r/BackyardOrchard

Probably 6 yrs old, grown from a Cara Cara seed I found in the fruit.

The other half is in the fridge. Had to prune a lot of the tree this year due to blight so I'm really happy to see what we got this year.

It was doing fine and growing pears like normal, but a few days ago the leaves started turning yellow. My mom thought it was just changing colours for fall, but now some of the leaves are beginning to turn black. I’d appreciate any advice on how we could possibly save it. I’m in Ontario, Canada.

This little tree came home from a nursery in April. It’s a little not shown any signs of growth since then. I did repot it about a month ago so that I could see the roots and make sure it had a good growing medium. Suggestions? I’m about to try some fertilizer. Zone 8a.

Over last winter, I saw my 3 year old honey crisp develop a fungal infection on its trunk. I tried mitigation, but it did its damage.

I figured I would have to replace it this spring, but to my surprise, it bloomed heavily, and we got more fruit than we ever had before. So I held off replacing it.

After doing exhaustive research, I'm fairly certain the fungus was split gill mushrooms (Schizophyllum commune). Despite the little tree's effort, I think I still need to replace it.

Based on my images of the damage, can anyone help me confirm if my hunch is correct, that keeping the tree will eventually lead to it dying because it is too compromised at this point? Thanks.

Hi again,

Found another fruit tree and looking for advice. I’ve taken care of the real young trees (thank you for the guidance) and have seemed to find another (slightly more mature) apple tree. What would you do?!

Thank you!

We moved into a new house this year and I just noticed these fruits growing from a bush in our backyard. We live in New Hampshire near the coast. They don’t seem ripe yet, but right now they’re just a little bigger than a golf ball. Any idea what they are?

I recently bought a house that came with a beautiful peach tree in the yard. Problem is, I have no clue what I’m doing. From what I’ve read online it sounds like I need to lighten up the load but not sure where to go from there. They are starting to change color.

We inherited two lovely pear trees when we bought our house. We closed on our house in the last week of August last year and there was only one pear left on the tree by the time we had realized that we had fruit trees on the property. It was the most delicious pear I've ever had. We have been harvesting our pears in increments this week and have picked the most gorgeous pears off of our trees and have three baskets full already. Now I need ideas on what to do with them! I have a few ideas but open to more!

Don't mind the bite mark on the one, my toddler (2 yo) can't resist a piece of fruit (me either).

Hey guys, I’m trying to build a mini orchard on my land in New England. I currently have a cherry tree and two apples. For the apples they are semi dwarfs one being a red delicious and the other being honey crisp.

For whatever reason I’m noticing that the honey crisp apples look exceptionally disfigured and are growing exceptionally slow compared to the red delicious who both flowered and started fruiting around the same time.

Does anyone have any feedback on what I can do especially for next year?

For additional context if it helps we’ve had Japanese beetle infestation for the second year in a row. We managed it a lot better this year with minimal leaf damage. I sprayed the trees with neem oil and coppercide. Lastly, the honey crisp tree (the one that is providing weird fruit) at large appears the healthiest compared to the red delicious that is providing the what appears to be better fruit.

Note: the first image is an apple from the honey crisp. The second image is from the red delicious taken at the same time.

So I didn’t know what this tree was in my back yard. It’s no more than a few years old but my google image search confirmed it’s a peach tree.

It has multiple large stems at the bottom - should I cut the extras off? It didn’t have any fruit but maybe it needs a mate?

Thanks for any advice. You can see it’s about 10’ tall. 😬 happy little bugger.

(Also it was so small last year I put a tomato cage around it because my dog likes to chew sticks.)

I just wanted to share my completed project for my backyard mini-orchard.

My “backyard” is like 80% patio, so I was restricted on growing trees. But after a ton of research over the past couple of weeks, I’ve completed the
set up and planting of my 5 fruit trees.

From left to right the fruits are 2
Moorepark Apricots, Burgundy Plum, Honey Babe Peach, and Red Fuji Apple. I have cuttings from an Angelus Peach and Santa Rosa Plum from my mom’s house which I plan to graft onto the apricot trees.

I modified the half wine barrels myself with drainage holes and casters so I can move the planters around when needed.

I also purchased these super adorable custom tree tags from Etsy which I absolutely love. They are double sided, made of anodized aluminum, and will probably outlast the life of the tree. I’ve included a link to the maker’s shop on Etsy for anyone who’s interested.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4517575621/customized-plant-tree-id-tags-large?ref=share_ios_native_control

My first apple tree produced apples this year and some started falling off the tree but most of them are covered in these spots. Is this something to be concerned about or safe to eat after washing? Any responses are appreciated.

My backyard peach has had a rough year. It started off just fine, lots of blossoms and small peaches... then the squirrel figured out the peaches were great and went to town on it. Still managed to get a couple saved by netting it.

Before I netted it, I noticed that there were a few dead branches that dried out and dropped a bunch of leaves. I trimmed them off but it still doesn't look too vibrant.

Any idea what could be causing half the tree to die off like that?

Hi all, I would appreciate any advice please!

This crabapple tree is in its second year I believe, and was snipped at the red marker in the Autumn/Winter last year. This year it has grown two branches, a strong one which has shot upwards and another which has gone to the side and looks a bit sad - it's mildew-y and has an aphid infestation!

I have no idea how to prune it this Winter to allow it to branch out next year and grow bushy, rather than leggy. Any advice please? It has been in a pot but will be planted out in the garden this Winter. Thank you in advance.

EDIT: Ignore the sticks in the pot - they're to stop the squirrels digging!!

Moving to a new house mid autumn. The property is pretty well a blank slate and I'm finding it overwhelming all the options for layout and location of orchard. It's a 1 acre parcel with the top of the image facing north. Looking for suggestions on where to plant the 4 dwarf apples (gala and Honeycrisp) and 6 high bush blueberries that we are taking with us.

The post says fruit bearing and age 2yrs old grown from seed, this doesn't seem to make sense.