A few Qs on fruit trees - Human responses are so much better!

Hello All!!  Tess here.  I have a friend who is moving into her new house soon (signing papers tomorrow!!) and she asked me to help her set her Permadise up.  She has several trees & a few bushes she wants to plant.  

Nothing specific, but these are her plants:

1) Peach tree
2) Cherry tree
3) Apple tree
4) Tangerine tree
5) mullein - 2
6) raspberry bush
7) goji berry

We are in zone 8, in SW WA.  Do I need to know the specific type of each plant in order to properly know what they need or just knowing what fruit each is is enough?  Also, I have not seen her new property yet, so I literally have no idea what I will be working with until I visit.  I am going to be visiting the library to get some books.  I think only one of the plants has an actual label. as far at the trees go.  They are in those nursery pots - black plastic.  They have been on her patio (she lives in an apartment right now), in the pots or a plastic bin (the berries).  

If there is anything pertinent I need to know, that would be greatly appreciated.  Not knowing the specific plants for most, I am not even sure what to research.

Any direction or guidance is most welcome!!  Thanks!  -Tess

It sounds like she already has these plants so a lot of the deciding factors have already been made. Fruit trees can come in a lot of shapes and sizes. Rootstock can effect how large a fruit tree might grows if the tree is grafted while cultivar might give you some hints towards flowering and fruiting dates.

You can find a wealth of generalized knowledge based on the fruit tree type. For example, tangerines are generally considered suitable for zones 9 and upward so I'd look into placing it in a warm microclimate. Cherry trees might need a pollinator so looking into another similar type (and planted nearby) may be worth planning for.

Timothy Norton wrote:It sounds like she already has these plants so a lot of the deciding factors have already been made. Fruit trees can come in a lot of shapes and sizes. Rootstock can effect how large a fruit tree might grows if the tree is grafted while cultivar might give you some hints towards flowering and fruiting dates.

You can find a wealth of generalized knowledge based on the fruit tree type. For example, tangerines are generally considered suitable for zones 9 and upward so I'd look into placing it in a warm microclimate. Cherry trees might need a pollinator so looking into another similar type (and planted nearby) may be worth planning for.

Thank you Timothy!!  I will look more into this.  As she does have the trees already, I am in need of knowing what they need so I can help set up the planting process.  This is a good start for me!!  Your insight is greatly appreciated, Timothy.   -Tess  

Mullein likes poor soil (think abandoned lot or construction site) but will grow most places that are not too wet. You need two apple trees for cross pollination to get sufficient apples (even a crab apple would work). All of the peach trees that came with my house are dying left and right from disease and pests invade the fruit, I don’t know the variety so I hope yours is disease resistant. Blackberries and raspberries are very easy to propagate by weighing down the branches so they contact soil. Once the roots drop and are strong enough you can leave it to spread or cut the branch free and transplant the rooted cutting.

Nick Mick wrote:Mullein likes poor soil (think abandoned lot or construction site) but will grow most places that are not too wet. You need two apple trees for cross pollination to get sufficient apples (even a crab apple would work). All of the peach trees that came with my house are dying left and right from disease and pests invade the fruit, I don’t know the variety so I hope yours is disease resistant. Blackberries and raspberries are very easy to propagate by weighing down the branches so they contact soil. Once the roots drop and are strong enough you can leave it to spread or cut the branch free and transplant the rooted cutting.

Thanks Nick!!  I will add this to my notes. I think I will copy & paste the info people share into a doc for future reference.  --Tess

Since you said it was trees, is it perhaps Mulberry that was autocorrected to Mullein ?
Mullein is a biennial that would usually be planted from seed, in my experience.
Mulberry seems to like rich moist soil that drains, with sun or part shade.

But maybe I'm butting in and adding confusion..... maybe your friend wants to grow tons of Mullein, like me.
Best of luck regardless!

George Ingles wrote:Since you said it was trees, is it perhaps Mulberry that was autocorrected to Mullein ?
Mullein is a biennial that would usually be planted from seed, in my experience.
Mulberry seems to like rich moist soil that drains, with sun or part shade.

