Fruit trees on backyards

[desteffy]

It seems like way more people should have fruit trees in their backyards. I can think of no good explanation other than people not feeling motivated to plant them because the probably take a few years before they start having much fruit and the payoff is too far in the future.

What do you guys think?

 

[iamwiz82]

Because it's a PITA to walk over 10,000 rotting apples in the grass. MOwing also offers a wonderful smell when you hack them apart.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: desteffy
It seems like way more people should have fruit trees in their backyards. I can think of no good explanation other than people not feeling motivated to plant them because the probably take a few years before they start having much fruit and the payoff is too far in the future.

What do you guys think?

the insects and animals get most/all the fruit, and when fruit (that's been attacked by wildlife so as to make it not a candidate for human consumption) starts to drop and rot it smells bad - really bad.

That said we've had tomato plants before and they were good, but I don't think you'll get many good quality apples or pears off a backyard tree, and cleaning up the rotten dropped fruits would be a PITA.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Because it's a PITA to walk over 10,000 rotting apples in the grass. MOwing also offers a wonderful smell when you hack them apart.

yeap.

my last house we had a few apple trees (diffrent types) it was great that i could go grab a fresh apple anytime. but man it was a pain mowing around it.

 

[Linflas]

I have orange, key lime, and lemon trees but not in my backyard. It is too cold here in the winter so they spend winter in my garage. We had an apple tree in our backyard when I was a kid but we never got many apples off it.

 

[Thraxen]

I think fruit trees can be a pain because they tend to have more issues with pests and disease than "normal" trees. We have two ornamental pear trees in our backyard and they got hit with some sort of blight this year. We had to pay a couple hundred dollars to get them sprayed and the dead limbs removed.

 

[desteffy]

hmm.. well, question answered.

I had the image in my mind of some fantasy land where there would be hundreds of nice ripe pieces of fruit all waiting to be plucked at any time.

 

[Slew Foot]

In CA, there's not much wildlife to speak of so my peach, cherry, plum, apple, nectarine, and lemon trees provide me with more fruit in the summer than I know what to do with

 

[NuclearNed]

I have a peach tree in my backyard, and love it. Its only 3 years old, but it is full of peaches this year.

 

[Ryan]

Too finiky - I'll stick to vegetables. I wouldn't mind an orange tree, though.

 

[SearchMaster]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
I think fruit trees can be a pain because they tend to have more issues with pests and disease than "normal" trees. We have two ornamental pear trees in our backyard and they got hit with some sort of blight this year. We had to pay a couple hundred dollars to get them sprayed and the dead limbs removed.

Yep.

I have a pear tree, a cherry tree, an apple tree, a blueberry bush, and a few fig trees. We don't eat the figs...the apple tree is good (we get some fruit from it), the blueberry bush can be protected with a bird net, but we rarely get good pears or cherries because the birds get them first.

 

[MiniDoom]

I had a peach tree in the front of my old house. It was nice to grab breakfast from it in the summer. My tree usually ended up just getting peachjacked by squirrels.

 

[sao123]

I would love to have fruit trees in my back yard.... however lemons, oranges, pineapples, and coconuts will not grow in pennsylvania.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: desteffy
hmm.. well, question answered.

I had the image in my mind of some fantasy land where there would be hundreds of nice ripe pieces of fruit all waiting to be plucked at any time.

Well, it's not all that bad. When I was young we had a house with an apricot tree, peach tree, cherry tree, and two pecan trees in the back yard. The cherry tree didn't do too well and eventually died. The peach tree gave us good peaches some years and virtually nothing some years. It too died. The apricot tree was a great performer though. Lots of apricots every year.

I think the peach and cherry tree died because this was in Texas (too dry and hot) and my parents really didn't give them enough care. Fruit trees just require extra attention that other trees don't. For example, you may need to do preventative spraying each spring if you have problems with blight or other diseases.

I actually would like to to have an apple tree of some sort. You can actually take one type of apple tree and graft limbs from differerent types onto the same tree and you will end up with an apple tree that produces several types of apples. This is something I'd like to try.

 

[Ktulu]

Originally posted by: Slew Foot
In CA, there's not much wildlife to speak of so my peach, cherry, plum, apple, nectarine, and lemon trees provide me with more fruit in the summer than I know what to do with

haha, we have the same exact trees in our yard, plus a few other stuff.

What really gets on my nerves are neighbors and random folk coming to our door and asking for free fruit, my mom caves in like a sucker, but I always point them straight to the grocery store.

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: Slew Foot
In CA, there's not much wildlife to speak of so my peach, cherry, plum, apple, nectarine, and lemon trees provide me with more fruit in the summer than I know what to do with

haha, we have the same exact trees in our yard, plus a few other stuff.

What really gets on my nerves are neighbors and random folk coming to our door and asking for free fruit, my mom caves in like a sucker, but I always point them straight to the grocery store.

They can get free fruit at the grocery store?

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
I think fruit trees can be a pain because they tend to have more issues with pests and disease than "normal" trees. We have two ornamental pear trees in our backyard and they got hit with some sort of blight this year. We had to pay a couple hundred dollars to get them sprayed and the dead limbs removed.

My parents have three orchards and my Dad is spraying them at least once a month, usually more. He's got his applicators license though, so he can buy the spray and apply it legally.

It's worth it though, they've got several different types of apples, peaches, and nectarines. They have several pear trees, but the pears from most of them are rock hard and not really good eating (they taste OK, it's just too hard to eat them).

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: Slew Foot
In CA, there's not much wildlife to speak of so my peach, cherry, plum, apple, nectarine, and lemon trees provide me with more fruit in the summer than I know what to do with

haha, we have the same exact trees in our yard, plus a few other stuff.

What really gets on my nerves are neighbors and random folk coming to our door and asking for free fruit, my mom caves in like a sucker, but I always point them straight to the grocery store.

Well, that would be annoying, but we used to have friends come over to collect pecans just to get rid of them. We had two massive pecan trees back in TX and they produced prodigious amounts of pecans. People would come over and usually collect two brown grocery sacks full to the top with pecans and not even make a dent in the amount still available. It seemed like no matter how many friends came over to collect there were always more. They were truly impressive trees.

 

[ISAslot]

I'm holding out for a twinkie tree.

 

[FoBoT]

we have 2 apple trees and one pear tree and spots for 2 more apple trees and one more pear tree


but then i have 3.5 acres, i could plant a whole orchard if i wanted all that work

 

[SVT Cobra]

I have 2 apple trees and a pear tree. I love them.


My friend in California has lemons, limes, nectarines, peaches, and some other stuff. Not many bugs near San Diego, so they grow great and produce awesome fruit.

 

[Lorax]

why don't more people have vineyards to make their own wine?

 

[Thraxen]

What zones will lime trees grow in... anyone know?

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
What zones will lime trees grow in... anyone know?

9+

Man, I miss orange and grapefruit trees in the backyard.

No space to put much. I would love an Asian Pear and a kiwi (Assai?) arbor in the back.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: gsellis

Originally posted by: Thraxen
What zones will lime trees grow in... anyone know?

9+

Man, I miss orange and grapefruit trees in the backyard.

No space to put much. I would love an Asian Pear and a kiwi (Assai?) arbor in the back.

Crap... I'm in 6b, so I guess that idea is out.