The Fruit Tree Grove has begun! Let there be FRUIT!

[Regular Guy]

I've been planning to get some fruit trees going for a good bit and finally we paid off my wife's car so we can now start doing some thing we've been planning on. Chiefly, having a fruit grove. So far these are an Yellow Apple tree and a Pear tree. I have one more of each to plant. I also have planted two Blue berry bushes as well as two Black berry bushes. We plan on having about 4 more on this side and planting another 6 on the other side of the house. Here are my efforts so far.

[Katica]

Great work! I am so jealous.

[Milk&cookies]

oooooh lovely! My parents planted an apple tree, it gives lots of delicious fruit every year. I love it!

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[Tank Woman]

I suggest planting companion plants around the bases. According to my chart, Chives, Marigold, Garlic, Horseradish, Lemon Balm, Mustard, Nasturtiums, Spinach, Tansy, and Yarrow are good for Apple. Unfortunately Pear isn't listed.
It also says grass and potatoes are antagonistic to Apple.
The reason we plant companions is twofold. First it is a ground cover around the base, which holds in moisture and keeps mean old grass from growing. Second, the plants listed provide beneficial nutrients and micro goodies to the tree.

[Blacksmith]

In addition to complimentary plants I would suggest mulching to help retain moisture and control grass growth (Makes it easier to care for). I mulch once with some well rotted wood chips and cover the mulch with grass clipping every time I mow. Make sure the mulch is not within 3" of the trunk.

I am betting you got a good deal on the trees this late in the year. Make sure they get plenty of water to help avoid transplant shock. You might also want to consider some sugar water (1cup of sugar/ gallon) once a week for a month. I would water every day it does not rain if the soil drains well for at least the first month.

[Tetra Grammaton Cleric]

Cool Beans RG. S'awesome.

I would echo the companion planting thing (especially the nasturtiums as the mustard like compounds they give off repel certain PITA bugs) and the mulch suggestions (a thick feeding mulch under the nasturtiums would rock. Hard.) but keep the mulch away from the tree stems to avoid collar rot, etc. Also, let the tree's root systems get established before going too OTT on mulches, feeds, etc. Force them to grow out past the root ball by watering at the edge of the pit, etc.

Also, get one of these...

Crab Apple as universal pollinator



edit to add: haha, it just struck me how permaculture is to gardening as tacticalpractical is to guns.
"I'ma get me an AR15"... well, you'll need to get good sights, good mags, a good sling, a white light and a red dot, training, better ammo, mag pouches, dump pouch, advanced training, etc, etc.
"I'ma get me an Apple tree"... well, you'll need to get... ... ...
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[Regular Guy]

Cool Beans RG. S'awesome.



edit to add: haha, it just struck me how permaculture is to gardening as tacticalpractical is to guns.
"I'ma get me an AR15"... well, you'll need to get good sights, good mags, a good sling, a white light and a red dot, training, better ammo, mag pouches, dump pouch, advanced training, etc, etc.
"I'ma get me an Apple tree"... well, you'll need to get... ... ...
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Thanks! Yeah, that's me, AR-15s and Apple trees. Hell yeah!

[NamelessStain]

GRATS!!!

About 2 months ago I purchased dwarf trees from a place called Gurney's. ( http://gurneys.com/ )

I got a fig, lemon, lime, and orange. I put them outside for the spring through fall then inside over winter. They say production takes about 2 years.

The bonus is I can take them with me if I get to bug out via vehicle.

[ZombieGranny]

Great looking trees!
Makes you feel good, yes?

There was a thread on fruit tree guilds, let me give a search... No luck, I know the thing is here somewhere.
I found the link of the page I had posted, though...
http://www.permies.com/t/1475/permacult ... ree-guilds
If you're interested, just put fruit tree guilds as your search terms, there's tons of information on it.
-
In 'fancy talk' -
"A guild is a functional community of plants that is centered on a central element. These plants act in relation to the central element, and support the health, management, and act as an environmental buffer." (http://vinodpermacultureblog.wordpress. ... ssignment/)

[Tetra Grammaton Cleric]

Great looking trees!
Makes you feel good, yes?

There was a thread on fruit tree guilds, let me give a search... No luck, I know the thing is here somewhere.
I found the link of the page I had posted, though...
http://www.permies.com/t/1475/permacult ... ree-guilds
If you're interested, just put fruit tree guilds as your search terms, there's tons of information on it.
-
In 'fancy talk' -
"A guild is a functional community of plants that is centered on a central element. These plants act in relation to the central element, and support the health, management, and act as an environmental buffer." (http://vinodpermacultureblog.wordpress. ... ssignment/)

Yep, it's basically companion planting for trees.

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[cv66er]

I would echo the companion planting thing (especially the nasturtiums as the mustard like compounds they give off repel certain PITA bugs)-

Our problem is aphids. I heard that catnip works against those, so we're starting some near ours. I'll have to add some of the others listed above too. Thanks.

