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Post by gb98 on Sept 29, 2021 8:00:11 GMT -5
There is a section here for growing veggies. However, no section for growing fruit. Anybody here growing fruit? I am growing raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, 2 plum trees and 1 apricot tree.
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Post by desertwoman on Sept 29, 2021 13:50:07 GMT -5
Yes indeed. I think most of us are. Fruit seems to get posted in the veggie board or as a thread in Over the Fence. We had a small commercial orchard many years ago- about 180 trees of various types- that we converted to Certified Organic. Sold it just about 20 years ago. When we moved here we planted our "orchard"... 4 trees (peach, apple and 2 cherries),There were also a plum, a big ol' pear and a couple of (sour) cherry trees that grow wild through this small valley. Also grow strawberries.
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Post by gb98 on Sept 29, 2021 15:43:14 GMT -5
desertwoman, wow, cool that you owned a commercial orchard! I am lucky enough to have access to a commercial orchard just a half mile from my house. They grow just about every apple variety you can think of and more I never heard of plus peaches and sour cherries. So those are things I don't bother to try and grow. I grow food that I either can't find locally or that is prohibitively expensive like raspberries. So you can grow fruit trees in the desert? That must be a lot of irrigation! Where did you have the commercial orchard?
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Post by Wheelgarden on Sept 29, 2021 18:06:29 GMT -5
Lost our plums to fungus long ago, and then our prized Rome apple tree was lost to a storm last year. We grow figs, blackberries, and blueberries, lately. Trying to get elderberries established. I'm itchin' to grow pawpaws.
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Post by martywny on Sept 29, 2021 18:13:55 GMT -5
We have apple, peach, pear, plum, and cherry trees plus a dozen blueberry plants. I want to double the size of our orchard from 13 trees to about 25 or so next year and add more berries.
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Post by desertwoman on Sept 29, 2021 22:21:29 GMT -5
So you can grow fruit trees in the desert? That must be a lot of irrigation! Where did you have the commercial orchard? We lived right along the Rio Grande about 40 miles north of Santa Fe. Lots of fruit is grown in that area. We had water rights from the Rio Grande The Rio Grande feeds the Acequia Madre (Mother Ditch),and then a gate gets opened (by hand ) when it was our turn to water, that feeds into the feeder ditches that run through individual properties. We would then shovel openings along the feeder ditch and flood our entire orchard every 2-3 weeks. It is an ancient water system dating back 400-600 years and it is an honor to be a part of that. We still are, here at our current home. Different Acequia Madre, different valley, but still an ancient water system. I took a quick trip down Memory Lane and found a couple of old photos (this was before digital cameras) and took a pic of the photos to post here This was our driveway- a 1/4 mile levy road from the paved road along the Rio Grande. Water gets diverted from the Rio into the Acequia Madre (I didn't find a photo of the Acequia) and then we would divert water from the Acequia into our feeder ditches. This is a partial view of our orchard, from the levy road. We had multiple varieties of apples, pears, peaches nectarines, cherries, apricots, plums. We were surrounded by other orchards and in case you would think New Mexico desert is always hot, this is winter along the Rio Grande in Northern New Mexico!
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Post by Wheelgarden on Sept 29, 2021 22:31:06 GMT -5
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Post by datgirl on Sept 30, 2021 5:33:32 GMT -5
We have apple,pear and peach trees. There are still some wild blackberries in the woods on the back of our property. I have a strawberry bed in the garden too.
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Post by gb98 on Sept 30, 2021 7:36:57 GMT -5
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Post by gianna on Sept 30, 2021 23:30:54 GMT -5
Very beautiful and interesting, desertwoman As for growing fruit, I have blueberries in pots in the back. One apricot, 2 peach, and 5 citrus (2 orange, 1 lemon, and 2 lime trees). Stone fruits don't do very well here - just not enough winter chill hours for most of them to break dormancy in the spring. IIRC, our winter chill hours are rated in the minus. There are a few good low chill varieties, but space is also an issue. I've tried strawberries several times but the critters used to get them. Blackberries were good here too, but it was too much work to keep them contained. Raspberries were OK, and yummy, but I never gave them the water they needed. RIP. There is one very productive persimmon - a Hachiya. Love those peeled, sliced and dehydrated plain, or even better with chocolate and chopped walnuts on top. (what isn't?) That season is about to start. The fruits are already half orange - about a month earlier than usual. And there are a few scruffy avocados down the hill that I don't water. For the price of water, you can buy as many avos as you could ever want. This neighborhood is nestled among lemon and avo orchards and before being developed 50+ years ago, used to be part of a lemon orchard. I also started a lot of fig trees, but the gophers were especially fond of their roots, so in the end they were too frustrating to grow directly in the ground. I ended up giving away many young trees to friends and neighbors. Trading cuttings via the internet, and then rooting them was great fun!
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Post by ecsoehng on Oct 9, 2021 15:39:22 GMT -5
Moonglow pear tree had way way too many pears. I thinned and thinned but still got a couple of hundred pears from that tree plus probably 100 more from the Keiffer pear. I had no time to pick them let alone process so a friend of mine was coming up to get them but still some rotted on the tree. A lot got fed to the chickens. The problem is I don't like pears that much but they do very well here while apples and peaches are hard.
Right now I am eating raspberries and figs every morning with my yogurt. About a half cup a day raspberries and 2 figs. The rest the birds eat. I bought some raspberry plants last year but the only difference from my old heritage berries seems to be that they are shorter stalks.
I have a lot of strawberry plants too in the spring. The patch has expanded a lot at home and is coming up under the roses. I am not sure if I like that or not.
Here is a question for you bramble growers. I got some tiny boysenberry plants in the spring. It said to plant them in a pot the first year which I did and they look great, though still only about 18 inches tall or so. Am I now supposed to put them in the ground for the winter? How hardy are they? I have never grown them.
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Post by gb98 on Oct 9, 2021 19:00:30 GMT -5
ecsoehng , I think I would wait until spring to put the boysenberry plants in the ground.
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Post by Wheelgarden on Nov 22, 2021 19:45:25 GMT -5
Why is there always a shortage of cranberries? Even in bumper-crop harvest years, they are always in short supply. I know they're seasonal, but... I really like cranberries---fresh, dried, jellied, sauced, and especially juiced. I'm not in cranberry country, but it seems that every year there's a bountiful harvest reported, but they never seem to be more available or cheaper. [Should have put this post under the impending food shortages thread, my bad --- editor]
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Nov 22, 2021 21:17:27 GMT -5
Wheelgarden, they're selling in two grocery stores locally for about twice the cost of prices last year.
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Post by gardendmpls on Nov 23, 2021 1:30:19 GMT -5
Confusing. We are the top importer of cranberries (Peru is the top exporter) but we also export a lot. May be a difference between import/export of fresh as opposed to dry cranberries and juice, but don't have the head to sift through the data right now. Found this quote : "Demand growth for cranberries is tied to the popularization of sweetened, dried cranberries with strongest demand growth from markets with increasing populations and per capita income." here: www.fas.usda.gov/data/cranberries-no-longer-just-american-traditionAll I know is that usually when demand increases, prices go up. Good night.
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