Anybody have experience with growing fruit?

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carlherrnstein
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Post by carlherrnstein » Mon. Jan. 30, 2023 12:07 pm

I'm in southern Ohio on the flat land right where the glacier stopped.

I'm looking at getting a couple cherry trees (bing and black tartarian) supposedly they pair well.

My daughter (13yo) has shown interest in strawberries, an I know nothing about growing them. Any pointers at all are helpful.

I'm going to add to my raspberry hedge probably will get latham and fall gold.

I have a bunch of wild mulberry trees to bait birds away, but they are also decent to eat.

 
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Post by k-2 » Mon. Jan. 30, 2023 2:21 pm

All i know is you have to spray the crap out of them(cherries) or they get full of worms.Then you have to net the trees or the birds get them. Love mulberries. Hard to find to buy and not many trees around.

 
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Post by Chhow » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 12:47 am

Some time ago I tried to plant strawberries, but constantly its leaves, and then the flats were covered with some strange spots. I don’t even know what the matter is - in the land or fertilizers ... This is a complicated matter

 
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Post by ColdHouse » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 5:42 am

I am planning on growing some strawberries indoors along with a bunch of other stuff. I have started a bunch of seeds even strawberry seeds. I also purchased some strawberry root. My goal is to get everything growing and move them outdoors when weather permits. Some things like squash, cabbage, tomato's, peppers.... that are too big to be indoors year round will be grown outdoors in containers. Everything is going to be hydroponic. The year round consumables that are small enough to grow year round will be in the same containers that they will be in when moved back indoors in the fall.
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Post by Vbull » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 7:19 am

My wife grows raspberries, blueberries, currents, cranberries and elderberries. I manage about 25 fruit trees, apples, apricots, peaches, pears and plums. We also have about 150 grape vines both seedless table and wine.
I stayed away from cherries due to the issues K-2 pointed out and we tried a small plot of strawberries several years ago. They actually did good but birds (Grey Jays) were a constant problem. The most trouble free have been the raspberries and currents although squirrels get into them when getting ripe. (they make good target practice) The plums and peaches have also been relatively free from problems with some spraying to keep fungus and insects under control.
Although we get a huge yield of grapes and sell a good deal of them, it takes ALOT of work and investment to get there. Plus it takes 4 years before you get a decent return. Birds, wasps and honey bees can be a problem with grapes also. I have to invest in netting this year to cover 900 feet of trellis.


 
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Post by Toddburn » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 8:13 am

Thanks for starting this post. I agree my black raspberry plants do excellent cut the dead off from last year and trim the new shoots to about 4 ft and branch’s back a foot or so, fertilize with 10/10/10 early spring and fall and your good to go I also keep the bottom of the plants mounded with wood chips. The shoots from last year are what produce this years fruit. Strawberries on the other hand drive me nuts, I fertilize with triple 10 also, I have beautiful rows of plants that get a abundance of flowers but no fruit I trim back the runners to make nice rows, I do see bees on them so that rules that out. Been on this for 10 years with no luck. Any ideas would be appreciated. Apple trees have been a real hit and miss here with the goofy warm up weather then a late frost the past few years. Concord grapes need sprayed or they dry up with some sort of blight.

 
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Post by warminmn » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 8:48 am

Strawberries are a lot of work. Ive had them a few times. Some type of slightly raised ground helps. You almost have to move them after the 2nd year, sometimes 3rd year or they just overcrowd themselves. Some till half of them up ever other year (or the 3rd) letting shoots start them growing again. I never did that.

I always do real good with them the 2nd year then the mice, black bugs, and birds find them. I never used spray on them, or fertilizer. But the ground here is good. Over fertilizing is worse than none. Sandy ground seems to help here.

Ive never grown cherries. Plums I did good with for a couple years then they slowly die out. But must have canned 50 pints a year when good.

