experiences with fruit trees over ten years

[willy]

I planted my first fruit trees, pear and apple in 2009 from Century Farm Orchards. It included two varieties of pear and 7 variety of apple that covered early, mid, and late drop times. Since that time I have planted about 90 more fruit trees, of those 3 were peach, 2 apricot, 8 persimmon, 10 paw paw, 30 pear, and the balance apple. These added fruit trees came from Stark Bros., Burnt Ridge, The Wildlife Group, and Turkey Creek(who is a member of this site). All nurseries were great to work with except Burnt Ridge. I don't recommend them simply because the product they sent was in horrible condition when it arrived, missing labels on trees and when called about these issues they just said sorry and didn't replace the damaged trees or offer any way to make it right.

Dave at Century Farms and Chris at Turkey Creek will answer all questions you have and help you anyway they can. I try and use Chris's nursery every time(the only time I don't go with Chris is if he doesn't have the variety I'm looking for. He has taken many scions from trees I have and I have gotten trees from him that were the result of these scion exchanges.

The trees from Century farms have done great and are full of fruit and have had the most time in the ground to show me what they can do. Of the pear trees I received from Century farms, 2 were asian pear and other a keiffer. One of the asians died after year three from coons breaking it off. It didn't regenerate from the trunk unfortunately. The asian has been a big producer since year three and the keiffer started good production in year 5. The apples from Century farms produced in year 3 with the Hewes crab being a huge producer that year and each since. Liberty has produced well since year 3 and the others started to produce in year 5 and 6 with good amounts. This year all Century trees are loaded.

The trees I planted after 2009 have done very well also. The vast majority of those are loaded. The only ones that aren't, are the ones planted within the past 3 summers.

The pear trees have without question produced more fruit than apple trees in a shorter time and have continued to outshine apples (the hewes crab is the exception). My pear trees were not attacked by the jap beetles like my apples and apricots. They are almost see through trees with the leaves becoming see through. They all have started to put new leaves on and the ones that had fruit still hold as much fruit as they did prior to being hit by beetles.

One area apple trees have performed better than pears is the apples don't break branches loaded with apples like pears do in high wind events and asian pears are more susceptible to breakage than european pears. A storm rolled through this past week and 5 of my pears, of which 3 were asian, broke major branches off and one of those snapped its trunk. It was loaded with fruit, I have never seen so much fruit on a tree so I know that was part of it.

Pears have grown faster, produced fruit sooner, are great for browse and licking branches(I leave a branch or two about 50" high sticking out from my fruit trees for browse and licking and they have become great deer attractants. If I plant anymore fruit trees for deer they will be persimmon, pear, and hewes crabs.

The persimmons I planted 5 years ago have started producing a limited amount of fruit and have grown relatively fast. I look forward to what they will do in another 5 years.

If anybody is looking for an asian pear that is huge, firm and crisp like an apple and sweet I highly recommend Megietsu. Great, early producer that one can start harvest of in late to mid Sept. and fruit keeps in fridge for many weeks. The Megietsu is hard to find and I don't think Century farms still has it. Even though it seems to be a bit brittle the fruit is worth the risk.

If I had to do it all again I would go with crab apples, liberty apples, asian and european pears, and persimmons for deer. Asian pear for humans.

Zone 5, thanks Rit for suggestion

 

[yoderjac]

Great info based on personal experience, but please add you location/usda zone to your profile. This experience will benefit folks in your region much more than in others, but if they don't know where you are, the value is more limited.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Rit]

That’s great to hear. I just started my destination plot/orchard in the fall of 2018 and at times I question all the expense and fuss it has been. I currently have 8 pears, 2 persimmons, 4 apples, 2 crabs, and 2 chestnuts but figure in the end I’ll have over 80 trees.

I am okay not knowing what zone you are in because I’ll plant trees appropriate for my zone and soil type. Thanks for the update.

 

[j-bird]

I will simply suggest that if your embarking on an orchard project try to reach out to some of our fruit experts that are near you or at least a similar zone....they can share their success and failures and help prevent wasted time and effort. Nothing is more frustrating than having a tree in the ground for 5 to 10 years and then realize it was a mistake! We have a wonderful resource here for fruit trees, so take advantage of it.... I am speaking form experience here....I didn't listen to good advice and paid for it!

