North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>]

On Friday, February 20, 2004, at 05:55 PM, Michael D. Bathrick wrote:

> From: "Michael D. Bathrick" <bathrick@berkshire.net>
> Date: Fri Feb 20, 2004  05:55:08 PM US/Eastern
> To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: RE: [NAFEX] Tree suggestions
> Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>
> Sorry - Upstate NY near Cooperstown.
>
> Mike
1) Go talk to your local Cooperative Extension office. They should have 
a soil map for your area that will give you a general soil type (or 
types, even on as little as an acre in parts of New York you may have 
more than one soil type and some parts of the land may be more suitable 
for orchard than others). They can also help you by coming out and 
looking at the site and discussing drainage options. They may also have 
suggestions about what orchard trees will grow in your area. (If they 
say "forget it", you might want to try anyway, though.)

2) Also get  a soil test (Cooperative Extension can help you with this 
also, or there are private agencies; though I'd be a little cautious 
about getting your test done by somebody who also hopes to sell you the 
fertilizer, though some such people are reliable.) You might, for 
instance, have extremely acid soil, and some soil amendments are best 
worked into the soil before planting.

3) Are any of your neighbors growing fruits, or did they use to? If so, 
they might have good local advice.

Good luck,

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly