Figured I'd post just in case anyone wants to plant some fruit trees next spring. We sure get a lot of enjoyment out of them, and all September breakfast is whatever's ripe that morning.
Pears:
We have two pear trees, two varieties. The better of the two is, "harrow gold". These taste just like the best bartlet pear you've ever had, and are around 2-2.5" long. Our tree produces tons of fruit and none go to waste. They don't seem to keep once picked, so we just eat them off the tree.
The other variety we have is, "bosc". It doesn't produce as well, the fruit is more a round shape with a skin color more towards brown in places. To me the fruit is more of a woody texture and not nearly as nice, although they still taste like a regular pear. The one plus is they ripen slightly later than the other pear tree so they extend your eating season into Oct.
Plums:
Unfortunately I don't remember what variety our plum trees are although they've been grown in AB for decades. I first saw them on a base in the yards of the pmq's. The fruit is red skinned with yellow center and while the skin is sour, the fruit itself is the sweetest, best tasting fruit I've ever had. We just peel the skin back with our teeth and squeeze the fruit into our mouth, toss the hide. Until the fruit starts to turn you never know what you'll get as they tend to hide in the leaves and are hard to see. Once they start turning it's always a surprise what the yield is. They vary between about 1.5-2" diameter.
Our apricot trees have only produced twice and were about 8 yrs old before starting flowering. They seemed to be putting all their energy into height so early this spring we figured we'd educate them and lopped them off at about 8'. Seemed to work as they were covered in flowers and we are right now enjoying sweet full size apricots daily.
We have had cherry trees although despite the variety being touted as a rival to BC cherries in size and taste, the fruit was bright red with yellow centers and a sweetness slightly more sour than lemons. We never tried anymore cherry varieties though.
Our first house I planted currants and blueberries. The currants produced buckets of berries. I planted 3 blueberry bushes, only one survived the first winter and without a mate it didn't produce. I think I'll try them again since even walmart sells blueberry plants now.
Our fruit trees are in a wind sheltered area between bldg's where they get full sun. I planted a row of lilac W of them to shelter them from the W. winds we have. The trees seem as hardy as any other trees and winter does not seem to bother them at all. The only trouble we've had is a late frost or worse gale type spring winds when they're flowering although even when that happens we still get a reduced crop from them.
I just ordered them from the local greenhouse, although it took some effort to get them ordered. They refused the first year, "forgot" the second, and finally I made them let me pay in advance and promise not to expect a, "warranty".
We've had our fruit trees maybe 10 years now. They were maybe 4 or 5' tall when we got them and we got pears and plums starting the second year. We just make sure they get lot's of water and that's about it.
Next year I hope to plant some peaches and maybe an apple tree. Granted here in SE AB we have ample heat units compared to other places, but I don't see why they wouldn't do well most anywhere, after all, I'm in the, "palliser triangle" where despite it supposedly being a wasteland there's, what, 40 different crops being grown on dryland now? My personal opinion for what it's worth, if you have enough of a summer to grow corn you should be fine.
Just make sure to order them early as what's available get's quickly spoken for and they don't ship after sometime in May.
Best of luck!
Anyone know a good variety of apple? I'm thinking maybe Hazen, Jona Gold, or Honey Crisp. Any suggestions?
