What Is The Easiest Fruit ?

[digitS']

When I was attempting a more self-sufficient lifestyle and had moved back to the country, I discovered an abandoned residence on the neighbor's property. The folks had lived in a wood boxcar. A railroad siding wasn't far (North Pole, Idaho @thistlebloom ).

I figured that the homesite was used during the 1930's. Forty years had passed but the currant bushes seemed current and healthy.

Of course, there are apple trees along roadways and railways throughout this area. So many, that I wasn't sure if planting any made much sense for my cider-making but I did.

A neglected fruit tree around here seems to be the apricot. When I gardened on a vacant lot across the ally from my previous home, there was an apricot. The house on that lot had been pulled down and I really doubt that the tree had received any attention for, maybe, 20 years.

I know of another apricot on a similar lot. About 10 years ago someone had some "intentions" and dug out ground for a large foundation. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has been done since! A couple of feet of soil was piled against the apricot's trunk. I drove by during the right season in 2016 and the tree was loaded with fruit. It was more apricot than green.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

@digitS' mm... love apricots and also plums.

apples grow wild all over around here. we don't make cider from them.

found out they grow easily from seeds (plant seeds in the fall) and make a good hedge after a few years. those buggers are thorny! i didn't know this...

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

black raspberries do well for me without having to do much. i do have to dig them out of where ever they try to take root where i don't want them. one of these years i will dig them all up & put them in nice, tidy rows with trellis to keep them in check. birds don't bother mine but i do have a pair of mocking birds that nest close by the main cluster. probably like them quick food for the hatchlings.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

There WERE a lot of wild and semi wild apple trees around here, but by now, most of them have been cut down or succumbed to fungus of one sort or another

Pretty much all that's left around is more crab than eating apple. Off the top of my head, the two that are most notable I know of are one in Mt. Kisco (in the parking lot of the Target) which is a real spitter (i.e. so bitter that while you could use a few to add depth to a batch of hard cider, you couldn't use it for much else.) and one on one of the paths around the soccer field (tasty enough, but being so much of a crab, the fruit is only a little bigger than a cherry.)

Back when I was at Cornell, the place was covered with apple trees (and probably still is) I particularly remember how many were growing out of the sides of the gorges (if I was ever back there, I wonder if it would be possible to rig up a drone to take fruit/budwood samples.

There were also two "wild" plums. One, alas is probably no longer there (I think it got black flask and died my Junior year) As far as I know the other one is still there at the corner of Seneca street and College avenue (in a planter, next to a bar forever fertilized with the lost lunches of a thousand college students)

 

[majorcatfish]

after thinking about it, would say "hayward kiwis" they are pretty much pest and disease free need a good trillis.. good to grow in zones 7-9..

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i'm sure Cornell has lots of apple trees around there still. after all, that is where they do a lot of research on apple rootstock & scion testing. one of the researchers & inventor of the Geneva apple rootstock is Dr Cummins. i have Dr Cummins' website bookmarked to get rootstock for future grafting of fruit trees. he also sells a lot of grafted trees in late spring at a bargain. the best prices are the ones missing tags & he may or may not know what they are grafted to.

http://www.cumminsnursery.com/

@Nyboy, i didn't want to hijack your thread, but, i know you asked before about hardy kiwi. i can't remember if anyone ever told you how easy they were to grow. or, if anyone could chime in & let us know if they have them & what they are like. i'm thinking of getting some cuttings from Burnt Ridge & seeing if i have any luck.

 

[so lucky]

Strawberries and blackberries. The strawberries, you can cover in netting when the berries start to ripen. I buy green netting from a fabric store (Hobby Lobby). It's inexpensive and lasts several seasons. Blackberries don't seem to have as much of a bird problem, I guess because they are not red when ripe.

 

[Nyboy]

Never worry about hijacking a thread of mine. I planted 6 hardy kiwi vines a couple of years ago ( Lowes marked male / female) I planted 4 females and 2 males. Then I read how large and crazy the vines get. I believe @catjac1975 needed a bull dozer to take out a old vine. I had planted them close to my well house and was worried about roots and my well so moved them. The tags had been removed ( nephew girlfriend thought she was helping and removed all tags) 3 live thouugh transplant not sure what sex they are sure with my luck all are female

 

[Nyboy]

I know apples trees grow wild here, but they require way to much spraying. I prefer pears which didn't need spraying but I think mine might have fire blight. peaches did well the 2 years I had them, this spring will be 3 years we will see how they do

 

[ducks4you]

I would say plant an apple tree. IF you don't have a lot of trees to tend to they are very forgiving of a hatchet pruning. I heard on Mid American Gardener to prune to suckers (the ones that sprout from the base of the tree) right now, and leave the waterspouts (the ones the grow straight up from the branches and grow very little if any fruit) until mid summer. If you prune the waterspouts now, they will grow back vigorously this summer.
I have only had a few bad apple harvests, and I haven't sprayed my trees, although I may do that this month, too.
I am ready to chop down the other 1/2 of my black raspberry bushes. They have thorns and every time they produce fruit, which has never been bountiful, the birds get it. AND, I have heard that the thornless variety pruduce somewhat sour fruit.