Planning a Southeast Forest Garden (Zone 7B)

Jd Gonzalez wrote:Check with your state forestry office. In Virginia, they sell nut and fruit bearing trees at very reasonable prices.
Also check:
https://www.centuryfarmorchards.com/niche/wildlife.html


https://foxrivervalleynursery.com/Edible_c_19.html


https://www.directgardening.com/5-edibles

I've used direct gardening in the past and created a guerrilla good forest in a school.It's a hit or miss with them, but the prices are good.

Ben Knofe wrote:If you can, try to find a nursery, where you can

a) see/choose the exact plant you want to have
b) ask questions about the plant and get recommendations.

We did both in the past: ordering bulk online and driving around and check out some local nurseries. When you shop online, you will get whatever they pack you. Sometimes we got good quality, sometimes not. It's a gamble. For the nursery, after some search we found one, which were super nice, explaining us a lot, helped us choosing the right plants and they were not much more expensive then online. Plus when one of our peach tree had some dots on the leaves I could email them and had a phone call with them where they explained me what it is and what to do. After this experience, we will only buy trees/shrubs there from now on but it doesn't mean that online ordering is necessarily bad.

Jd Gonzalez wrote:Hi Steve,

Here's a project I did using the vendors I shared with you.

https://sites.google.com/view/theguerrillafoodforest/home

I chose, sand Cherries (died),Nanking Cherries, Juneberries, hazelnuts, American plum and apricots. They start producing at around 3 years, are low maintenance once established, They look good spring, summer, and fall and have excellent tasting foods.

Jd Gonzalez wrote:

Jd Gonzalez wrote:Hi Steve,

Here's a project I did using the vendors I shared with you.

https://sites.google.com/view/theguerrillafoodforest/home

I chose, sand Cherries (died),Nanking Cherries, Juneberries, hazelnuts, American plum and apricots. They start producing at around 3 years, are low maintenance once established, They look good spring, summer, and fall and have excellent tasting foods.

S Bengi wrote:About 200 tree can fit on 1 acre of land if they are spaced 15ft apart.
If the avg cost is $25 per tree, overall it will cost you $5,000. (some plants will be for $5 others for $40)

Overall $5,000 is really cheap for a multi-year hobby. Fixing bikes/cars, clubbing, smoking, going on vacations/vegas, all cost a lot more. I have a question how many 3ft by 3ft fruit tree holes do you plan on digging per year/month? To me that is the bigger question my back was asking me.

My personal recommendation is to avoid planting apples, apricot, plum, cherry, peach and nectarine. They have way too many pest and require an IV to really get much from them. I recommend planting berries and shrubs vs trees, they are usually a lot hardier (blueberry/blackberry vs apple). I also like natives like (muscadine grapes/beach plum/sand cherry vs the 'weaker' pest-ridden one that are at home depot). And exotics, both native and elsewhere like pawpaw, hardy kiwi, maypop, asian persimmon, jujube, elderberry.

But the short answer to your question is to do your own grafts. Buy cheap $1 rootstock or seedling for the state forestry and then buy cheap scion wood for $3 (that would be $800 for 200plant). You could even pay someone to graft them for you. And you could also cut your own scion wood from plants that you love. You could also just take a cutting from a tree/plant that you like and root it. Even if it isn't one that taste good you could just turn it into a swamp loving rootstock.

Jd, those look great. What do juneberries taste like, I've never had them.

Dennis Lanigan wrote:https://mdc.mo.gov/trees-plants/tree-seedlings

I recommend Missouri State forestry as well. Seedlings for .90 each! I planted my yard full with elderberry, Chickasaw plum, mulberry, false indigo, pawpaw's, etc. All the seedlings are doing great.

Jd Gonzalez wrote:

Jd, those look great. What do juneberries taste like, I've never had them.

Steve, think of a super sweet tasty apple with hints of almond. DELICIOUS! My wife had never tasted them and she was so impressed she made us the "crumble" (i've been corrected, it is not a cobbler as I posted)

They do not need the acidic soild of blueberries, and some trees do suffer from cedar rust. I planted the amelanchier alnifolia whicj is a tall shrub type, there are other types that get taller and more tree like.

I am definitely propagating them in my area.

best, JD