 

[blueKYstream]

I planted my first fruit trees, pear and apple in 2009 from Century Farm Orchards. It included two varieties of pear and 7 variety of apple that covered early, mid, and late drop times. Since that time I have planted about 90 more fruit trees, of those 3 were peach, 2 apricot, 8 persimmon, 10 paw paw, 30 pear, and the balance apple. These added fruit trees came from Stark Bros., Burnt Ridge, The Wildlife Group, and Turkey Creek(who is a member of this site). All nurseries were great to work with except Burnt Ridge. I don't recommend them simply because the product they sent was in horrible condition when it arrived, missing labels on trees and when called about these issues they just said sorry and didn't replace the damaged trees or offer any way to make it right.

Dave at Century Farms and Chris at Turkey Creek will answer all questions you have and help you anyway they can. I try and use Chris's nursery every time(the only time I don't go with Chris is if he doesn't have the variety I'm looking for. He has taken many scions from trees I have and I have gotten trees from him that were the result of these scion exchanges.

The trees from Century farms have done great and are full of fruit and have had the most time in the ground to show me what they can do. Of the pear trees I received from Century farms, 2 were asian pear and other a keiffer. One of the asians died after year three from coons breaking it off. It didn't regenerate from the trunk unfortunately. The asian has been a big producer since year three and the keiffer started good production in year 5. The apples from Century farms produced in year 3 with the Hewes crab being a huge producer that year and each since. Liberty has produced well since year 3 and the others started to produce in year 5 and 6 with good amounts. This year all Century trees are loaded.

The trees I planted after 2009 have done very well also. The vast majority of those are loaded. The only ones that aren't, are the ones planted within the past 3 summers.

The pear trees have without question produced more fruit than apple trees in a shorter time and have continued to outshine apples (the hewes crab is the exception). My pear trees were not attacked by the jap beetles like my apples and apricots. They are almost see through trees with the leaves becoming see through. They all have started to put new leaves on and the ones that had fruit still hold as much fruit as they did prior to being hit by beetles.

One area apple trees have performed better than pears is the apples don't break branches loaded with apples like pears do in high wind events and asian pears are more susceptible to breakage than european pears. A storm rolled through this past week and 5 of my pears, of which 3 were asian, broke major branches off and one of those snapped its trunk. It was loaded with fruit, I have never seen so much fruit on a tree so I know that was part of it.

Pears have grown faster, produced fruit sooner, are great for browse and licking branches(I leave a branch or two about 50" high sticking out from my fruit trees for browse and licking and they have become great deer attractants. If I plant anymore fruit trees for deer they will be persimmon, pear, and hewes crabs.

The persimmons I planted 5 years ago have started producing a limited amount of fruit and have grown relatively fast. I look forward to what they will do in another 5 years.

If anybody is looking for an asian pear that is huge, firm and crisp like an apple and sweet I highly recommend Megietsu. Great, early producer that one can start harvest of in late to mid Sept. and fruit keeps in fridge for many weeks. The Megietsu is hard to find and I don't think Century farms still has it. Even though it seems to be a bit brittle the fruit is worth the risk.

If I had to do it all again I would go with crab apples, liberty apples, asian and european pears, and persimmons for deer. Asian pear for humans.

Zone 5, thanks Rit for suggestion

I’ve planted a bunch of chestnuts and persimmons a couple years ago and pears this year, so that is encouraging to hear! I hadn’t thought much about apricot or peach but sounds like I’m not missing too much.

I’m curious what apples you may not have had much luck with. The reason I’m asking is I’m debating planting apples/crabs or going with some native options instead.

Also, what about your paw paw? I planted one 3 years ago. It’s grown a few inches maybe. I’m hoping it picks up. I was thinking about getting a few more just so it has a pollinator. Dang, they’re slow though!

 

[Apple Junkie]

I planted my first fruit trees, pear and apple in 2009 from Century Farm Orchards. It included two varieties of pear and 7 variety of apple that covered early, mid, and late drop times. Since that time I have planted about 90 more fruit trees, of those 3 were peach, 2 apricot, 8 persimmon, 10 paw paw, 30 pear, and the balance apple. These added fruit trees came from Stark Bros., Burnt Ridge, The Wildlife Group, and Turkey Creek(who is a member of this site). All nurseries were great to work with except Burnt Ridge. I don't recommend them simply because the product they sent was in horrible condition when it arrived, missing labels on trees and when called about these issues they just said sorry and didn't replace the damaged trees or offer any way to make it right.

