I planted my first fruit trees, pear and apple in 2009 from Century Farm Orchards. It included two varieties of pear and 7 variety of apple that covered early, mid, and late drop times. Since that time I have planted about 90 more fruit trees, of those 3 were peach, 2 apricot, 8 persimmon, 10 paw paw, 30 pear, and the balance apple. These added fruit trees came from Stark Bros., Burnt Ridge, The Wildlife Group, and Turkey Creek(who is a member of this site). All nurseries were great to work with except Burnt Ridge. I don't recommend them simply because the product they sent was in horrible condition when it arrived, missing labels on trees and when called about these issues they just said sorry and didn't replace the damaged trees or offer any way to make it right.
Dave at Century Farms and Chris at Turkey Creek will answer all questions you have and help you anyway they can. I try and use Chris's nursery every time(the only time I don't go with Chris is if he doesn't have the variety I'm looking for. He has taken many scions from trees I have and I have gotten trees from him that were the result of these scion exchanges.
The trees from Century farms have done great and are full of fruit and have had the most time in the ground to show me what they can do. Of the pear trees I received from Century farms, 2 were asian pear and other a keiffer. One of the asians died after year three from coons breaking it off. It didn't regenerate from the trunk unfortunately. The asian has been a big producer since year three and the keiffer started good production in year 5. The apples from Century farms produced in year 3 with the Hewes crab being a huge producer that year and each since. Liberty has produced well since year 3 and the others started to produce in year 5 and 6 with good amounts. This year all Century trees are loaded.
The trees I planted after 2009 have done very well also. The vast majority of those are loaded. The only ones that aren't, are the ones planted within the past 3 summers.
The pear trees have without question produced more fruit than apple trees in a shorter time and have continued to outshine apples (the hewes crab is the exception). My pear trees were not attacked by the jap beetles like my apples and apricots. They are almost see through trees with the leaves becoming see through. They all have started to put new leaves on and the ones that had fruit still hold as much fruit as they did prior to being hit by beetles.
One area apple trees have performed better than pears is the apples don't break branches loaded with apples like pears do in high wind events and asian pears are more susceptible to breakage than european pears. A storm rolled through this past week and 5 of my pears, of which 3 were asian, broke major branches off and one of those snapped its trunk. It was loaded with fruit, I have never seen so much fruit on a tree so I know that was part of it.
Pears have grown faster, produced fruit sooner, are great for browse and licking branches(I leave a branch or two about 50" high sticking out from my fruit trees for browse and licking and they have become great deer attractants. If I plant anymore fruit trees for deer they will be persimmon, pear, and hewes crabs.
The persimmons I planted 5 years ago have started producing a limited amount of fruit and have grown relatively fast. I look forward to what they will do in another 5 years.
If anybody is looking for an asian pear that is huge, firm and crisp like an apple and sweet I highly recommend Megietsu. Great, early producer that one can start harvest of in late to mid Sept. and fruit keeps in fridge for many weeks. The Megietsu is hard to find and I don't think Century farms still has it. Even though it seems to be a bit brittle the fruit is worth the risk.
If I had to do it all again I would go with crab apples, liberty apples, asian and european pears, and persimmons for deer. Asian pear for humans.
zone 5
Dave at Century Farms and Chris at Turkey Creek will answer all questions you have and help you anyway they can. I try and use Chris's nursery every time(the only time I don't go with Chris is if he doesn't have the variety I'm looking for. He has taken many scions from trees I have and I have gotten trees from him that were the result of these scion exchanges.
The trees from Century farms have done great and are full of fruit and have had the most time in the ground to show me what they can do. Of the pear trees I received from Century farms, 2 were asian pear and other a keiffer. One of the asians died after year three from coons breaking it off. It didn't regenerate from the trunk unfortunately. The asian has been a big producer since year three and the keiffer started good production in year 5. The apples from Century farms produced in year 3 with the Hewes crab being a huge producer that year and each since. Liberty has produced well since year 3 and the others started to produce in year 5 and 6 with good amounts. This year all Century trees are loaded.
The trees I planted after 2009 have done very well also. The vast majority of those are loaded. The only ones that aren't, are the ones planted within the past 3 summers.
The pear trees have without question produced more fruit than apple trees in a shorter time and have continued to outshine apples (the hewes crab is the exception). My pear trees were not attacked by the jap beetles like my apples and apricots. They are almost see through trees with the leaves becoming see through. They all have started to put new leaves on and the ones that had fruit still hold as much fruit as they did prior to being hit by beetles.
One area apple trees have performed better than pears is the apples don't break branches loaded with apples like pears do in high wind events and asian pears are more susceptible to breakage than european pears. A storm rolled through this past week and 5 of my pears, of which 3 were asian, broke major branches off and one of those snapped its trunk. It was loaded with fruit, I have never seen so much fruit on a tree so I know that was part of it.
Pears have grown faster, produced fruit sooner, are great for browse and licking branches(I leave a branch or two about 50" high sticking out from my fruit trees for browse and licking and they have become great deer attractants. If I plant anymore fruit trees for deer they will be persimmon, pear, and hewes crabs.
The persimmons I planted 5 years ago have started producing a limited amount of fruit and have grown relatively fast. I look forward to what they will do in another 5 years.
If anybody is looking for an asian pear that is huge, firm and crisp like an apple and sweet I highly recommend Megietsu. Great, early producer that one can start harvest of in late to mid Sept. and fruit keeps in fridge for many weeks. The Megietsu is hard to find and I don't think Century farms still has it. Even though it seems to be a bit brittle the fruit is worth the risk.
If I had to do it all again I would go with crab apples, liberty apples, asian and european pears, and persimmons for deer. Asian pear for humans.
zone 5
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