fruit tree websites of value to a newbie!

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i'm not so much a newbie to gardening as i'm a newbie to trying to grow and keep fruit trees. so in my research for fruit trees that are good for my area i came across a few nicely done websites that seemed to help me figure out what i'm looking for in a fruit tree for my needs. i liked that these sites listed a lot of different types of names varieties and their uses along with any disease resistance. since i'm having an issue with fire blight on my 5 year old Bartlett Pear that has only been in my yard for 2 seasons now. i'm looking for more resistant strains at the same time looking for something to help pollinate my Moonglow Pear which is a fire blight resistant type.

i hope others could help out with this and post sites of interest on fruit tree varieties. also, if you know of any other places that sell root stock and scion wood besides FedCo and Rain Tree i would love to see those posted! it seems difficult to find places selling the rootstock so if there are more out there it would be a wonderful find for the future!

for Pear tree varieties: http://www.pots2plots.com/Fruit/Pear Cultivars.htm
for apple trees varieties: http://www.maplevalleyorchards.com/Pages/ScionWood.aspx
i also found this as a neat source for apple scion wood locally to New England http://www.towerhillbg.org/thwebscion.html
i'm looking for peaches too so i'd be very grateful if anyone has found a great source of info on those!

 

[thistlebloom]

This is a good idea for an ongoing thread Chickies'.
I don't have anything to add, but I wondered... can you grow peaches in your zone???

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

yes we can! the Reliance Peach was designed by a professor at University of NH which is 30 minutes slightly south west of my house (i have 2 but they didn't produce very well last year for me). and there is Contender and Elberta. i'm actually zone 5 but i like to look for things that will survive to zone 4 for those wacky winters we may occasionally have here. Red Haven i believe i've seen in some catalogs is ok for zone 5. it also depends on the root stock a fruit tree is grafted to.

 

[lillie]

I would love to try grafting my own apple trees. We have an old Beacon tree that is nearing the end of its life and I can't find them ANYWHERE. I've looked for places where I can buy just a few rootstocks but they all want to only sell massive quantities. I'm sending an email to Maple Valley now to see if they can sell me just a few. Thanks for posting this!!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

good luck! there are sooo many different methods of grafting out there when you check on You Tube. there was even someone who showed how to 'multiply' your rootstock so you have more when you need it later! sort of neat since most rootstock, especially some of the dwarf and semi-dwarf types tend to sucker a lot! if you don't use all the root stock you purchase for grafting just plant it in the ground for later years and let them continue to sprout more suckers.

i found another root stock and scion wood link to a place in NY. but i didn't copy it into my bookmarks. this one you have to call or email them with your order. i now wish i had copied it down so if anyone finds it or one in Ny please post that for me!

eta: Lillie, FedCo does 10 roots for $24-$30. but they do charge $18 to order just the rootstock. if you were just going to get scion wood it would be $3 per piece and $6 to ship. RainTree was good on their root stock prices but their shipping to my direction was crazy expensive since i'm on the opposite coast.

 

[thistlebloom]

yes we can! the Reliance Peach was designed by a professor at University of NH which is 30 minutes slightly south west of my house (i have 2 but they didn't produce very well last year for me). and there is Contender and Elberta. i'm actually zone 5 but i like to look for things that will survive to zone 4 for those wacky winters we may occasionally have here. Red Haven i believe i've seen in some catalogs is ok for zone 5. it also depends on the root stock a fruit tree is grafted to.

With our late freezes I would be a little skittish of peaches, although I would love to have them. It's my understanding that peaches are more susceptible to late freezes than apples and pears. I've lost every apricot I've planted, even the ones developed in Minnesota, though that could have been something on my part, not just the weather. I like to plant for zone 4 also, it's such a bummer to lose something that's been growing for years when you have an unusual winter. I hope your peaches produce well for you this year.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i'm still deciding if i'll be digging the peaches up and moving them over to the other house we're planning on moving to in the next few months. i may leave them since this winter has been very 'dry' of snow cover so i'm afraid they may not produce well again this year regardless of if they stayed or got moved. i think i had an issue with leaf curl last year and that might be why the 80+ peaches that showed on the plant early in the season just started to grow and then just dropped off as the season went by. i'll need to spray them down this spring to combat the leaf issue and it will mean there will be no peaches for this year either.

Contender is supposed to be a very good variety for zone 4 areas. it flowers later and the blooms are supposed to be more tolerant of frost. i've seen it mentioned many places that say it is better than Reliance.

 

[thistlebloom]

I think I'll check Contender out, it would be so great to pick our own home grown peaches! Thanks Chickies!