If you have the room a couple pear tree's are great. Your in a warmer climate than me so can grow better varieties but I can still grow the Asian varieties and keifers and they are awful good tasting. Keifers are trickier to harvest than some but are large. I took 150 pounds off one Luscious Asian variety 12ish year old tree a couple years ago that was grown in an old feed lot by a barn, then it fell over, lol, probably from growing too fast so was brittle. They usually take longer to put out fruit than apples and take 15-20 years to really look like a nice tree.

Apples are great, I have a bunch. Some varieties are tougher than others with diseases so take that into account when buying them, research.

if I could grow good peaches I'd be tickled but its too cold here.

 
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Post by Vbull » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 9:08 am

Warm,
There are a couple varieties of peach that might work in your climate. We have one called Reliance that is supposed to survive -30. It has been doing great. We haven't seen those lows here for a few decades. Another is Contender. Those are semi-dwarf. Our favorite is Elberta which is a full size tree that we keep cut back to about 15' high and wide. I put in 3 more a couple years ago and expect some off this year. They've survived minus 20 so far. They are a late season ripening peach. We have repeat customers calling when they are getting ripe.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 9:27 am

We have had peach trees for about a dozen years. They need a fertilizer soaked into the ground to prevent leaf wilt and watering if it gets really dry. And a BB gun to keep the squirrels from eating the young fruit. :D Otherwise they do great. One tree produces enough canned peach jam to last us a year.

Only downside is they start to die off after about 15 years, so you have to plant new ones about every ten years.

We also have black raspberry bushes which need no care and spread easily and produce a lot of berries.

We can the peaches and Black Raspberry to jam.

I put in four blue berry bushes and over a winter the deer ate them right down to the ground. :evil:

 
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warminmn
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Post by warminmn » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 10:32 am

Vbull wrote:
Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 9:08 am
Warm,
There are a couple varieties of peach that might work in your climate. We have one called Reliance that is supposed to survive -30. It has been doing great. We haven't seen those lows here for a few decades. Another is Contender. Those are semi-dwarf. Our favorite is Elberta which is a full size tree that we keep cut back to about 15' high and wide. I put in 3 more a couple years ago and expect some off this year. They've survived minus 20 so far. They are a late season ripening peach. We have repeat customers calling when they are getting ripe.
I tried Reliance and Elberta 20 years ago on the south side of buildings and they just froze off every year so i gave up. Ive had 2 people tell me they have them but they never showed me a peach, lol. I like the look of their leaves besides the fruit. Its not just the cold here, its the unrelenting winds to go with it. But I do have some wind protection now I didnt have 20 years ago. I usually hit -20 maybe twice a year average and -30 or real close once a decade.

It could also be where my plantings came from, something I dont know. I may have to try again.


 
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 3:50 pm

I see strawberry plants on my patio. Wifey does them. They are in 5 gal plastic buckets with holes I drilled into them (1 " holes every 6 in).

Beyond that .. youtube will be a better source than here most likely.

I don't like the things myself.

 
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Post by waytomany?s » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 4:38 pm

davidmcbeth3 wrote:
Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 3:50 pm
I see strawberry plants on my patio. Wifey does them. They are in 5 gal plastic buckets with holes I drilled into them (1 " holes every 6 in).

Beyond that .. youtube will be a better source than here most likely.

I don't like the things myself.
No green thumb for you?

 
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 5:01 pm

waytomany?s wrote:
Tue. Mar. 21, 2023 4:38 pm
No green thumb for you?
I can barely grow hair.

 
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Post by carlherrnstein » Wed. Mar. 22, 2023 3:44 pm

I sorta forgot about this post. I found some booklets on growing different things on Amazon from storey publishing company. I got the strawberry and raspberry booklets. There's loads of info in them regarding different breeds, how to prepare the soil, possible problems ECT.

I ended up ordering Caroline and Anne raspberry plants and honeoye an sparkle strawberry roots but it won't be here until April. One of the strawberry veriates tolerates clay soil better and the other is more resistant to fungus but I can't remember which is which.

I ordered black tartarian an bing cherry trees. The worms seem to be some sort of fruit fly larvae and they are controllable with insecticide. If I understand correctly bing and black tart ripen fairly early and might not be as susceptible to them because they are ripe before the eggs hatch.

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