[Tetra Grammaton Cleric]

I would echo the companion planting thing (especially the nasturtiums as the mustard like compounds they give off repel certain PITA bugs)-

Our problem is aphids. I heard that catnip works against those, so we're starting some near ours. I'll have to add some of the others listed above too. Thanks.

Nasturtiums are good proof against aphids but I didn't know about that about Nepeta, I do know you should let Parsnips bolt to seed under apple trees (and other fruit trees) and it attracts predators that devour aphids, codling moth & apple brown moth though.

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[Nyx]

Our problem is aphids. I heard that catnip works against those, so we're starting some near ours. I'll have to add some of the others listed above too. Thanks.

I love catnip due to all it's uses, but apparently, so do all the neighborhood cats. I cannot keep them out of our yard as it is.

[Tetra Grammaton Cleric]

Our problem is aphids. I heard that catnip works against those, so we're starting some near ours. I'll have to add some of the others listed above too. Thanks.

I love catnip due to all it's uses, but apparently, so do all the neighborhood cats. I cannot keep them out of our yard as it is.

Yeah, I was gonna mention that... major downside to growing Catnip is all the strung out cats wandering into your yard and having the CDEA Caticopter constantly overhead.

"Well I can haz learned a lot of things from Uncle Ho Cat don't you know... you can haz better stay away from Cheezburger Road"



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[offcamber]

Looks good! If you have deer in your area, you may want to fence them..

We planted a couple fruit trees last year that the deer destroyed this spring, lol.

[Regular Guy]

Looks good! If you have deer in your area, you may want to fence them..

We planted a couple fruit trees last year that the deer destroyed this spring, lol.

There are a few deer but they do not come on my property. I've seen them on the other side of the pond but never in my yard. I have Day Lillies all over my yard and they do not touch them. I know deer like them because the deer eat every one out of my mom's yard. I have rabbits, raccons and moles that will come into my yard. My cat assassinated all the moles, about one a night.

However, if it becomes an issue I'll fence them.

[Blacksmith]

Ground hogs are a problem at one of my properties. They love most fruit and will strip trees bare of it quickly given the chance. (while damaging branches in the process) Traps, dogs and guns work wonders though.

[Regular Guy]

Sniffles meet ground hog. Ground hog meet Sniffles.

[crypto]

RG, is that your 556 can? How does it work on the ruger?

[Regular Guy]

RG, is that your 556 can? How does it work on the ruger?

Yes, my can. It works great. I shot a CCI stinger out of it yesterday and it sounded like a car door shutting. It's a tad heavy for a pistol but not horrible.

[crypto]

Thats pretty cool. I had heard the 556 cans didnt work very well on .22LR, glad to see I heard wrong.

[uneekwahn]

Good work RG.

We have a lime tree which is approximately 3-4 metres high and the same in diameter, a lemon tree which is about 5-6 metres high and the same in diameter and a mandarin tree which is about 2 metres high and 1 metre in diameter. We *HAD* a pomegranate tree but it died. We use our grey water from the washing machine and rotate them around to the different trees. One day my wife decided to soak some nappies in hot water whilst she went out for 2 hours and unfortunately the hose was not sitting right and due to gravity the hot water just kept coming out and went straight on the pomegranate for two hours, killing it. We're going out this weekend to pick up a new, 2 metre high one.

We also have a heap of herbs (oregano, coriander, thyme, parsley and rosemary), vegetables (potato, beetroot, leek, brussel sprouts, butter lettuce, rocket, jalapeno chilis, chives, bush beans and garlic), some strawberries and some nasturtiums.

We're also looking at getting some olive trees to plant out the front of the house!

[ZombieSoldier01]

We are getting ready to go to closing on our new construction house. My wife ha already chose some fruit trees to plant. Apple, blood orange, and peach. They will be planted in the back of the yard, inside the 6foot privacy fence. She is also planting a Arden just big enough for our family with other fruits and veggies.

[Regular Guy]

Just as an update the trees are surviving. The apple is doing really well, both of them. The peach is stressed. I'm watering it a lot and it's alive however it's lost half it leaves. I haven't planted the other two because a gardener told me not to and he's right, planting in the summer is too hard on the tree. In the summer trees produce leaves and fruit. They need their root system to do this. If you plant in summer they will not have an established root system and this will stress the tree. I left the other 2 in the pots and moved them to a shady area and they are doing very well. I'm going to continue planting in late September.
The best time to plant is in the fall, winter or very early spring. In the same time period I planted 2 Blackberry and 2 Blue Berry. Only one of the blue berries got stressed and almost lost all it's leaves. I put rock around the base which helps the soil retain moisture and the bush is now thriving and producing lots of new leaves.