North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steven Covacci <filtertitle@aol.com>]

To whomever would be interested in this discussion: philosophy on growing 
space.


I'll preface my question by stating: on my small property, I'm able to grow 
at least one variety of every single edible crop woody plant that I'd want to 
grow, minus just a small hand-full (i.e. black walnut, Chinese pistacio); in 
some cases, I have more then one variety of a fruit type (i.e. several sweet 
cherries; two paw paws; many persimmons being planted); they all fit because, 
at the expense of some productivity - due to, most-of-all, root competition, 
I interplant: so that large overstory trees (i.e. hickory, etc.) are planted 
on the north and west sides so that they will grow just above the mid-story 
trees (i.e. American persimmon, etc.), which tower right above the 
lower-story trees (i.e. Prunus), which they finally tower over the shrub 
layer (i.e. blueberries, currants, gumi, etc.) and the herbaceous layer 
(edible plants and wilfflowers/grasses that attract and sustain local 
pollinators).  This will mean that no plant will produce any where near it's 
maximum potential for yield - but that doesn't matter at all to me, since 
it's only for home use (which included actively sharing with others); I'd 
rather have 15 American persimmons each produce say 30 lbs. (likely much 
more, but hypothetically), than have instead two trees each producing 200 
lbs.  Same idea for all of my crop types.  Fruit is one priority; aesthetics 
and experiments in design, habitat placement, and variety in types and forms 
are other priorities; for my purposes, the growing of fruit trees has only 
part to do with production of food.  


If I had more room, instead of having, in some cases, just one variety per 
species (i.e. self-fertile - European pear cv. 'Honeysweet') or two varieties 
per species (i.e. 'Yoinashi' and 'Korean Giant' Asian pears), I'd have more 
cultivars*  of each - not for more fruit production, but for more taste 
variety.  With American persimmon, instead of having 15 varieties, I'd have 
25 and space them out much more, and continually top-graft new varieties to 
the least favorite of these.  


However, I recently realized: *how many more varieties would you want to grow 
- what's the limit?  There is, actually, a limit.  Say if you are an 
stone-fruit fan living in the north east (i.e. zone 6b/7a NJ), and wanted to 
stay as organic as possible:


1. European plum - you are limited to the cultivar 'President' (the only 
black-knot resistant variety) and just one more (which, regardless of the 
type, will be susceptible and keep you busy with pruning).
2. Apricot - you are limited to just a few late-flowering, disease-resistant 
(for this area) varieties - there is one good choice for this in particular 
('Early Blush')
3. Sweet Cherry - there are a few - but not endless inventory - of varieties 
appropriate for 6b/7a northeastern conditions... cv. 'Black Gold', 'Lapins', 
etc.  crack-resistant, heat and black-knot resistant.
4. Sour Cherry - 'North Star' and a few others if you are looking for a 
non-hybrid that will tolerate the heat.
5. Native plums - due to a lack of breeding developments, just one or two 
each of the straight species (or a regionally appropriate pair of cultivars, 
each - would do).
6. Sweet almond - just about 2 or 3 cultivars hardy-enough 


And if you're like me, not wanting to grow a tree for just a few crop seasons 
until it succumbs to blight or freeze-out.  I don't like to have an unstable, 
temporary landscape design-plan - I'd rather still with cold-hardy, 
disease-resistant varieties when practical.  For instance, if I had all the 
land I could ever want, regarding Asian pears - I'd only plant the 5 most 
disease-resistant varieties, 2 of which are dependably resistant.


So, I'd expect that no one (even if an avid collector aiming for an 
impressive collection of some real special, unusual finds) needs greater than 
a solid, useable acre to: (1) host EVERY species/type of edible plant they'd 
want to grow (so long as we're talking practically available species in trade 
- you could, theoretically, get a very long list of Prunus - and Rosaceae 
enough for that group alone to fill the acre - so, I'm talking the major and 
minor fruits - and some more esoteric - but not literally every plant, of 
course; (2) host at least two+ varieties of each edible plant species in the 
collection, being limited not just by space considerations, but by the fact 
that every single region has only a hand-ful of cultivars of a given plant 
type that is truly well-suited for the local conditions - and personal taste 
would result in some of these being undesirable to grow; (3) and have enough 
room for things like a native wildflower meadow, garden pond and/or stream, 
woodland buffer, etc. and just a little room for future planting of chance 
seedlings for some home breeding.


So, unless you are a breeder and developer, and/or growing food for 
commercial production, or in the nursery trade, I'd say even an acre is more 
than useful.


Steve; NJ