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girlbug2

Heirloom fruit trees.

girlbug2
14 years ago

I have added peaches, plums, figs, poms, and persimmons to my backyard garden right alongside the vegetables.

I am familiar with heirloom vegetables, however, I have no idea how it is determined what is an heirloom fruit tree. The catalogs that I order from are no help at all in that department. Also, since fruit trees are grafted, it would take a long time to grow, say, a peach from seed to see if it bore fruit just like its parent tree. Is there a listing of heirloom fruit trees somewhere?

Comments (2)

  • kansasapple
    14 years ago

    Heirloom fruit trees are usually described as being prior to WWII and the prolific use of refrigerated box cars. Our orchard draws the line at 100 years old to keep things simple. There are several good resources for lists of heirloom trees - Wagonwheelorchard.blogspot.com (check most recent post) Bighorsecreekfarm.com and you can write to Nick Botner of Spearheart Farms in Yoncalla Oregon, send a SASE and he will send you dozen page list of available scion wood (4,000 +). Someone has posted his list in PDF format in the orchard forum from last season I believe. I don't think Nick does bench grafts but he has the motherlode of lists. Both Wagon Wheel Orchard (that's my family) and Big Horse Creek Farm do custom bench grafting. Hope that helps, Rick

  • farmfreedom
    14 years ago

    Some kinds you may want to try are :twenty two ouncer, sheeps nose, winesap