first stab at a tree list

[mopinko]

with the help of the arbor day foundation

my available space is about 5000 sq ft minus about 500 for veggies, although we may be able to work out a deal with the guy in between us and the lot on the use of some of his land.
i picked the dwarves where i could, and presume i can find a suitable replacement for those standards that are on this list. followed their recommendations for pollinators.

3 Hazelnut, Arbor Day Standard

2 Plum, Damson Standard
2 Cherry, Bing Dwarf
1 Cherry, Black Tartarian Dwarf
2 Apricot, Early Golden Standard
1 Apple, Early Harvest Dwarf
1 Apple, Lodi Dwarf
2 Pear, Kieffer Dwarf

also plan to have berries.
prices are very reasonable, and a very helpful site. just starting here tho. so much to learn.

[Denninmi]

1. OK, I'll share some thoughts on your list.

Hazelnuts - depends upon where you are in the country. I went to their site, and it doesn't really say much about what these are. The reason I urge caution is because a canker is called Eastern Filbert Blight is common east of the Rockies, and it's deadly to European filberts and many of their hybrids unless specifically bred to be immune. You might want to just e-mail them and ask if they know whether or not their strain is immune to EFB. Odds are that they are ok, since they are labeling them as hazelnuts (which are usually immune) rather than filberts, but might just want to confirm. Also, the other thing you should know about hazelnuts is that the nut size is much smaller than the grocery store filberts you are used to, about half the size. Quality and flavor is fine, but yield is lower because they are so small.

Damson is a fine plum for making jelly and plum butter, but its somewhat astringent even when ripe in uncooked form, so most people won't eat it except in a cooked form. And, speaking as someone who had one for over 20 years, you can get 4-6 bushels of fruit off of one standard tree in a good year, so unless you need ungodly amounts of Damson plums, you could perhaps cut one of those and get some other European or Japanese plum, which would both be good for cross pollination and give you a greater diversity of fruit.

Sweet cherries are REALLY hard to grow. It can be done if you do two things -- 1) be really committed to a good spray program for pests and diseases and 2) cover the trees against the birds. There are newer varieties out there, particularly some of the ones released by the Geneva, NY agricultural experimental station that are a lot more crack and fungus resistant that Bing and Black Tartarian, so if you really want to give sweet cherries a try, you may want to check out some of the newer types that are easier to grow. The dwarf part is good -- IMHO, that is the ONLY way you'll ever get cherries, because you can cover them against the birds.


I don't know anything about the Early Harvest apple, so can't comment. I think all of the rest of your choices are good choices.