Thank you all SO much for all this information. I attached a pic of some peaches we picked 2 years ago. Just one of the boxes (out of about 600lbs we picked that day.) I thought it might be nice to see this time of year. I am going to start researching more the root stocks and varieties. Mainly I need hardy peaches, that produce well. We love fresh peaches but the main intention of peaches is to can them for winter fruit supply. We've only tasted a few varieties from the tree which area Elberta, Loringn Sunbright and a couple others but the Lorings were our favorite so far....they were HUGE peaches (which means less work to process for canning the larger they are.) They were so good. The Elberta seemed like a safe choice as well. Apples we were planning on possibly a Red Gravenstein (earlier), Sierra Beauty or Sweet 16 which area later. Fuji for storing into winter. Any suggestions on the longest storing apple varieties? (late ripening AND long storage too). Sounds like Pink Lady did well with storage. We don't care for either Red or Golden Delicious varieties. Mainly we buy Fuji apples but that is probably because those are mainly what are available in our area to buy in bulk. I am getting really excited. Someday I want to order some root stock for an apple tree and graft my very favorite apple tree from childhood. I know all my siblings want a tree from that. It was a volunteer apple tree near the machine shed, and the apples were AMAZING! So I will be asking for help on that too. Many recommended making the orchard area expandable. Good idea! We have about 90 more feet we can extend it in the fenced area. That will give us a space about 45' wide by 220' long down one side of our property for the orchard. For now it will be about 45' by 130' which will hopefully be enough room for 12 trees in the initial area. The 4 pears will be planted alongside the driveway. The cherry and apricot we are considering incorperating into our landscape (hubby is a big fan of edible landscapes). The deer seem to leave the cherry trees alone around here (not sure about the apricot though.) The posts here are certainly encouraging as far as fruit tree size and fruit production time frames. One question I do have is for the best growth rates would it be best to dig out a larger area than one might with a shovel (we have the use of a mini-excavator or backhoe) and add compost etc? What would you recommend amending the immediate soil with for the best success. Like I said the soil is really pretty good, grows lush hay now, the cleachy rock (whiter looking soil with river type rock layer is down about 5+ feet). Also what do you mulch with under trees? We have a lot of aged straw.....we don't want grass growing right under the trees because we don't want to worry about weed eating near them or trying to turn a riding mower that tight.

I am over here in Southeast Montana and have sandy soil that melons love. When I started raising melons in the 1970's, my Burpee Hybrid muskmelons were simply delicious, now I cannot get hardly anything good out of a muskmelon. The exception was the Sunder which was superb, but Willhite quit selling. I can get good-tasting Savors in the early part of the season, but the later ones rot before they taste good. As for watermelons, some do not do well for me (Desert King). I have had only two watermelons that had a "perfume" when eaten. The one I remember the most was a White Seeded Simpson. I used to grow lots of watermelons, did not rotate and eventually my field got too diseased. Now, years later, I start on new ground, till in lots of leaves and I have vines all over the place. I really like the Sweet Favorite. They ripen early (around a month after setting on), and I can turn around and get two crops off the same vine. Some Sweet Favorites do not get the sweetness of the others, I wonder if one should withhold the water for a few weeks before ripening. To tell when a melon is ripe: I used to scratch the melon with the date it set on. For example, if a melon set on July 19, I would take a knife or nail and scratch "J19 on the skin and the resulting scar would remain. Then, since it takes six weeks for most watermelons to ripen, I would harvest the melon six weeks later (September 1st for the above J19 melon. Now, I think I will take an ear tag (that they use in a calf's ear), and if a watermelon sets on July 19 th, write that on the ear tag and set it beside the melon. I actually would go out July 23 d, see a watermelon the size of a chicken egg, and subtract a few days and write J19 on the tag. But I do agree that the Orange Glo is a very delicious watermelon. And it has a taste that is more than sweet. This year my Orange Glos tailed off in sweetness at the end of the season. I tried the Moon and Stars a few years ago and was impressed with their earliness. But I ran into problems this past year as I picked the first ones too early. I think that in excellent soil, they ripen later than if they are on just average soil. And they do taste very good. This year, I will plant around 50% Sweet Favorite and 50% Moon and Stars. With a few new ones. I finally found a source for the Tiger Baby (Anderson Seed and Garden Logan Utah.) The Tiger Baby is a small melon, short vines and ripens in 30 days from setting on for me. The flesh is only pink, but I am going to try plastic tunnels, underground heating to try and get very early melons. I like to take a heat lamp (put in a 100 watt bulb), and set it next to the watermelon plants in the plastic hot kap for overnight heating of the soil (heat lamp is face down on the dirt). Sometimes the bulb breaks due to moisture on the bulb. But the plants really thrive and grow fast if it is 100 degrees in the hot kap at night. I like the Tiger Baby's short vines because I have to cover all my watermelons with wire with small holes due to the hail we seem to get every year. Is that called hardware cloth?