But maybe I'm butting in and adding confusion..... maybe your friend wants to grow tons of Mullein, like me.
Best of luck regardless!

George, thank you for joining the conversation!!  Actually, yes, mullein is what she has.  So I will be doing some research on that, too.  If you have any insight, it would be deeply appreciated.  She is in SW WA, zone 8 (or 9?).   --Tess

Apologies, I didn't mean to cast doubt on your post.  It just surprised me seeing Mullein on the list.
What Nick Mick said about it stands true in my experience.
I live in the same region.  I find Mullein thrives on neglect and needs basically no irrigation - and it will self-seed prolifically.
Happy planting!

George Ingles wrote:Apologies, I didn't mean to cast doubt on your post.  It just surprised me seeing Mullein on the list.
What Nick Mick said about it stands true in my experience.
I live in the same region.  I find Mullein thrives on neglect and needs basically no irrigation - and it will self-seed prolifically.
Happy planting!

No worries George.  I love to hear from anyone who is wanting to share.  I don't know a lot about Mullein, but I will in a few days - at least what the books say.  But books don't give the whole story of any plant... I would love to ask you questions when I have them, as I'm sure I will have tons over the time I will be working with the site.  I used to worry about how much I didn't know, now I just flow with the moment, gather information as I go along, note it, store it for future use.

I can't fret over every piece of knowledge I don't have, and just embrace the experience of learning what I need.  I'm so much less stressed.  I will be taking notes from the posts and putting them in my work journals.  I've decided I will have a library that I can reference and build it as I go, books, notes, articles, etc.  I'm old school, so hardcopy is my thing.  

Thank you for your insight!  So much to learn and so much to share here on Permies.  --Tess

mullein doesn't live long, but may also be a prolific self-seeder, so you may be setting up generations of mullein.

Raspberry will absolutely take over the space, so consider how it can be limited or contained. We had it in one house and stopping it from taking over the world was a yearly chore.

I'd also consider finding a good microclimate space for the tangerine.
Depending on the size of the trees you may consider how they can be shaped and/or make a plan for future pruning for health and maintenance.

I have some mullein growing along a railroad easement that readily self seeds. One year, I waited for the seed stalk to form and dry up in the fall. I cut the stalk and walked along the easement shaking the seeds along it. I now have a ton of mullein growing.

I believe the plant is biennial so if it was just a floret without a stalk last year, you can expect it to go to seed this year.

The sitris may or may not work out, techniques for "pushing your zone" can help but its not a guarantee.  However some types of lemons and limes are capable of managing in zone 8, few people here try it, but I've got a lemon seed to plant as an experiment.

What I'd suggest is maybe before deciding where the trees will perminently live, keep them in their pots for another year so as to see how the light and everything interacts on the land, sometimes it will surprise you and the answers won't be readily obvious, this way your friend can move them around until finding a right place for their perminent placement on the land.  Once they find their perminent locations, consider planting guilds with each tree.

Cherry trees can get very big and shade out a lot of stuff. So take a good look at how the sun moves if it's one of those bigger ones. The frist year is essential to water quite a bit if it gets hot. Usually the evenings are good for that. I like to give a lot in one session so the water runs deeper into the soil where it's less likely to evaporate and the roots dive deeper sooner than like water every day and then the trees get used to that. But it does take some monitoring which usually is not the thing people are busy with when just moving house. Because then making the house really to your taste usually gets priority.
So working with watering cans  can be challenging if you're tired. Ideally one can get these hoses with timers attached. But if there's no money than i would plant in a way that the walk with a watering can isn't too much. Peach trees are hardy where i am. Goji can get big and bushy and even serve as a bit of a wind brake which can be really advantageous.
Sometimes planting north to a shady big tree can work quite nice in hotter climates, cause then you get less scorching drought problems and once the tree is established one can cut down the big tree or prune it back and use it to feed the soil.
So it depends a lot on what you find there! But remember never despair and keep putting pits in the soil and seed local plants that do well. Maybe plan for a pond attached to gutteringsystem.