Dave at Century Farms and Chris at Turkey Creek will answer all questions you have and help you anyway they can. I try and use Chris's nursery every time(the only time I don't go with Chris is if he doesn't have the variety I'm looking for. He has taken many scions from trees I have and I have gotten trees from him that were the result of these scion exchanges.

The trees from Century farms have done great and are full of fruit and have had the most time in the ground to show me what they can do. Of the pear trees I received from Century farms, 2 were asian pear and other a keiffer. One of the asians died after year three from coons breaking it off. It didn't regenerate from the trunk unfortunately. The asian has been a big producer since year three and the keiffer started good production in year 5. The apples from Century farms produced in year 3 with the Hewes crab being a huge producer that year and each since. Liberty has produced well since year 3 and the others started to produce in year 5 and 6 with good amounts. This year all Century trees are loaded.

The trees I planted after 2009 have done very well also. The vast majority of those are loaded. The only ones that aren't, are the ones planted within the past 3 summers.

The pear trees have without question produced more fruit than apple trees in a shorter time and have continued to outshine apples (the hewes crab is the exception). My pear trees were not attacked by the jap beetles like my apples and apricots. They are almost see through trees with the leaves becoming see through. They all have started to put new leaves on and the ones that had fruit still hold as much fruit as they did prior to being hit by beetles.

One area apple trees have performed better than pears is the apples don't break branches loaded with apples like pears do in high wind events and asian pears are more susceptible to breakage than european pears. A storm rolled through this past week and 5 of my pears, of which 3 were asian, broke major branches off and one of those snapped its trunk. It was loaded with fruit, I have never seen so much fruit on a tree so I know that was part of it.

Pears have grown faster, produced fruit sooner, are great for browse and licking branches(I leave a branch or two about 50" high sticking out from my fruit trees for browse and licking and they have become great deer attractants. If I plant anymore fruit trees for deer they will be persimmon, pear, and hewes crabs.

The persimmons I planted 5 years ago have started producing a limited amount of fruit and have grown relatively fast. I look forward to what they will do in another 5 years.

If anybody is looking for an asian pear that is huge, firm and crisp like an apple and sweet I highly recommend Megietsu. Great, early producer that one can start harvest of in late to mid Sept. and fruit keeps in fridge for many weeks. The Megietsu is hard to find and I don't think Century farms still has it. Even though it seems to be a bit brittle the fruit is worth the risk.

If I had to do it all again I would go with crab apples, liberty apples, asian and european pears, and persimmons for deer. Asian pear for humans.

Zone 5, thanks Rit for suggestion

It’s good to hear other people’s experiences with various fruit trees and nurseries. Like you, my one experience with Burnt Ridge was a disappointment. With so many other good nurseries like the ones you mention, I don’t need to be disappointed. I have some apple varieties I would add to your list of winners, but I can see where you’re coming from with the Liberty and crabs in general.

I am open to adding pears, but they that is still kinda unknown territory for me so your experiences are helpful. I am in zone 5 too, but I have zero knowledge of growing persimmon, apricots, or paw paw. I don’t see any up this way so I am not going to try to re-invent the wheel.

Clearly, you’ve got some hands-on experience. Don’t be a stranger Willy.

 

[willy]

The varieties I've planted 10 years ago
Century Farms for apple are:

Virginia Gold, died after 3 years, never really grew much, not sure what problem was
Roxbury Russet, still alive, produces but light in production.
Hewes Crab, steady, heavy producer every year the past 8 years except one, not sure on what happened that year.
Kinnaird's Choice, steady moderate yearly producer for last 4
Liberty, steady, moderate to heavy yearly producer for last 6
Stayman, steady, moderate to heavy yearly producer for last 4
Newtown Pipin, died after 3 years, same as roxberry russet
Keener seedling, produced after 5 years, last couple years it has been heavy producer

Century Farm pear variety 10 years ago.

Megeitsu Asian pear, fast grower, producer in 2 years later, heavy producer yearly after that.(large part of tree broke off in wind storm recently.)
Our favorite pear and deer like it as well.

2012 pear varieties from Wildlife group(severe drought that year) All survived the drought with no babing from me.

