I have a 5 year-old Pineapple Quince in my orchard. All indications point to it being a healthy tree. During the growing season it receives about 10-12 gallons of drip irrigation at the drip line. Last growing season was the second year that it has borne fruit. But something strange happened last year. Mid-season, when the fruit were about the size of a golfball, they all started to drop; not one fruit made it to harvest. Our other quince, an Aromatnaya Quince, which we care for in the same manner, delivered us a bounty.

I've asked around and scoured the internet for a possible explanation. Does anyone have any ideas about why the Pineapple Quince did this? Thanks in advance.

I recently received a bare root Fuji apple tree and was quite disappointed. It’s just a whip with no branches. The other trees I received were all great which probably makes me even more disappointed about this. This is what the company’s size description states: “Our trees range in height from 4-8 ft. in our field and trimmed to 4 to 5 ft. when shipped. Our young two year trees are most often feathered (side limbs). The trees diameter (caliper) is often 1/2 to 3/4 inch.” Would this description include whips? Just not sure if this is something worth complaining about to the company

Hi,

I’m going to be growing some fruit trees in containers and have been looking for the right potting mix recipe. Will be growing several bare root trees (peach, nectarine) and potting up several fig cuttings. A lot of mix recipes call for pine bark fines to increase drainage. Does anyone know if this Timberline pine bark mulch qualifies or is it too large / not broken down enough? I am in the northeast (Massachusetts) and don’t have easy access to many other substrates.

Would appreciate any mix recipes as well. Thanks!

I know there are many fertilizer products out there in markets for specific fruit trees.

I love feeding my fruit trees homemade fertilizers. I have created a chart that will show you when and what to feed our trees.

You can find the chart here: Homemade Fertilizers for Fruit Trees with Charts

The fruit trees may have several growth stages like bud break, dormancy, flowering, fruiting etc...

In each stage, they need some specific nutrients more than anything.

I hope this is going to be helpful for fruit tree growers.

Feedback will be appreciated.

A couple of months ago I purchased quite a few fruit trees to start my own backyard orchard in zone 10b.

Among others, I chose a Kent mango and glenn mango for their different harvesting seasons. I personally enjoy the taste of both and like that both are very productive varieties.

I’ve since been second guessing myself about keeping the Kent. I’ve learned it’s prone to bacterial black spot disease and I’ve also realized both are similar in flavor profile which makes me wonder…should I have chosen a more exotic, novelty variety? I also have a Nam Doc Mai.

All are in the ground and acclimating very well. What would you do?? Am I just in my head? Or should I swap out the Kent for something else?

First year of fruit for this lychee. Doesn’t get enough sun so it’s a bit small for a 3 year old tree. How do you tell when the fruit is ready to pick?

not sure if there’s anything i should do about these — or even what they are. pretty sure it’a a woodpecker but i haven’t actually seen one in the act.

There is a few milimeters of a trunk over the top branch that is drying. Should I remove the dry part? This is a sweet cherry tree I planted last autumn, and cut the top. Branch developed few milimeters under the cut

I have this peach tree in my backyard, it was planted by the previous owner. My wife and I have lived here for 3 and a half years and I've improved my gardening game a lot but am not very experienced with trees. I'm 90% sure this is a Contender peach tree from the research I've done given the size, shape and cold hardiness (zip code shows zone 5b but we have gotten temps below that since living here). The first 3 years this tree bore huge amounts of fruit, like on the order of 100+ pounds worth of very juicy, delicious fruits (it is one of the most popular things that happens to grow in our yard, all our friends and family request them). One year we ended up giving most of them away but a lot of times they just hit the ground because I cannot harvest and process enough of them by myself 🤷‍♂️

One of the central branches actually broke from the weight of the fruit the year before last, it wasn't a terribly bad break, I sawed off the broken limb at the break and didn't seem to affect the tree much that I could tell. Last year it was budding up really nicely but in one day we had a flock of birds show up (pretty sure they were starlings) and ate literally all but 5 buds off of the tree 😔 so this year I'll be investing in some bird netting to keep that from hopefully happening again.

I know this tree needs some TLC since I've never done any real maintenance to it. How would you go about trimming this up? Also, there's a bunch of gold raspberry plants growing up next to the base of the tree, should I try to remove them or leave them be, I know they are probably taking nutrients away from the tree to some degree.

