Don't know if Pawpaw and Persimmon will grow in your area, but they are relatively pest free.

Benny

I suggest that you take a cruise through the local grocery stores during berry season and see what sells for high prices.

You should be able to grow blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. There's labor involved in picking the fruit, so you want something that will bring a good price.

I don't see pears on your list.

There are several grapes hardy to minus 20, so maybe you could try a few different varieties.

I'm trying some Carpathian walnuts. I don't know if they will handle zone 4.

I'm located in north/central MN, probably having climate conditions like you do. You need to give blueberries a try. I went to a lot of extra work initially to plant them, but I needed to because of the soil here.

The top soil here was only about 7 inches deep so I turned this top soil off to the side. The next 6" of sand was removed, hauled away, and replaced with damp spagnum peat moss and aged sawdust. I mixed everything (topsoil,peatmoss & sawdust) with a rototiller as I gradually backfilled the furrow. I had 2 furrows that were 30" wide by 60 ft long each. A 2 bottom plow can help a lot with this.

The majority of the plants that I put in were half-highs and spaced 4 ft apart in 2 rows 8 ft apart. 25 of the half-highs are Chippewa, Polaris, and StCloud. Two other half-highs that I'm going to try next year are Superior and Friendship. All of these are available from St.Lawrence Nurseries in Potsdam, N.Y. I also have 4 Bluecrop plants that are taller and so far they haven't been winter damaged but that may be because last winter wasn't brutal. There are also 6 mystery blueberry plants that were moved from other locations.

My current Apples are Haralson, Honey Crisp, and Zestar. 52 ft row of Boyne, and 52 ft. row of Autumn Britten raspberries. SLN has a black raspberry that was bred 20 miles from here in Pequot Lakes, MN. Winter hardy here. Name = "Pequot Black Raspberry" This will be added next spring too.

Other "To be Added" are: Nova Pear, Bali Sour Cherry, and King of the North Grape.

NorthMN-

Drive down to La Crosse and i'll give you 2 Bali sour cherries... I'm probably going to take the saw to them soon.

I'd add a bunch of hybrid plums. They do real well around here, if you can keep the pests off of them.

You had sand underneath the native top soil at your farm or are you in a urban area that was perhaps graded?
I am in a city and find sand about 3 feet down(less in other spots)....just wondering how common it is to find sand deep in underground?

How far away would you recommend raspberries to be planted in a backyard for home growers?

Franktank,

If the cost of the gas to get there and back wasn't so much more than the cost of the trees, I'd take you up on your offer. I would have really enjoyed getting a chance to see your fruit set up. Based on your forum comments, I can tell that you know what you are doing in the field. Maybe someday I'll get a chance to visit your area.

Your offer and comments have me concerned about ordering a Bali Cherry. Could you tell me more about what you don't like about them?

What hybrid plums would you reccomend and what are your thoughts on each?

Evans/Bali? haven't fruited yet. They look great and have put on a lot of growth this year. Its sounds like the quality can vary. Mine came from Burnt Ridge. I removed a North Star and will probably also take out a Meteor (horrible location). Both of those trees have produced fruit, but we just aren't that big on sour cherries.

I dug out 3 sweet cherries the past two days. I've been tossing around ideas on what to do with them and now i'm just using them as a screen to block a large window. I'm worried some, because the spot they are in only gets sun during late spring-mid Sept...We'll see how they respond. Sweets are pushing it for this area. I do LOVE the smell of sweet cherry blossoms.

I have only tried Alderman and Superior, but i know La Crescent seems highly recommended (i plan to add that one), and probably 2 others.

Superior is a great tasting plum, early August...fantastic. This year it cracked, but as you may know, it was the wettest summer on record and it never stopped raining around here. Alderman is a little later and not quite as good, but still a great plum and the tree is very fast growing and beautiful. Both trees are LOVED by pests.

If i had to do it over, i would have skipped apples and peaches (peaches are tough here/one harsh winter and they are toast) and stuck with pears, apricots, and plums (remember i have 1/4 acre). If you try and Apricot, go with Tomcot. It has worked very well here. Seckel pear has done well for me, and i have a Rescue, but its still small.

Kokos: My fruit garden occupies about 1/4 arce of a 5 acre rural parcel. It was previously a forest so there was no prior manipulation of the soil. (Very ugly job clearing out all of the old tree stumps and roots.) The sand starts at about 7" and goes at least 10 feet. When I dug the hole (10 ft deep) for my basement, it was all sand suitable for a kids sandbox.

I also planted my raspberry rows 8 ft apart and trellised them. Even with them leaning a little over the trellis wires, there is still about 4ft between the tips of each row. Enough room for my ATV and trailer to bring in mulch, etc. They were planted 24" apart within the row and filled in the row within 1 year. However, they did have the advantage of a full trailer load of horse manure worked into the rows before planting. The blueberries didn't get any manure initially.

Franktank: I'm taking it that the sour cherries are on the "outs" more because of personal preferance than problems with them?

Superior sounds like it should be one of my plums for sure. I know you haven't tried the LaCrescent yet but based on what you have heard, should my 2nd tree be that or Alderman?

Do you think Tomcots would grow in my area? I'm about 150 miles north of the Twin Cities.

eveyone, thx for comments.

northern man; I tried blueberries twice and then learned I had some soil work to do to get an acceptable Ph. added peat moss and aluminum sulfate to an area last spring and left it fallow this year. will try blueberries there next spring. assuming success I'll do a larger area for the following year. thx also for Nursery reference.

oregonwoodsmoke: will try 1/2 dozen pears nest spring. have a south eastern slope selected.

bwennyl: will try Pawpaw and Persimmon. not sure if I ever ate either one.

thx again everyone. this is a great forum!!!!

Was that a Yellow looking sand(when damp in the earth)and then it looked drier(whitish-greyish)when you left it to stand to dry on the soil surface for a while?

If so I have the exact same stuff.....so if you say your soil was not manipulated then I must be in the same boat too. My house is really old.....built 1910 or so...and I find this Yellow sandy soil deep down as do you(my neighbours too).