Hi guys! Sorry I've not been around lately - been a busy Summer. Shortly, will be heading to the Northeast for a coupla weeks to experience REAL summer!... For comparison, it's been hovering around 64F all season in my part of SF with intermittent fog and sun and CONSTANT breeze/wind, so looking forward to some warmth in the Hudson Valley! Mike, interesting question you pose (and again, gorgeous trees!!!)! (As you know), I'm trying to grow both in-ground and potted citrus. It started I would say, after a visit to Hearst Castle and seeing how Mr. Hearst himself grew a variety of citrus for their ornamental value. A bit of research led me to identify the Meyer as the ideal citrus to grow here, so I planted 3 on the right side of my driveway - I also figured they'd eventually serve good wind-screens. The 1 potted Meyer I have was a rescue that then became an experiment. I wanted to see how it did in the 511 mix AND on a much cooler-summer + wind-exposed (but very well lit - approx. 12 hrs sun(!) - area. I can't yet tell you if there's a difference in fruiting/flavor with these, but I hope to get back to you in a few years. What I can tell you is that wind is definitely a factor, since the potted Meyer in an exposed location has much less healthy looking (smaller, slightly curled) leaves. I may yet be forced to try to grow this Meyer year-round in the house(!). My 4 other citrus are also experiments, you could say. Trovita orange/Cara Cara orange: In-ground and both planted in the same planting hole, since I read this is possible AND I'm out of garden space to plant. In the sunniest part of the garden, but also most exposed to cold summer winds! Orange supposedly cannot grow in SF so am giving it a try to see. Both Cara Cara & Trovita hang long on the tree and need less warmth to ripen they say, so we'll see. Gold Nugget mandarin: In-ground. Mandarins are rumored to grow here, and I LOVE the taste of GN's! Bearss lime: Latest (and hopefully last!) acquisition - thanks for the recommendation, jkom(!). Potted in regular potting soil with wicks; resides indoors. Am testing my NE/SW facing window to see if it can sustain citrus indoors year-round. I'm also seeing how well the wick system does as compared to 511/gritty mix. So what basically started off as passing interest has morphed into a little obsession (and a bit of experimenting). But I'm sure none of you can relate... :-) Cheers, Tim

Great post. I'm in the NE but surprisingly I see much of the same results that you have. My growing season is a bit longer as I don't have to deal with nearly the heat and humidity that you do although my transplant date is the middle of May. In terms of your questions regarding green cherries, the two that I know of that people give favorable reviews of are: - Green Doctors/Green Doctors Frosted - Green Zebra Cherry Some other prolific cherries you could try is Matt's Wild Cherry and Mountain Magic (F1). I haven't tried Sweet Million, but have tried Sweet 100 Million with good success. Also Dr. Carolyn's is very prolific and robust. It's a little later to develop than your typical cherry so it would be interesting to see if it does well in your climate. In terms of blacks, try Indian Stripe. It supposedly has a very similar tast to CP, but is more prolific and provides fruits earlier than CP. In terms of yellows try Hugh's. In terms of reds, I've heard good things about Ramapo (F1). You could also try your hand in grafting your tomatoes to rootstock to improve soil pest resistance and possible introduce more vigor to your tomato plants. There are various opinions on GW about the validity of grafting, but I think in your environment it would be a good thing to try (if nothing else at least you could buy the "Grafting - Been there, done that." There are expensive rootstock seeds you could purchase like Beaufort, or you can purchase cheaper hybrid seeds that already have soil pest resistance genes in them like Celebrity. You could even try your hand hand at making a 'Frankensteinian" tomato-eggplant mix using the eggplant rootstock "Black Beauty" which some people swear by. If you want to learn more about grafting type in "Cary Rivard" in Youtube. Dr. Rivard has a bunch of conference seminars that were video tapped and are now on Youtube. smithmal