Thanks for any info! 😊

Hello Everyone! I'm a long term renter who is interested in becoming more self- sufficient and id like to grow several different fruit trees. I'm curious as to whether it would be practical to have many trees in large pots that could be movable in <10 years or so? All advice is appreciated

I container garden and am planning on doing fruit trees in planters as well. The closest planters are 3 ft from the north side of the house, then 7 ft, then 11, 15, and 19 ft. I know that's pretty close to each other, I am not trying for the highest production. Anyways, I want 2 of each of: Fig, peach, pear, persimmon, blueberry, bush cherry, native plum, and mulberry. Who should I put closest to the house? Arkansas, zone 7b

Edit: Managed to get pictures of the original plan, and the revised plan linked in the comments (I think).

New plan has the closest fruit tree 13 ft away from the house.

Just saw this pop up in facebook marketplace. It's not really the season but it looks like these trees were well kept and I would hate to see them chopped. I'm thinking of asking to take some cuttings

Trying to make sure all my new apple trees will be happily pollinated, and ideally have some varieties that ripen from early to late season.

Maryland, Zone 7a

I have:

Royal Gala

Pink Lady

Freedom

Liberty

Ambrosia

Crimson Crisp

UNK- came with the house; flowers in early May. The squirrels and birds say the fruit is delicious - I have not been able to taste.

Any particular varieties I should add to ensure good pollination? I tried to make sure everything “had a friend” but there are so many contradictory resources online.

I know I have a lot that will ripen in mid September/early October, with the pink lady potentially in early November. Any outstanding early or later season varieties to look into? Main priority is fresh eating, canning (sauce and butter) is second.

I purchased several bareroot trees due to ship to zone 7A in the first week of March. When I contacted the nursery about pushing the shipping date to mid/end of March, the nursery advised against this and, in response to my concern that the ground may not be workable so early in March, suggested that I could store the trees, boxed, in a garage or basement out of light and keeping them cool until ready for planting outdoors. I do not have indoor space to temporarily plant in planters so that isn't an option.

I've always believed that I needed to plant bareroot trees as soon as I received them. Does anyone have any insight on this recommendation? I didn't know if this storage idea was well known or if I should hold firm on my request to postpone the shipping date. Thanks in advance!

I have this 12 by 18 corner of my backyard that gets a lot of shade from the neighbors avocado trees. They are plenty away from my fence line but are so tall (and dense) that they block the sun for much of the day to that corner. I estimate that spot gets about 3 hours of full sun in the middle of winter and 5-7 hours of full sun from spring to early fall.

I live in 9b central California where we rarely get below 32f in winter (only a few frost/freeze alerts per year) but we do get 2-3 months of 100-110f in the summer and have a sandy loam (so there are some things that just won’t work here such as cherries, pawpaws, etc). I already have plenty of peaches/nectarines, pluots, tons of different citrus, avocados, strawberry guavas, mulberries, aprocots, apriums, apples, and Asian pears (as well as blackberries and blueberries).

I would love some recommendations of a fruit tree to plant in that weird spot to give me more variety. It would probably have to be something self pollinating as that isn’t much space for two varieties.

Thank you for your thoughts!! We love fresh fruit and love helping supply our neighborhood food bank in addition to what we eat, and preserve for our family.

I want to grow all the fruit I eat in a year. I live in a fairly temperate climate zone 9a. This year we won't even get snow. I am overloaded with fruit from July to September but hardly any from November through May.

What are some good fruiting plants I can use to extend my season? What can be harvested through the winter?

I love collecting unique plants and can provide some winter protection so I would love some out the box ideas.

I would love some insight in reputable online nurseries. I was looking at Willis Orchard, but just recently came across a lot of bad reviews and now I’m nervous. ETA - I’m in zone 8B, East Coast, USA

Hey, we have bought a small fruit farm in Central America and are currently cleaning it up after years of neglect by the previous owner. It's surrounded by long neglected and overgrown orange farms.

There's a pretty invasive citrus fungus here which seems to have jumped from the old orange trees to our small variety farm.

Currently using neem oil spray,, but I'm concerned that it may harm beneficial guys, especially bees. We aren't spraying bees directly and don't have any hives currently. I was thinking we could use the spray regularly for a short while, then maybe once in a while if we see fungal improvement. Working on soil improvement too, but that's slow going.

Do I really need to be overly concerned about the insects at this point? We do have a lot of not-so-beneficial insects life leaf cutter ants (which are attracting moles) and plant eating grasshoppers. Any safer fungicides?

Also, I realize we'll never get rid of it since it's all over the area, just trying to minimize as best we can. Thanks for your thoughts.