the orchard expands in 2009

winter of 2008 saw me digging a bunch more holes in preparation for new bare root trees arriving for my orchard. i previously mentioned my use of 'backyard orchard culture' - as outlined by ed laivo of dave wilson nurseries, - check it out so you understand high density planting ideas. my trees arrived just before new years weekend - which allowed plenty of time to get the trees in.

i had a few trees die over the previous year, but they were still under warranty from the frontyard nursery, so with those replacements i had around 22 holes to dig.

new tree varieties planted in the orchard in 2009 include:

spice zee nectaplum, van cherry, bing cherry, craigs crimson cherry, cot-n-candy aprium, splash pluot, howard miracle plum, tri-lite peach/plum, golden nectar plum, arctic queen nectarine, arctic start nectarine, snow queen nectarine, flav-r-grenade pluot, flavor delight aprium, arctic glow nectarine and pink satin pomegranate.

you may notice some odd names of the fruit - pluots, apriums, nectaplums, etc. these are plants developed by zaiger genetics - and exclusively marketed by dave wilson nurseries. most people probably have seen a pluot- the most common in grocery stores are known as 'dinosaur eggs'.

so, going into spring 2009, i have 44 fruit trees in my orchard and still have a few holes left for trees in 2010. future plans for the orchard will be espaliered apple and pear trees along the fence line. this will permit around another 20 or more trees to be added. my plans for apple varieties will be heirloom types which are pretty rare to find. a company 'trees of antiquity', offers a wide selection of trees that can have their histories traced back several hundred years.

heretofore, i have exclusively used dave wilson bare root trees for all of my plantings, but i am seeking rare varieties which dave wilson currently doesnt have in its catalog. root stock varieties from trees of antiquity, is unknown to me, at this point - however my hope is we will find success on these rare apples and hope to have a future filled with abundant harvests. i will let you know!