Brandon, It has been about 1 year since planting my first fruit trees in my backyard orchard. I am proud of my accomplishments, here are my insights. "1. Trees will be planted in East Tennessee (zone 6b technically, zone 7b realistically)." Virtually all Apples and Pears can grow good in zone 7. The most important thing is a least 8 hours summer direct sunlight for trees to overcome disease , insects and to bear fruit. "2. Trees will need to be no-spray or nearly no-spray varieties." Don answered this expertly, "The "low-spray" feature advertised on some apple varieties refers only to diseases..." "No apple is resistant to any insect pest. And there are a lot of those." "The only fruit tree I grow that requires no spraying is the Asian pear..." "3. Fruit needs to taste as good as possible." Check out a local farmstand/market, taste, ask questions. "4. Quality of fruit is much more important than quantity." I am growing a Flat Wonderful peach tree. The foliage is a specimen quality deep purple color and the tree is vigorous. I am told the spring blooms are a knockout, and the flat peaches taste extraordinary. My "no spray" Olympic asian pear has grown to 8 feet from 36" bareroot. The dark green leaves are 3 times the size of european pear leaves. The pears start in 3rd year are gourmet quality and store for 9 months. My Home Depot bought Shinseiki asian pears came with flowers and bore three nice pears each. Shinseikis can pollinate each other and the Olympic pear, this you will have to study up on. "5. Long shelf life would be great, but will not be a limiting factor." Fuji and Gala are the hits in the apple market. Even the supermarket ones taste great. Shelf life of a Fuji is up to one year. The asian pears can be eaten off the tree unlike the europeans, that have to be ripened. The Olympic pear has the longest life for the asians at nine months. "6. Trees that will produce over a long period of time are preferred over short lived/short production life trees." Standard pear trees can live to 100 years. Dwarf pears 35 years. Maybe 15 years for dwarf peaches, apples. Standard trees grow alot longer than dwarfs. Dwarfs bear fruit earlier. In some cases it can save a few years or more getting fruit on the table. Henry Fields has a sale till Thursday Oct. 4. The Olympic and a Flat Wonderful $20.22 each including shipping. I have ordered a 4 varieties grafted to 1 asian pear from Raintree Nursery to be delivered in March 2008. $67 each including $25 shipping. Grover

newbie in nj- How funny, deer on the west coast don't seem to care for daylilies at all, they go for roses. I was a DL nut (hemerocallis ~ hemnancy) and got up to 380 varieties at one point. But I have bad vole problems and found that voles love to eat the roots off. I got around this by putting lava rock in the bottom and sides of planting holes, and interplanting with daffodils and irises, which they don't like. Some really good DL growers also interplant lilies, clematis grown on poles with wire mesh at the top, roses, etc. They also cut the leaves to the ground after blooming so new fresh foliage comes in. My main problem with them is that I was once gone the whole month of June and lots of weed grasses went to seed, and since then I have not been able to keep up with the weeding. DL and irises have vertical growth so the weed grasses can creep in among the canes, so I am seeking to grow plants that grow in balls and cover the ground so the weeds will be shaded out. I also don't like the short bloom season of DL's where I live and like to grow a mix of plants to cover more of the growing season.

Once a man asked his wife why she cut the ends off of the ham before baking it. She said; "Because that's how my mom always cooked a ham." So he then asked his wife's mother the same question. Her answer was the same. Finally he asked grandma who replied; "That was the only way we could fit it into the one small baking pan that we owned at the time." This is how misinformation is passed along. It's sad but many people have become either too lazy to think independently or are too modest to ask "WHY?" Fortunately most of the people on this forum do not push their methods as being the only right way to grow tomatoes correctly and are willing to take the time to explain why their techniques work for them. I prune; Because I trellis. For larger size tomatoes, Not for more tomatoes. To make room for younger plants growing up the trellis and to acquire suckers to root to become those younger plants growing up the trellis. To stop plant growth at the top of the trellis thereby allowing the plant to focus it's energy to the remaining fruit. My suckers do bear lots and lots of large fruit and do not take away any energy from the rest of the plant. However if I were growing in cages or spread out on the ground I would not recommend pruning at all. But that's up to you.

So, you wanted a man's opinion. OK, here goes although it may not put me in a good light. I really did not wnat to agitate the wonderful people on this forum. At gatherings, take look at entrances and doorways. Women tend to clog the entrances. They will move just inside an entryway and stop. After two more do this, it is impossible for a man to pass through without being rude or pushy. That's irritating. This is merely an observation, not an attack on women. I've watch this phenomonem and have wondered what is the basis of this behavor? It doesn't matter what kind of meeting it is, social, business, or church, it happens. It tends to happen more often in friendly social gatherings. The same ones who block entryways also dawddle when in line at a self serve buffet. If they can't make up their mind on food choices, it never occurs to them to continue on and to let others pass along. They could alway pass though and then go back to the end of the line if they decided on another food choice. I have seen a few in a self serve line stop to discuss a dish for 5 minutes or more without regard to others who are waiting in line. Fortunately, this does not happen often and this applies equally to both men abd women. Other than that, I like pot luck buffets. It creates lots of material for conversation starters and I am always amazed at the variety of skillful food prepration, especially when the guys add their barbeques and chilles.