If at that point you want to thin and prune, you will need loping shears just to work your way into the stand, unless you have long arms, a good pruning saw, and dont mind getting scratched. I would recommend not doing anything for about 30 years, and then if you prune and thin, do it yourself by hand and leave all the wood to compost the soil and be taken up by the remaining trees. But if for aesthetic reasons you want to do some early pruning and thinning, that can do no harm. But for the long term magnificence of the forest, you dont really need to do anything. Norway spruce trees express dominance as well or better than any conifer I know. A couple years ago I called Professor Edwin White at SUNY Syracuse with a few questions that followed up on the studies he directed a few years before, and in the conversation I marveled about the stand at Glady, WV, which I had visited again shortly before--marveled at the strength and beauty of the trees that had continued to express dominance since I first saw the stand almost 20 years before. And he said he was not surprised that I was so impressed, and that if one wants to have the most magnificent stand of NS, and white pine for that matter, there was no need to do any thinning (or pruning) at all. He emphasized that both species expressed dominance over the long run very efficiently. My own observations make me think that NS is even better than white pine in this regard, but I dont have any data--just my informal observations--to back that up. One of the studies that Professor White directed was a site factors study. I will look that up for you and give you the reference--it was published in the SAF Northern Journal of Applied Forestry. If you are near the U of WI you can find it there (they do have a school of forestry?), but if you call SUNY Syracuse I would guess they would send you a copy. I am not sure how useful this would be to you in selecting a site for your planting, but I found the study fascinating. It is an observational rather than an experimental study, so it is not easy to understand exactly what it all means in practical silvicultural terms. But I can suggest that NS will grow well in soils with a pH above 4.8, and maybe 4.4 or a bit lower, but pH above 5 with some good amount of magnesium is probably best. I have soils in the 4.8 range and I experimented by broadcasting some high mag crushed limestone around a few groups of trees. No dramatic results, but perhaps some improvement--the kind of measurements really needed to determine exactly what the effects have been, were too difficult for me to do with any accuracy. One surprising finding of the study was that slope position and aspect were apparently unrelated to NS growth. For many species the lower east and north facing slopes are best. When I remarked about this to Professor White, he said that since I am so much further south, that may not be true for NS grown here. Anyway--interesting! Well, if I can think of anything else, I will come back and post it. In the meantime I will look up the site factors study and give the specific reference. Oh, I just thought--about larch. There is a professor at SUNY Syracuse who has dome some work with larch--I cant remember his name now, and he told me that larch does best where the soil is fairly deep--he gave me a number like an "A" and "B" horizon (or rooting zone) of at least 18 inches, or something like that. But then he added that if growing on a slope they can do well with less soil depth. I dont know if you have any slopes on your new land. Anyway, for what its worth --Spruce

howdy! First of all I am zone 5 so what I grow is different from what you can grow. We had 4 acres in production for 3 farmers markets . I n our best year we grossed oveer $8,000 in 12 weeks. Our primary crops were: eggs from our 100 hens, cucumbers , cantalopes, potatoes, tomatoes and onions. Pickling Cucumbers generated the biggest return on our investment. We plant our cucmbers and melons on thermally opaic green plastic the first week of May. This special plastic warms the soil up a lot more than regular black plastic and protects the plants from an occasional light frost. Our last frost date is May 16 th. I start the cucumbers indoors 2 weeks before I set them out. As soon as they germinate they immediately go out into a cold frame so they do not get leggy. I like to plant them as soon as they have their first set of true leaves. By planting the first week of May we have cucumbers t sell around the Fourth of July. At the farmers market I sell cukes for 10c a piece 10 fit in a quart basket for $1 thats about $32 a bushel :) We wholesale for $15 a bushel to a larger farm they like our clean cukes over theirs raised on the ground. Because we are cooler, I like to pick my melons from Northern catalogs like Veseys and Johnny's. Check to make sure the varieties are resistant to Powdery Mildew. That seems to get us the most in the cooler climates. I like Fastbreak, Ambrosia, and French Charentais to name a few. Yellow Doll Watermelons have never failed us either. Good Luck! Its really important to have fun doing this because its a lot of work.

No link but only a few orchards in my area so PYO Apple prices ranges from about $1-$2 per pound and about $1.50 per pound at one local farmer's market. In western NC where a lot of commercial Apple production takes place, the price is much lower, as low as $20/bushel. All variety sell for about the same price and the yield figures are for high density Apples in good climates in general. At 1000 trees/acre the yield for an average dwarf tree would be about 1 bushel (about 44#). Larger trees produce a lot more fruit, but take longer to get into production. Gala, Fuji, Pink Lady, Grannysmith and Goldrush are popular along with certain heirloom variety. An orchard or any type of tree fruit represents a huge investment in money and time with many years required (around 5-10) to reach break-even. My experience is that tree fruit is a lot more expensive and difficult to grow compared with small fruit like blackberry, raspberry or blueberry, at least in my area. Small fruit also has a much shorter break-even point than tree fruit Backyard type vegetables produce profit the fist year and may be a good way to get started. Heirloom Tomato are easy to grow and sell for insane prices in a local grown, foodie type market similar to the one you describe. Some type of inexpensive high tunnel would get your product to market several weeks ahead of normal field grown produce. For a good reference on this subject see the Elliot Coleman book