I realize that since there has been a significant break in my posting activity, it will take some time to get myself and everyone else back in the swing of things. I appreciate all of the supportive emails I received inquiring as to my state of being. Yes, there was even the one checking to make sure the black helicopters hadn’t “PAID ME A VISIT”? While I’m no fan of mine or any other current government, I walk a pretty straight line when it comes to saying anything overtly inflammatory! What I was leading up to was that I recently asked for you guys to start sending in your questions and topic suggestions again. These are coming in slow but I do have one for today…

 

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Question -     “You’ve been planting fruit trees at the BOL, exactly what varieties and why?”

 

 

   Well, yes I have been ramping up my orchard… The term ramping up would be seen as very subjective as many “preppers” have actual orchards full of trees which would make my holding almost insignificant. To add a little encouragement to this post I need to explain that it has taken me the better part of 15 years to actually start this orchard. I originally purchased BOL property with my good friend back in the early 90′s when I was in my 20′s and largely financially challenged. It had been my dream to have those fruit and nut trees that we all have read about in the descriptions of a real BOL! Unfortunately, fruit trees require water and ideally irrigation to grow. In my area of the state, water wells are deep and expensive (see my post about the experience I had putting our current well in - The Deep Dark Hole). Needless to say, I wish I had started this project at a much earlier date but the cost of the required water was prohibitive, especially for a young man just starting out in life… I thought I had done well to just secure a piece of land!

 

   Anyway, let me get back on track… It wasn’t until last summer that I finally started the tree planting and now I just can’t stop… Originally, last summer, I planted 3 apple, 3 cherry and 2 pear trees. These all made it through the winter and seemed to be healthy in the spring. With the new expansion to my irrigation setup, I planted those 8 additional trees a couple weeks ago – 2 apricot, 2 plum, 2 peach and 2 nectarine. Well, like I said this is getting to be addictive… Last weekend we went over again and I couldn’t help myself, 2 more apple and 2 more cherry trees went in the ground.

 

   If you remember my last BOL update, I mentioned that my brother had brought me a nice blueberry bush as a gift, well I added 4 more last weekend as well! Oh yeah, last summer I planted 2 experimental raspberry bushes. These were both doing exceptionally well, so I added 2 more last trip too! This brings us to 5 blueberry and 4 raspberries bushes total. Now all of these plants might sound like I have a small fortune in the ground? Quite the contrary, while I have seen people post about getting trees for VERY cheap or even free, I paid between $1.99 and $23.99 per plant and most of them were on the lower end of the spectrum… I think that a close guesstimate on total out of pocket for 20 fruit trees and 9 berry bushes comes in less than $450 dollars, that is full price (not discounting expense for the several that were gifts!).

 

   Yes, some money had to be invested and $450 isn’t chump change to my family right now but that’s the nature of an investment… I expect my ROI (return on investment) to be in the area of incalculable! We purchase quite a bit of fruit at our house and do watch for bargains but the cost of fruit is significantly higher than junk food items. These trees will payoff the first year of true production, if not before!

 

   Alright, the varieties I planted were from the recommendations of a local nurseryman. I purchased most of the trees from him so that they would have been raised in and appropriate for the area that I was replanting them. The recommendations he made were for the hardiness and pollination requirements. Since I wasn’t going to be planting every variety of tree he carried, it was important that all of the particular types of trees would pollinate the others in their respective category. The following is a list of the specifics as best as I can recall –

 

 

Apples –

  

   Honey Crisp (2)

  

   Winter Banana (1-pollinator)

  

   Yellow Delicious (1)

  

   4-way tree (1- gravel stein, gala, yellow transparent and yellow delicious)

 

 

Cherries –

  

   Bing (1)

  

   Rainier (2)

  

   Montmorency cherry (1)

  

   Stella (1)

 

 

Pear –

  

   Auju (1)

  

   Bartlett (1)

 

 

Nectarine - (2)   I can’t recall these specifics

 

Peach – (2) I can’t recall these specifics

 

 

Apricot –

  

   Tomcot (1)

  

   Harglow (1)

 

 

Plum –

 

   Shiro (1)

  

   Santa Rosa (1)

 

 

Blueberry –

 

   Bluejay – (2)

 

   Bluecrop (2)

 

   Olympia (1)

 

 

Raspberry –

 

   Red (2)

 

   Black (2)

 

 

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