North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["ethan roland" <eroland@gmail.com>]

Dan - 

I'd also recommend stepping a bit outside the conventional bounds of 'orchard' and planting some hardy kiwi vines, chestnuts, and hazelnuts. There's a good chance these will grow with little pest or disease pressure -- though I am admittedly inexperienced with your specific climatic conditions + pest/disease complex.

Asian pears and american persimmons sound like a great bet -- some of the hardier mulberries (e.g. 'Illinois Everbearing') might also be worth a try. And Pawpaws! you could plant seedlings of the hardier varieties and aim for some Indiana-adapted trees.

And how about berries?!? Currant, gooseberry, jostaberry would be great for a partial-shade understory, and silverberry (Hippophae spp.) or goumi (Eleagnus multiflora) would be soil-improving nitrogen-fixing berry producers as well. Lee Reich's "Uncommon Fruits for every garden" would be a good place to check out some varieties and basic growing info for these plants. I did some design work for a client last year that was creating a fruit, berry, and nut CSA -- they had chosen all these fruits/nuts, and more!

Good luck into spring

Ethan





-- 
Ethan C. Roland
(518) 610-1375

AppleSeed Permaculture
Design - Teach - Advise
www.appleseedpermaculture.com

Northeastern Permaculture Wiki
www.northeasternpermaculture.wikispaces.com

8th International Permaculture Conference, Brazil, 2007
www.ipc8.org

" You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed" - proverb via Paul Krafel