Kieffer, fast grower, started to produce 3rd year, steady moderate production on most, a couple are heavy
T.S. hardy, moderate grower, produced some in 4th year, heavy since then
Dixie Delight, moderate grower, produced some 5th year, heavy this year
John ledbetter, moderate grower, produced some 4th year, 5th year moderate production, this year, busted off in heavy wind in June with a great amount of small fruit coming on
Orient pear, moderate grower, produced some 4th year, a bit more the next and heavy this year
Gallaway, moderate grower, produced a few this year
Dixie Delight, moderate grower, produced a few last year, moderate production this year
Senator Clark, slow grower, was damaged by trespasser in year two when he ran over it when he drove in to land to steal my disk, survived and this year has a few pears on it

2013 pear varieties, nursery now defunct and three given to me

Trophy pear, fast grower, produced in year 2, moderate to heavy producer since
Doc's Special, moderate grower, produced in year 3, moderate since then
Giovani, moderate grower, produced in year 3 hit and miss moderate producer
Low Country, moderate grower, produced in year 4, moderate producer since
Kieffer, fast grower, producer in year 3, moderate and heavy producers, depending on the tree since
Moon Glo, 3 given to me in late July from farm store just wanting to get rid of them, slow growers, I babied them as it wasn't the time to plant trees but 2 survived, produced some fruit last year, this year moderate production.

2014 pears from Burnt Ridge

NSASSHINSE SHINSEIKI ASIAN PEAR, fast grower, produced in year 2, and heavy since then, coons broke it off a couple years ago
NSEPSEC SECKEL EUROPEAN PEAR, slow grower, has on on it this year
Twentieth Century (NSASNIJ NIJESEIKI) ASIAN PEAR, fast grower, produced in year 2, heavy since then

2015 apple varieties from Turkey Creek Nursery

Hewes, fast grower, produced year 2 and moderate to heavy since then
Dolgo Seedling, slow grower, never got taller than 4 foot in 3 years so I removed. Chris gave it to me to try, no promises made.
Liberty, fast grower, some apples in year 3, more last year, moderate this year
Chestnut Crabapple, moderate grower, produces some year 3, none last year, some this year

2015 apples from Stark Nursery

Fuji, slow grower, year 4, 3 apples, this year 6
Grand Gala, slow grower, dwarf root stock(my mistake), produced a few apples the past 2 years
Golden Delicious, moderate grower, a couple apples last year and about the same this year

2015 pear varieties from Stark Bros Nursery

SHINSEIKI ASIAN PEAR, fast grower, produced in year 2 and heavy since then
Twentieth Century, fast grower, produced in year 2 and heavy since then, broke off a bit this year in wind storm
Conference pear, slow grower, produced a few this year

2017 pear varieties from Turkey Creek

T.S Hardy, moderate growth, no production yet

2018 apple varieties from Turkey Creek

Honey Crisp, moderate grower, no production
Enterprise, moderate grower, no production
Hewes, fast growing, produced a dozen apples this year, picked them off.

2018 pear varieties from Turkey Creek

Keiffer, fast growth, one pear year 2 I failed to notice until a few weeks ago
T.S. Hardy, I bought his largest trees and apparently didn't get them planted well as the 2 I bought did not come back this year

The vast majority of these were planted in heavy clay soil. The other soil is great bottom land for ag production.

I have plenty red cedars around to test them for CAR. So far so good.

 

[willy]

Also, what about your paw paw?

They have been slow growers for the most part. I planted them so they would be in shade for about half the day. Those have been the slowest growers(6''s), two that were planted in 75% shade have grown the fastest and are 9 to 12 feet tall. They are understory dwellers so I thought 50% shade would be good enough, I guess not. I did have blooms on several this spring but no fruit resulted. They were from Burnt Ridge in 2014.

 

[g squared 23]

Mostly MM111 rootstock for your heavy clay soil?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[willy]

Mostly MM111 rootstock for your heavy clay soil?

Mostly m111 but a few b118, those were in the last couple years of planting

 

[H20fwler]

Great review!
I've never heard of the Megietsu pear,definitely want to try a couple of those. I'm a big pear fan myself, easy to grow/DR/beetles don't bother much/low maintenance...I agree with you on a do-over I would go with more pears lot's of crabs and a few of the good late season DR apples.

