What a great post. May all your dreams come true and let everyone know how the crops bear next year.

What a score!!!

You are rejuvenated...literally, young again.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

Congratulations This post made me very happy. It sounds wonderful. I love to hear success stories. It is truely a dream come true for you. I can tell. Good Luck

We Match! We are in our mid 40's. Kids are grown and gone tho. We also sold our city house (in June this year) and bought an orchard! WE LOVE IT! Our property also came with Cider house, farming/orchard eqip. Cider press and existing customers!
We had a blast this year. It was a little hectic because we moved in June so the orchard was in full swing. But, we have added 46 apple, peach, and cherry trees (58 more to go) and a raspberry bed. We are preparing to make a bed for a large veggie garden as well.
I have "put up" beans, corn, carrots, fruits, jellies, jams,
and so on. My first attempts at canning! Everything came out great!
Congrats!
I hope you have as much fun (and peaceful beauty) as we are having!
Melissa

Bravo!!!! :)
I'm starting from stratch but scratch I will!!! ;o)
Wishin' ya nothing but the best.
Oh I lived on my uncle's tobacco farm in Clay county, Ky. for a season and it was that time spent workin' my &%$@ off that has put me doing what I'm doing today. Nothing and I mean nothing feels better than busting your %$ doing some task (your pick) and knowing every ounce of effort has put YOU one step closer to where you want to be. Its just not the same working for the dollar and knowing all your efforts are going to enrich someone else.
Bravo!!!
Mike

wishing you the very best in all you do!

(just a little bit green with envy)
Jan

Melissa in NE. do you folks have an automatic sizer/sorter
for your apples? The people whose orchard we are buying said we should really look into one as the trees planted 5 years ago are really coming into their glory. They had a terrible time keeping up this year. Also wondered what varieties you had and what you added this year. We will have earligold, earliblaze, gala, jonathan, ozarkgold empire, red and golden delicious, blushing gold, fuji, and winesap. Peaches are envoy, contender, redgaven and glowhaven. Next year we are thinking of adding wolf river, zestar apples for sure and more contender, some double jewel, china pearl and golden jubilee peaches. Planning on putting in (maybe) Triple crown blackberries; they have Chester and mowed down their Shawnee berries. Any experience there? Raspberries won't grown here - gets too hot. Do you keep bees? I'm e-mailing jellyman for info there. Have a peaceful winter looking over orchard mags!!

You need to worry less about a sizer/sorter and worry more about what you are going to do to fight frost in the spring. If you lose your crop to frost damage, then a sizer won't be needed. You are no longer a gardner, you are a professional that depends upon the fruit for your living. Scary thought, isn't it?
G

Geraldo: sure is a little scary. Last year they had no peaches because of frost. 14 years ago lost peaches to the infamous "Halloween freeze" and 7 years ago lost most of peach trees to a tornado that went through just 200 yards south of their house. They never made it to house; had to hunker down in walk in freezer in their storage building. They did suggest a sizer/sorter as their crop was so heavy this year. I don't know what they cost (used) and wondered if anyone could shed lite on subject. We are buying 10 acres from them and plan to put it to sweet corn; we put in 1/8 acre of sweet corn last year and hubby made $510 off it not counting the stalks he bundled and sold for $5. If hail gets one crop (early) we can put in another - we tried this last year and had 2 crops early corn. Frost tolerant peach varieties and covering ourselves with corn is the best you can do to fight frost in good ol' Kansas. We plan on putting in some more peach trees this spring and Contender seems to be their most popular. Also advice from this forum suggested Double Jewel and Golden Jubilee along with China Pearl. Any thoughts there would be deeply suggested as our endevear is slowing beginning to sink in. Thanks, Geraldo!!

You size and sort as you pick. If you chemically thin the apples they will be a pretty uniform size. You don't want to roll peaches over a belt. You are right to plant a number of different things in order to "cover your assets". Something will always make you money. If people in your area want sweet corn, then sell it to them.

Wow, that sounds really overwhelming... and wonderful. Goodluck and smart of you to jump on it when you can! What a lot of work ahead.

I have a small orchard and I kind of wonder why everyone who isn't in an apartment doesn't have fruit trees or berry bushes. They are like the most low effort crops (except harvest of course) out there and taste so goood... I even planted fruit trees when I was renting, and never got to taste my rewards because we moved first. But I still drive by to see how they are doing.

What good news. Breathe deep and don't panic!

Peach crop is pick your own; we pick the apples and cut the asparagus. Customers pick the blackberries and they do sell well here - never enough - as do the asparagus; always customers left wanting. Thinking of putting in purple passion asparagus. Nourse and Indiana Berry have purple passion in bulk; only difference is one offers l-yr. roots and the other 2-yr. roots. We've always gone the 2yr. root way on advice. They have 2 hoop greenhouses that theystary early girl bush tomatoes in around February; they sell those very very well. That brand seems to be the only one they could grow in greenhouse without cracking. Thanks for all the kind thoughts and info - makes this all the more exciting for us. And thanks Geraldo for tips!! Where are you Melissa?

I plan on putting in about 6 trees for the first time ever.
Looking for tried and true varieties that will grow in
southeastern Nebraska. Fine particled sticky clay, alkaline (don't have a soil test yet). Windy here, hot summers, not much rain.
Anyone with variety experience?
Also - favorite places to buy?
Thanks,
Mary, zone 5a, NE

Mary, the Gold cherry came from Rulo, NE many years ago. My great grandparents were married at Rulo. Unfortunately Gold is not very tasty. I have been to Richardson County. I have many relation there. I was surprised by how many apple trees I saw around. For your conditions try Sansa, Sweet Sixteen, d'Arcy Spice, Empire, any of the early Fujis such as Auvil or Daybreak, Hawaii or Splendour. Fire blight is likely to be a big problem for you in that location. All of those I mentioned are not supposed to be too prone to fireblight, except for the Fuji. They can be bad. Use M7, B9 or G30 rootstock as fireblight just never seems to be as bad when the tree is on these roots. Fireblight likes lush growing conditions and fast growing young trees so fertilize lightly or not at all, and don't prune young trees, just spread them for the first three years.
Get these from Stark Bros, Cummins, Adams County or Google the variety to see who has what.