Thoughts on first year plantings

I'm working on putting together the first year planting list and I'd like to get some feedback on the list for plants that would be purchased in mid-large quantities.

I've grown all of these plants before in my previous orchard/garden, but some of the varieties are new to me.

I will be planting many other types of fruits/berries/nuts as part of the overall design, but this list is intended to be the core of what would develop into what I think of as the Market Crops.

The table below (sorry for the hideous formatting that comes from pasting out of excel) lists the type of plant, the number of them to be planted initially, and then the estimated yields for each year out to six years.  Propagation of plant types that clearly do well the first couple of years will be ongoing and that will allow for build up of the Market Crops over time.

Type of Plant (quantity) yield estimates  in pounds for years 1-6

Aronia - seedling (50) 0 25 100 500 1000 1000
Strawberry - Shuksan (250) 250 250 250 250 250 250
Strawberry - Jewel (250) 250 250 250 250 250 250
Blackberry - Triple Crown  (25) 0 25 125 250 250 250
Blackberry - Chester (25) 0 25 125 250 250 250
Fig - Italian Honey (25) 0 25 125 250 500 750
Fig - Black Mission (25) 0 25 125 250 500 750
Apple - Williams Pride (6) 0 18 36 60 150 300
Apple - Fiesta (6) 0 18 36 60 150 300
Apple - Enterprise (6) 0 18 36 60 150 300
Raspberry - Anne (20) 20 60 60 60 60 60
Raspberry - Autumn Britten (20) 20 60 60 60 60 60
Raspberry - Caroline (20) 20 60 60 60 60 60
Autumn Olive - Brilliant Rose (10) 0 10 30 50 100 200
Autumn Olive - Delightful (10) 0 10 30 50 100 200
Autumn Olive - Charlie's Golden (10) 0 10 30 50 100 200
Hazelnut - Santiam (15) 0 1.5 7.5 30 75 150
Hazelnut - Yamhill (15) 0 1.5 7.5 30 75 150

total pounds of yield per year: 560 892 1493 2570 4080 5480

Total cost will be approximately $4200 for the plants, including shipping from either Raintree or Hidden Springs Nursery.

The second table lists the plant varieties and their approximate ripening time frames.

Strawberry - Jewel (250) June
Strawberry - Shuksan (250) June
Blackberry - Triple Crown Thornless (25) July-Aug
Blackberry - Chester (25) Aug-Sept
Fig - Italian Honey (25) July-Aug/Sept-Oct
Fig - Black Mission (25) July-Aug/Sept-Oct
Aronia - seedling (50) July
Apple - Williams Pride (6) Aug
Raspberry - Anne (20) Aug-Oct
Raspberry - Caroline (20) Aug-Oct
Raspberry - Autumn Britten (20) Sept-Oct
Apple - Fiesta (6) Sept-Oct
Autumn Olive - Brilliant Rose (10) Sept-Oct
Autumn Olive - Delightful (10) Sept-Oct
Autumn Olive - Charlie's Golden (10) Sept-Oct
Apple - Enterprise (6) Oct-Nov
Hazelnut - Santiam (15) Oct-Nov
Hazelnut - Yamhill (15) Oct-Nov

Our property is in southwestern Oregon, zone 7/8.  The last frost is typically in early May and first frost around the end of October, early November.  Winters are mild and rainy, summer is dry and hot.  The property has a good mix of gentle to steep slopes, oak/madrone/conifer forest and meadows that we will be working with.  The soil is predominantely a clay/loam.

Lots of room to roam and establish microclimates on north or south facing slopes, flat areas, near the streams, etc...

I'd be interested in your thoughts 

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me, I might even borrow some of the ideas someday.

interesting chart. did you get that from somewhere or come up with that yourself?

Thanks - the tables are my own

Hi,

I'm just waaay late to this thread. But if it still counts: you don't need to have raspberries bear only in the August-October period. The autumn or "everbearing" rasps have two periods of bearing, the first one in june-early July on 2-year canes and the second one in the later period, with a couple of weeks' time off in between. (This is based on my experience in a location that has last and first frost dates very similar to yours, but harsher winters.)

The difference is in the management of raspberries - if you cut them all down during winter you will of course only have the late crop. But if you do it selectively, removing only the canes that have had their second year's worth and are now drying out, you can keep picking from June to mid October with just that couple of months' hiatus in July.

Best of luck in your undertaking.

Kay bee. If you are still around I'm curious as to how your massive planting turned out.
And how many acres did this planting consume?

Crt Jakhel wrote:Hi,

I'm just waaay late to this thread. But if it still counts: you don't need to have raspberries bear only in the August-October period. The autumn or "everbearing" rasps have two periods of bearing, the first one in june-early July on 2-year canes and the second one in the later period, with a couple of weeks' time off in between. (This is based on my experience in a location that has last and first frost dates very similar to yours, but harsher winters.)

The difference is in the management of raspberries - if you cut them all down during winter you will of course only have the late crop. But if you do it selectively, removing only the canes that have had their second year's worth and are now drying out, you can keep picking from June to mid October with just that couple of months' hiatus in July.

Best of luck in your undertaking.

Hi Crt Jakhel,

Thank you for your thoughts - and they are always welcome even at this stage. Plans are constantly evolving

I definitely appreciate the everbearing raspberry benefit of 2 crops per year. I do try and leave at least three of the canes from the previous year (floracanes). So far, the Autumn Britten variety has been my best raspberry by far. There are still berries ripening on the plants even with all the rain and low levels of sun we've had this past month. No hard freeze yet means they just keep on going. The quality of the flavor is not so great right now, but they are quite good during the warm season. My kids love them at any time of year...

Jay Grace wrote:Kay bee. If you are still around I'm curious as to how your massive planting turned out.
And how many acres did this planting consume?

Hello Jay,

Still lurking around Sorry for the late reply, my email notification for thread responses is sometimes sporadic for some reason...

Instead of planting large quanities of just a few varieties of each plant, my wife and I decided to do a test planting first and use a shotgun approach. Overall, we've got ~120 different types of plants in an area a little over a half acre right now.

Here is a thread with more details on the orchard/arboretum:
https://permies.com/t/7625/permaculture/Birth-Arboretum

The blog format may be easier to read due to picture format issues.
http://wellheeledhills.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/the-birth-of-an-arboretum/

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Hi Kay Bee, just visited your WordPress site. Love the pictures and the info. Thank you.

Natasha Turner wrote:Hi Kay Bee, just visited your WordPress site. Love the pictures and the info. Thank you.

Hi Natasha,

Thank you very much for you kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the site!

Best wishes