Search...
Home Subscribe
Pie
Home Subscribe
Recent topics Flagged topics Hot topics Best topics
Search...
Search within fruit trees Search permies
Advance search Google search
Register / Login
Sepp Farming with Nature Documentary Building a Better World Book with people picking apples berm shed movie Shovel black and white Permaculture bootcamp with people wielding tools
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
permaculture bootcamp design with leaf Full online Permaculture Design course and Appropriate Technology Course video Rocket Mass Heaters GMC website Building a Better World Book with angry emoji face
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • r ranson
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • John F Dean
  • Jay Angler
  • paul wheaton
stewards:
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Burra Maluca
  • Joseph Lofthouse
master gardeners:
  • Timothy Norton
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin
  • Nina Surya

Idiot proof apple and pear trees for mid Maine

 
Larry Bock
Posts: 197
11
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am looking for some suggestions for idiot proof apple and pear trees to start in buckets for the next year. I do have access to commercial green houses for a year or a year and a half.....The zone is about Bangor Maine latitude   any other suggestion for this climate would be welcome....Larry
 
Bryant RedHawk
gardener
Posts: 6814
Location: Arkansas - Zone 7B/8A stoney, sandy loam soil pH 6.5
1657
I like...
hugelkultur dog forest garden duck fish fungi hunting books chicken writing homestead
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Honey crisp, Candy crisp, Ben Davis, Fuji, Orange Pippin and Golden Delicious are all apples that are going to do well without a lot of work.

Most pear trees grow best in zones 5-8 these include Anjou, Bartlett, Moon glow, and other European and Asian varieties.

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.

 
Larry Bock
Posts: 197
11
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I just started reading up on apple trees how many years before you start seeing apples in the species mentioned above...Larry
 
John Polk
steward
Posts: 7926
Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane
357
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

how many years before you start seeing apples...


That is dependent upon the root stock they are grown on, not the species itself.

Generally speaking, dwarf & semi-dwarf root stock trees are more promiscuous (will produce earlier) than larger root stocks (but the trees won't endure as long).

 
Kate Muller
pollinator
Posts: 424
Location: New Hampshire
242
I like...
hugelkultur forest garden chicken food preservation bee
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Fedco Seeds is not to far from you.  They just opened up there tree catalog and that would give you a good idea what will grow where you are.  

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/
 
Bryant RedHawk
gardener
Posts: 6814
Location: Arkansas - Zone 7B/8A stoney, sandy loam soil pH 6.5
1657
I like...
hugelkultur dog forest garden duck fish fungi hunting books chicken writing homestead
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Grafted trees will fruit within 2 years as a norm, this goes for dwarfs and full sized trees purchased from a nursery since they usually don't sell trees that are not at least 7 years old for the standard trees.

If you grow a fruit tree from seed it will be 7 years before you should expect any fruit and usually at year 8 they start producing more fruit each year.
All fruit trees will go through a fruit drop unless all conditions are perfect for the tree to be able to set and ripen all the fruit.

List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.

 
steve bossie
Posts: 672
Location: Northern Maine, USA (zone 3b-4a)
81
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
i have lodi, honey crisp and yellow transparent i got from lowes at $17 a piece last spring. cant beat the price!  they were 5-6ft tall and i got a few apples on each this fall . the lodi and y. transparent  make great applesauce and pies and are super cold hardy early july producers. the honey crisp is latter and can be used as a multi purpose apple. cortland and macintosh grow well down your way also. I'm on the line between zones 3b/ 4a so I'm chicken to try pears up here but they possibly could make it. don't like to have to mother them to produce.  they also had some zone 4 pears trees for the same price at lowes as well.
 
David Livingston
pollinator
Posts: 4328
Location: Anjou ,France
259
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I find apples much easier than pears and I get more per tree . We have a lot of very old pear trees but the quality of pears is poor due to decades of neglect plus they seem to have every known ailment under the sun - bitter pit , silver leaf , rusts it's a long list . In the future I will stick to apples

David

Living in Anjou , France,
For the many not for the few
http://www.permies.com/t/80/31583/projects/Permie-Pennies-France#330873

 
John Polk
steward
Posts: 7926
Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane
357
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

...i have lodi, honey crisp and yellow transparent i got from lowes at $17 a piece last spring. cant beat the price!  they were 5-6ft tall and i got a few apples on each this fall . the lodi and y. transparent  make great applesauce and pies and are super cold hardy early july producers. the honey crisp is latter and...


I'm curious what your last/first frost dates are.
It is nice to have both early/late varieties.

 
steve bossie
Posts: 672
Location: Northern Maine, USA (zone 3b-4a)
81
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

John Polk wrote:

...i have lodi, honey crisp and yellow transparent i got from lowes at $17 a piece last spring. cant beat the price!  they were 5-6ft tall and i got a few apples on each this fall . the lodi and y. transparent  make great applesauce and pies and are super cold hardy early july producers. the honey crisp is latter and...


I'm curious what your last/first frost dates are.
It is nice to have both early/late varieties.

[/quote  sorry. i didn't see this post. my first frost is mid sept, last is 1st week of june. we have occasional -30 to -35 in winter with -20f consistently most years in dec, jan, feb and march. I've lost zone 3 plants in real bad cold snaps. the low valleys around here generally can be considered zone 2b. esp. if the sun doesn't get in them much.

 
steve bossie
Posts: 672
Location: Northern Maine, USA (zone 3b-4a)
81
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Larry Bock wrote:I just started reading up on apple trees how many years before you start seeing apples in the species mentioned above...Larry

buy the biggest tress you can afford. the more mature they are the less time you have to wait for fruit.
 
We don't have time for this. We've gotta save the moon! Or check this out:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
Boost this thread!
Similar Threads
More...