December 3, 2009

The Fruit Trees Are Here! The Fruit Trees Are Here!

The fruit trees we ordered arrived Tuesday evening in a five foot long box via UPS.

This box contains 6 fruit trees.It contains:

1 July Elberta dwarf peach
1 Delicious dwarf peach
1 Gala semi-dwarf apple
1 Fuji semi-dwarf apple
1 Honeysweet dwarf pear
1 Moonglow dwarf pear

Very exciting! They are wrapped in plastic with wet newspaper covering their roots. Unfortunately we got another 2 and 2/10 inches of rain yesterday, making the ground soggier than ever. Hopefully we can get them planted soon!

On order but yet to arrive, one All-In-One semi-dwarf almond tree and two American elderberry bushes. I was told they'd probably be here in about two weeks. :)

copyright December 2009 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/


12 comments:

Robin said...

How exciting!

Benita said...

After reading about the heavy use of pesticides on apple trees, I've given some serious thought to growing our own. We both love apples, and I love pears, too. It looks like I may be following in your footsteps in lots of things this next year.

Theresa said...

That IS exciting! Hope the ground dries up enough soon to get them in the ground and settled.

Nina said...

Awesome. Hopefully it will dry up enough so you can plant them soon. How long before you estimate your first fruit harvest?

Elderberry.. mmmmmmm Love those and you don't see them that often anymore. I'm considering one for our place.

charlotte said...

This is so exciting! are the trees of the small, short sort, or will they get huge?

Renee Nefe said...

Congratulations! Your picture looked as if you got seedlings. How fast will these trees grow?

My husband was very disappointed that we were not able to get any apples this year...he was looking forward to having some apple butter. Luckily I have a friend who will help me whip up a batch, from store bought apples. :(

Leigh said...

Robin, yes it is!

Benita, I'm with you there. So glad to have some company along the way!

Theresa, you and we both.

Nina, hopefully within 2 to 3 years. That was one of the reasons we went with dwarf and semi-dwarf as standards take 3 to 5 years to bear. It's also one of the reasons we made the purchase and planting of these a priority.

Elderberries grow wild around here, but they're less common than they used to be. What do you like to do with them? I'm getting them primarily for their medicinal properties.

Charlotte, the dwarfs should grow to 8 - 10 feet tall, the semi-dwarfs will be 12 - 15 feet.

Renee, thanks! I suppose these could be called saplings(?) They are 4 to 5 feet tall.

Disappointing about your apple butter. Hopefully I'll have my own homegrown, homemade in a few years! Maybe you should plant a dwarf apple tree in your yard.

Katrien said...

so exciting! Those trees will immediately boost your homestead!

Life Looms Large said...

That's great that you'll have fruit so quickly! I was imagining it would take 10 years or more.

Enjoy!

Sue

Leigh said...

Katrien, very much so. We finally feel like we're making "real" progress toward sustainability!

Sue, that's one of the biggest advantages to the dwarf and semi-dwarf trees. The down side is that they don't bear as much fruit as standards, nor do they live as long, but it also means I won't have huge quantities of fruit deal with, especially since there are only two of us most of the time. I'm making up for that though, with variety.

Kathy said...

Cool beans!

I wish we could grow fruit trees here. I have one Wealthy apple that's 10 years old now and loooks the size of what yours will be after two years. :( Bummer. I will have to live vicariously through yours.

Randy said...

Congratulations, Leigh! We also plan on planting fruit trees one day.