Any interest in starting an Upstate South Carolina Organic growers group?

I would love to join an Upstate SC growers group if there was such a thing that didn't require going on Facebook or Telegram or similar social media. So I thought I'd  ask people  on this forum who live and grow organic fruit, vegetables and herbs if they know of one or would like to form one to at least share experiences on-line if not also meet, share and even help each other in all that goes into the actual growing of organic food in your gardens

I'm in zone 8A with a youngish aspiring food forest and would like to improve the fruit tree production and have found it difficult to find an experienced arborist that knows about fruit trees and pruning for production. Are there any fruit tree growers/orchardists  in the  Greenville area? My peach, plum and Asian pear all have issues.  My grapes are experiencing uneven ripening.  All the various berries I have growing aren't thriving like I'd like.  

I have a mysterious vegetable or possibly a fruit that volunteered in my Hugelkultur  bed that I wonder if anyone can identify.

I'm also wanting to avoid bringing in  broadleaf pesticide/Grayzon  contaminated compost which has found its way into many commercial soil amendments and mulches and if used in a garden produces weak spindly plants and impacts the garden for 3 years so I'm experimenting making my own soil using a mix of weeds, leaves, twigs, pine cones, fruit and veg food wastes.

Perhaps we could share our growing experiences

I have a ton of healthy Mint and Shiso plants growing I could share with dozens of you. I should be able to say the same about peaches based on the number of trees I have if I was getting normal production out of them.  

Let me know what you think.

Off topic question/challenge:  I have a mysterious vegetable or possibly a fruit that volunteered in my Hugelkultur bed that was once a compost area for non-animal based food wastes. I wonder if anyone has ideas about what it might be. See the attached picture. It reminds me of what an albino acorn squash might look like with whitish skin instead of green and bright yellow stripes instead of light green. Does anyone know what it might be? Is it a melon?

Hi Emily, did you ever get any interest in this post?  I’m in Oconee county, and it seems like it’s difficult to find much in the way of Permaculture. Though I did join a fairly active Facebook group, though reluctantly, as I loathe most social media.

Hi John! No I didn't but I'd still like to.  I feel the same way as you about social media which hasn't helped. Maybe if I was on Twitter (X) or Facebook I'd have gotten something going by now..

Right now I'm taking a break from weeding  and was delighted to see the notice from Permies.com about your post.  I've been wondering if any South Carolinians from the Upstate might have joined the paid forum created by the  YouTuber  "David the Good" and that perhaps I should join it and find out. David's homestead is based in Alabama. There is also the FreedomCellNetwork which might have more members by now from our area who might be interested in Permacultrue or at least growing a lot of their own food organically..

How is the Facebook group you joined? Are there any members from the Upstate?

I just happened to see this post in the forums and we live in Simpsonville SC right next to Greenville. Emily and John - we would love to meet up! We have a small 1/4 acre but have an organic garden and chickens. We make our own 18 day compost each fall that really helps with production. We'd love to share what we've learned and swap ideas. Also, there are master gardeners classes for free at the local library that lean towards organic. Regarding learning about fruit trees, look up Flomaton Famous and Stefan Sobkowiak. They both have super helpful Youtube channels. If you'd like to get together, my email is joyfulr86@gmail.com.

Yes Joy. I discovered Stefan Sobkowiak, three of four years ago. I have been pruning my fruit trees based on his methods - especially my peach trees which were way too big, to get them to a more manageable size. Training the branches down and out to the sides rather than letting them grow up really works to reduce water sprouts and encourage fruit production. I was getting a ton of water sprouts. I would take his course except for the fact he only accepts PayPal.

Do you know about the channel "Permaculture Homestead"? Tory Morton is a true blue permaculture expert and has run multiple "food forests". He is based outside of Columbia, SC!  Maybe one day we could take a field trip down to the one he designed and manages for a market right next door.

I actually had a fruit tree consultant from Clemson come out and look at my trees. He told me that an Asian pear tree I had was never going to fruit and that I'd been ripped off and he said I was probably sold strictly root stock. So I took it out. I currently have Jujubes a persimmon, a fig tree, Mulberry trees. a quince tree, some Concord and Catawba grapes (with an uneven ripening problem), black berries, and raspberries. I'd love to grow Paw Paws.

I took a fruit tree care course from OrchardPeople.com  which was a good review but weak on the pruning side of caring for trees. It more or less taught what most arborists are taught: to prune only in winter. I find the videos geared for commercial growers the most helpful. They taught me things like which wood growth on certain trees produce fruit and which won't, which is important if you want to maximize fruit production.

I'm also trying to get some Artichokes growing. I have four at the moment one is in a straw bale... and I do have a tiny bit of Asparagus. For annuals I have two varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and Japanese cucumbers Suyo Longs (parthenocarpic) which produced like champs. I had some volunteer squash which I think came from seeds in my anaerobic Bokashi (from SD Microbes Works) food waste composting system. I only use plant based wastes. I also have candy roaster squash and did have Chinese long beans and am about to plant more. I've got various peppers, herbs, eggplants, Perilla leaves (Shiso leaves) and a TON of mint. I also grow garlic every winter. This past year, although I got a full harvest of about 80 bulbs, several of the bulbs were under sized.  I think they had too much competition from weeds and or the soil wasn't loose enough. I'll be putting them in raised beds this year.

Just curious what people are growing now (late August) in their upstate SC garden/food forest.

I just planted, on 8/19, a second round of Chinese Long Beans also known as Yard long beans or  Asparagus Beans. I planted them for the first time in a raised bed this spring and I got a full crop following the excellent tutorial on the "AsianGarden2Table" YouTube channel which is out of Florida. I didn't use the trellis recommended on the channel and I should have. Instead I used a nylon net and the beans wove themselves up through the mesh of the net. The second batch I'm planting in the ground using pieces of twine  that hang down between two 7.5' poles about 15 feet apart for each bean vine to grow up. I hope I'm not cutting it too close to our first freeze. The plants are about 4-5 inches tall now. It will be a few more days until they'll be ready to attach to the string trellis that is closer to what AsianGarden2Table uses.

I also have Candy Roaster squash that was planted about 8/10. I hope I get a crop of those as well. Otherwise Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers still seem to be producing.

Does anyone grow long beans or Candy Roaster squash and if so what has your experience been like growing them here? Also are there any artichoke growers?

My first attempt at growing long beans is shown below (along with some Zinnias, Artichokes and eggplants growing at the end.