 

[willy]

I was able to work on the fruit trees yesterday and made it around to all the pear trees I have. It seems that the kieffers are the most consistent heaviest bearers and didn't really get busted up like the asian or other varieties of pear by the heavy winds and storm last week. If one is planting pears just for deer, kieffer produce best and don't get busted up easily like the others.

 

[blueKYstream]

I think I may have lost a Moonglow pear recently. I planted a bunch of varieties from the Wildlife Group like you. They came leafed out. A hard frost and they lost their leaves. 2 died - an known and I think one of three Gallaways. They leafed out a 2nd time with small thin leaves, some with pin holes. Fortunately they all seem to be hanging on, but Moonglow had it's leaves all turn black. The stem isn't dark yet, but I think it's a goner. A Dr. Deer Pear I also planted looks great though.

Do you prefer crabs because they are less maintenance than apples, better disease resistance, more/quicker fruiting, or fewer issues with bugs? I'm not familiar with many of the apple varieties you've grown, but I would think your Liberty and Enterprise would be on par with your crabs. Have the Hewes and Chestnut crabs been disease resistant?

 

[DrDirtNap]

I was able to work on the fruit trees yesterday and made it around to all the pear trees I have. It seems that the kieffers are the most consistent heaviest bearers and didn't really get busted up like the asian or other varieties of pear by the heavy winds and storm last week. If one is planting pears just for deer, kieffer produce best and don't get busted up easily like the others.

Willy, have you seen much fireblight? How would you rate some of your pear and apple varieties for fireblight? Where are you located? Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[willy]

Do you prefer crabs because they are less maintenance than apples, better disease resistance, more/quicker fruiting, or fewer issues with bugs

Great question. I prefer the Hewes and Liberty at this moment out of the batch I bought 10 years ago because of production of apples and the growth of the trees. If the others from then keep on the way they are going they will rank right up there with them. However as you probably saw I planted Hewes and liberty apples and later and they produced just as the originals.

The other varieties I planted after the initial planting have yet to produce much. Their growth is good. We shall see.

I am not an expert on diseases of apple trees but to the best of my knowledge they have not been hindered by any disease. They did get hit hard a few years ago when the locusts came out but they recovered well from that. Jap Beetles hammered every apple tree but they are shooting new leaves and a couple liberty trees are blooming again because of it. They did not drop their fruit even though they basically were eaten bare by the pests.

 

[willy]

Willy, have you seen much fireblight? How would you rate some of your pear and apple varieties for fireblight? Where are you located? Thanks

I'm located in southeast NE. There might have been fireblight on one Doc's special pear but I cut that branch off at the trunk a couple years ago and the tree was a heavy producer this year. It did break some branches with the load and heavy winds a couple weeks ago.

I have been watching the deer clean the leaves off the broken pear branches and eating the pears as they have softened. The fawns are even trying to follow mom's lead but they don't seem to be as good as crushing them to eat.

 

[White Oak]

I was able to work on the fruit trees yesterday and made it around to all the pear trees I have. It seems that the kieffers are the most consistent heaviest bearers and didn't really get busted up like the asian or other varieties of pear by the heavy winds and storm last week. If one is planting pears just for deer, kieffer produce best and don't get busted up easily like the others.

What's the drop time for your kieffers ?

 

[White Oak]

I think I may have lost a Moonglow pear recently. I planted a bunch of varieties from the Wildlife Group like you. They came leafed out. A hard frost and they lost their leaves. 2 died - an known and I think one of three Gallaways. They leafed out a 2nd time with small thin leaves, some with pin holes. Fortunately they all seem to be hanging on, but Moonglow had it's leaves all turn black. The stem isn't dark yet, but I think it's a goner. A Dr. Deer Pear I also planted looks great though.

Do you prefer crabs because they are less maintenance than apples, better disease resistance, more/quicker fruiting, or fewer issues with bugs? I'm not familiar with many of the apple varieties you've grown, but I would think your Liberty and Enterprise would be on par with your crabs. Have the Hewes and Chestnut crabs been disease resistant?

How's your Dr Deer pear doing ?

 

[blueKYstream]

Great! It's still early as I planted it 2 years ago. It was the only one of two potted pears at the time so it wouldn't be fair to compare it to the others I planted that Spring.

 

[willy]

What's the drop time for your kieffers ?

Oct into mid november