We feel your pain Our neighbors let a bird planted Ca Oak start, they are on the city side of the line, we are in the county. Those oaks are highly protected. It has almost all of the massive growth on our side of the fence and has destroyed an antique horse stall, favorite apricot and several other fruit trees. We could probably apply for permits to prune, pay for an arborist etc....but, because of the lack of thought in planting I am afraid of liability when the tree splits in half and takes out both of their rentals. So are not touching it. The condo association on another side did the same kind of thing, planted giant fir trees to block the view of our old house. Granted at the time my dad and the developer where having issues and my dad was not in to maintenance... But we now have a long section of the lot that is in heavy shade. They also over water their lawn massively, they have their own well, so our plum seem to rot before they ripen-they are close to the property line. On the plus side, our blueberries like the fir needles and extra water. And where they skipped the firs, we put in a citrus grove that can enjoy some free lawn water once they get bigger. Our Veggie garden is right in the middle of our lower yard and new fruit trees are being put in where we control the water and the sunlight (well other than the new citrus grove)

howdy reed, i'm a little ways from austin. & i've only been doing this 3 years. but figs, jujube's, persimmons, asian pears, & european pears should thrive there with almost zero care. just be sure to get fireblight resistant pears, anything from womack nursery will work, just google them i dont have experience with peaches, plums, etc; but when i google "tamu peaches" texas a&m says they can be grown if i'm willing to follow a spraying routine, & if i'm not willing to spray not to bother. apples also need spraying, & your soil has to be free of cotton root rot, which many areas in the cotton south have if you use the search function at the top of the board & look for "mountainman" & "scraper" you'll read from some fig & pear experts in austin

Kandy, please take this as just an initial shot at attempting to find the cause of your situation: Do be aware-it is possible to overwater plants. Some of the visual cues that this is happening include chlorosis(Yellowing of foliage that is supposed to be green) wilting stems and foliage (I know-sounds wrong, but is true), other off-color effects, and lack of vigor. And yes, all of these symptoms can be caused by numerous other causal agents! Wouldn't you know it! So, it seems like you know what you're about with gardening, etc. Perhaps you can provide additional info for us. Finally, while it is too early for "fall color", some plants each year do seem to show early color change. We don't always necessarily find out the reason(s) for this effect. Are you seeing something beyond just the odd coloration here and there....to a more general. systemic situation? +oM

Well for apples and pears which are pretty foolproof to graft, a lot of people bench graft. Eg. graft directly to the rootstock prior to grafting. I have no experience nor have done any research for peaches, apricots, ect. I have heard that they are more difficult. I know for large volume grafting the nurseries usually bud graft because their scions then go a lot farther as a scion with 3-4 buds can be grafted to 4 rootstocks instead of just 1 as as a cleft graft. It is also faster for multi-grafting as you place all 3-4-5 buds on the same rootstock at the same time. I think they usually do 4-5-6 buds with expectation that 1-2 will fail but they still end up with a 3-4 variety tree.