North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Whipple, Andy" <ANWHIPPLE@TAYLORU.EDU>]

Dan, Ethan, Scott et al,

 

I’m within a few minutes of Dan (zone 5b, east central Indiana) – we know each other – and I’ve got some experience here with some of these crops. I have an unpruned hedge of 20 filbert/hazel/trazel bushes – 5 different types - (from Bearcreek maybe 20 years ago).  They have grown vigorously, have been producing nuts for several years, and the chipmunks are very pleased.  I have had no nuts to eat myself as a result, but then again I’ve had no disease problems either.

 

Hardy kiwi.  I must be doing something wrong, possibly not protecting the plants from the prevailing winter winds.  The vines always seems to want to grow as vigorously as we are warned in so many publications, but mine never do.  Part of this, and probably at the root of my lack of fruit thus far, is that every year (15+ years) a late spring frost turns the new growth into black death.  Thus my plants’ yearly new growth is actually the plants second try at new growth.  That can’t help.  The male vines also seem to lack vigor relative to the females.

 

After 20+ years of attempts at apples, pears, plums, peaches, and apricots, the following for this location:

            Apples and pears work well, with pears generally able to withstand neglect (lack of pruning, spraying, thinning)better than apples (but not for more than 1 season!).

            Apricots – the trees grew for several years, but late frosts always destroyed the flower buds and/or newly set fruit, so those trees are long gone

            Plums – a little better than the apricots, with some fruit some years on some trees.  I now have but one plum (Ed Fackler’s Red Heart, which does produce).

            Peaches – about the same as plums, but the wonderful flavor of fully ripened peaches - so soft you can hardly do anything with them but stand at the tree and eat them - causes me to keep trying.  They’re so good!  I just planted about a dozen different varieties (again – even under proper conditions peach trees don’t last) , knowing that most years I may only see pretty flowers (if I’m lucky), but that perhaps 1/3 years I’ll have some peaches, and maybe 1/6 years I’ll have more peaches than I can handle.

 

I’ve been trying chestnuts, but I suspect my property is too poorly drained for them (I used the good draining part for the fruit trees).

 

There you have a quick sketch of some of my experience.  Maybe parts of it help.

 

 

Andy Whipple

 

5b, Eastern Grant County Indiana, half way between Gas City and Hartford City, so I’ve got big city lights seven miles to the east and seven miles to the west.

 

 

 

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From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Scott Williamson
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 11:27 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Pears, peaches, and other fruits for Central Indiana.

 

I am only about 20 minutes from Dan and it's my understanding from reading that the native hazelnuts do carry a blight that affects most hazenut varieties.  I've not experienced the blight myself (in my not so extensive 2 years of growing hazelnuts), but if you're going to grow those it might be worth looking at blight resitant varieties.

 

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From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of ethan roland
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 10:57 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Pears, peaches, and other fruits for Central Indiana.

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





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Ethan C. Roland
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