Starting fruit trees and berries

[silverfilly]

Hello all, I found myway over from BYC and realised I had joined quit some time ago.

My question is this, we just bought 3.5 acres but it currently has winter wheat that wount get harvested till July, I would like to plant some Gala apples, pairs, and peaches as well as start some berries, strawberrys, rassberrys, black berries. Will I be able to start them in Jusly or will I have to wait till next year? Im wounder incase I need to order seeds or trees. I am in zone 5 over here in Kansas.

Thanks for any advise

 

[patandchickens]

Hi, welcome to TEG

I'd be real leery of planting trees a) in July and b) on land I hadn't lived on for at least a year. It *might* work out, but it might well be money down the drain, the worst part being that it might not be obvious that it *was* money down the drain til a few years onward, by which time you'd have lost those several years.

If you are well-acquainted with the land and know for darn sure what the soil is like and what the drainage, windiness, snow cover, and so forth are like (at different places on the plot, and thru all 12 months of the year) it might not be totally unreasonable to plant some raspberries or blackberries in the fall. I would suggest waiting til fall, though -- you will probably get healthier growht in the long run. You will still have to water them til the ground freezes up.

Trees I wouldn't plant til you've lived there a year. I know it is hard to "lose" a year of growth, but believe me, that's a lot better than wasting money and time on plantings that turn out to be unsuitable.

The best thing to start doing in July, IMHO, would be to start improving the soil for whatever areas you want to plant into. It'll give you all the way til early spring to smother out perennial weeds and grasses, and start sheet-composting or suchlike to improve the state of the soil. So that when you do plant things in spring they will do *ever* so much better

Good luck, have fun, congrats on the new land,

Pat

 

[the-metal-peddler]

I agree with Pat.

I myself spent the last two years working my soil for this years planting. I am not going to brag up what I have been working until summer comes. This is when I am going to start a thread and post pictures of my land of before and after.

My personal suggestion would be to get the book Country Wisdom and Know How. Your first step is to put in a small veggie garden, that will teach you how to work the soil and change it according to what that plant likes. Armed with this info. from my veggie garden, it taught me how to treat my bushes and trees. Why the book?

Well on a personal level, I can teach you how to raise hogs, the best pork in the world. We won carcus at the county fair 7 years in a row. The second thing I know everything about is copper, hence I am a Coppersmith.

This book will teach you many things, every winter I cycle back through info. that I didn't learn or forgot.

There are update series of this book, but the first one is by far the best. I happen to have both copies, but the old one is wonderful.

Sure, this book has made my thumb a little more greener.

EDIT NOTE; This can be purchased for about $20.

 

[silverfilly]

WEll I know the land very well, it is right next to my inlaws where I keep my horses for now. It drains right back into a creek there is no standing water on it, except if we have flooded the back by the little creek. ITs just been used every year for crops, almost alwasy winter wheat, and sometimes beans or corn. Ill wait till next year for the trees, but will work on placing and geting soil ready for some berries. My vegie garden is here at home now, just 2 blocks from where the land is so Im geting a feel for gardening, last year was my first and I learned a LOT.

I will try to find that book. I am always looking for more self suficient books to add to my collection and we are going to fence it all in and would like to raise a couple hogs through the fall winter on it.

Thanks

 

[nightshade]

If you are confident that the land is okay I say go for it.

Personally I think some people don't realize that their are fokes that know their new land before it was ever theirs. You sound like you are in a similar situation as we are currently, we are moving in the summer to where are new farm will be. Which happens to be part of almost 200 acres I grew up on. So like you, we know the land already.We started planting fruit trees three years ago when my dad first gave it to us but we never had it turned over to this year, really long story.

Anyways here would be my suggestions.

Buy trees not seeds, as well as your berries, buy plants not seeds. I personally would not worry about planting so late as long as you are going to be close by (living there) to water the new plants during the heat of summer. You could possibly set up a rain barrels self watering system like we did. 1 55 gal drum for 10 trees, it took a lot of worry about water for me seeing how no one lives there yet to watch over them. We planted in May or June so a little earlier then you are planing , but only lost one tree, a peach to a limb from a large wild cherry crashing on top of it in a bad storm.

With that said it would be much better though if you could hold off til planting in the fall like October or November when trees are already going dormant for the winter, then in the mid summer heat. And I would strongly suggest waiting the few months to do so. Possibly use the time to plot out where you would like each type of tree to go and put a stake there that way you get a feel for the lay out and how it is going to work for you.

Your berries I would suggest putting a fence around for at least the first few years. Deer, rabbits ect can play heck on newly planted berry bushes the first time it snows.
Make sure when you get your blueberries that you get two different varieties that are hardy to your climate, so you have good pollination. At the blueberry farm down the road from us they have 4 currently and are talk about getting another one this season or next.

Blueberries and raspberries both like acidic soil so you will want to get a soil test to see how you look there, but if you are like me and want to cheat, go for a walk around your field and see what native plants naturally grow there. Are there wild briers? pine trees? mountain laurals? these all like acidic soil so there is a good bet you will have to do little amending for your berries. If you do a soil test and you come up low, mulch around them with pine needles it will bring it up easily.

Add to your gardening library all the fruit and orcharding books you can find. This can be a little tricky cause they are few and far between it seems. I would suggest searching on ebay, I have found some really great old reference books there lately, pretty cheaply too. Look for one called All about Growing Fruits and Berries by Ortho it is from the 70s or 80s I think but loaded with great info. Back to the Basics is also a great all around SS book but it does not have a huge selection on gardening.

Good luck with your new homestead and hope everything grows wonderfully for you !