My Norway's (just a few by the house) get a blight in the Spring and loose there needles until I started spraying for needle cast. Look it up. I use clorithinal. (sp?) They are now growing like crazy but I am careful and spray thru the Spring.
If I were to start over it would be ALL Asian pears for soft mast. They are hard to prune to grow pretty but....bugs and disease have never bothered them. They drop late and the deer love them. Mine produce each and every year. And the bonus is they are wonderful to eat right off the tree.
Got mine from MDC. They are as high as 8 foot in 5 years but in my area if you do not protect the deer will wipe them out. And as Brush pointed out, they have not root suckered at all. Hopefully the animals will spread the seeds.
I have had that happen to me!! I went and lightly over seeded the the sparse areas before a rain. The out come was a decent plot but I did have very thick areas that did not produce bulbs, just tops. Deer never noticed. If you wait to long I would think the plants that made it from the original...
So glad you are continuing this thread here! One of my all time favorites. I may not post much but I follow almost daily. I very much admire your perseverance under difficult conditions. I fight some of the same battles.
Not sure I see a financial advantage in shutting it down. Sounds as if they lost, or are loosing, a number of members and destroyed even more goodwill!