Do you have a pollinator for Flavor Supreme? It's very difficult to set a crop even with a good pollinator. The Mariposa might set you a few fruit but I won't bet much money on that by itself. There are better choices for a lone pluot: Flavor Grenade, Flavor King, or Geo Pride.

Get a Satsuma or Santa Rosa instead of Mariposa, and as fruitnut mentions get a different pluot. The two should be able to pollinate each other but a third just in case might not be a bad idea.

Lapins and Stella are very old self-fertile varieties, the newer ones are much better. My favorites are Black Gold and White Gold but there are many others. Van may be prone to cracking, that is a big potential problem on sweet cherries.

It looks like you have only one asian pear, the self-fertility there can be highly climate dependent and I'm not sure it will work.

I would skip nectarines if you are in the east or midwest, they are too hard to grow and peaches are just as tasty if you get good varieties.

The rest looks good!

Scott

I would suggest different peaches. Polly is especially cold-hardy, which you don't need in your zone. Saturn is not prolific. It blooms like crazy and then drops fruit like crazy. I am replacing mine this year.

One that ripens about the same time as Saturn is Garnet Beauty, which is very good. It's not a sub-acid peach like Saturn but you will get a better crop.

I personally would order Silver Logan and O'Henry over Saturn and Polly (If you are ordering from Trees of Antiquity). I don't know where you live so I don't know about peach disease in your area.

Okay, I think I figured out you are planning to order from Peaceful Valley. So we should help you figure out a good order from their selection, correct?

BTW: You forgot apricots, figs, mulberries, and berries in general. How much land did you say you had? :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Trees

This post was edited by milehighgirl on Sat, Jan 12, 13 at 0:11

From an apple perspective, great!
Except 1.
Golden Russet.

Awesome apple, but a massive fireblight and bug magnet up here in Zone 5, and I cant imagine it will be manageable in Zone 6/7.

Rows of these trees here in NY are half black, similar to Rhode Island Greening.

Consider Goldrush for your zone instead, Golden Russet isnt that much different from Ashmead's Kernel to consider the risk.

-Eric

Sounds overly ambitious if you are in the humid side of the country. Here Saturn over sets fruit and rots easily (I've never had nearly enough drop of voluntarily and they take a long time to thin).

July Elberta never did well for me and there are certainly better peaches in its season.

Stella cracks in the rain-

OK, I can't go any further without knowing where exactly in the country you are. Location is crucial and our advice is wasted without it.

Many thanks for the comments. I have scoured the "best" in archives and literally have spent more time researching fruits than I did in my years at college!!

I have a couple of Asian pears purchased locally labeled "Asian Pear"
I have a couple of blueberrys - Honey Crisp - will add more
I put it a couple of raspberries - addictive
I have 3 figs
Purchased Robada, Sandra Rose, satsuma plum, Tomcot, Mont Cherry (looking kind of dead), Artic Jay, Fl Grenade from reputable sourses. I have apple trees, an un named cherry, two plums and black T as well as a red haven peach from not so great a source.

I live on 4 acres most of which is pasture land. The fruit trees will line the driveway.

I am using Peaceful Valley for the bulk discount. The health of the plants I ordered last year exceeds the local trees I bought at equivalent cost, including the shipping!I did purchase a couple of the trees from other vendors and am pleased as well. Again the bulk discount is what I am after.

Any additional comments are greatly appreciated!

Sally

Dear Sally, nice farm. But, with all of that land could you have not secured a space for proper orchard. Did you think about potential(future) fruit drop and maintence? Seeing a vertical or linear orchard is interesting. Mrs. G

Horses use the bulk of the 4 acres. Seems counter intuitive to put the fruit trees in the pasture, am I wrong?

No it doesn't. Sry, Mrs. G

Sally,

Saturn does have a reputation for rot, and as Milehigh indicated Polly is a cold weather peach. Many times (but not always) cold weather peaches sacrifice some flavor for cold hardiness. Polly is extremely cold hard (as far as peaches go) so I wouldn't expect anything but a fair quality peach from it.

There are lots of peaches you could grow in NC. I see Peaceful Valley offers O'Henry which ripens +33. They also offer Loring (ripens +16). Those two peaches, along with your Redhaven would give you fresh peaches for over a month. All those varieties should do well in NC.

NC- you will probably not succeed with sweet cherries there- especially ones not notably crack resistant. Also pluots are awfully shy bearing in the east.

It's more than reputation with me- no peach I have ever grown is nearly as prone to brown rot as saturn. It is such a wet peach to begin with and its shape traps water. If you spray enough to stop the rot wasps and birds get a large percentage of the fruit. Firmer fleshed peaches are generally easier to grow for multiple reasons.

You would do well to try stone fruit known to do well in the south as there's been lots of recent breeding to create high quality fruit with less need to spray. Sweet TangO is a nice orange donut peach that is a good example of this. Scott has tried a lot of stuff not far from you without much spray and should provide about the best advice. Olpea isn't in such a wet and humid climate as you.

I recommend people growing the reliable varieties as their orchard core and then to branch out from there. Beginners usually just want to grow varieties known for superb flavor, not realizing how hard it is to manage to get good crops. Whatever you actually harvest will be superb.

East coast nurseries like Adams County specialize and are educated in what does well in our hot, humid growing season.

Hi! I was going to say, good work on Golden Russet. It is my FAVORITE apple and apple tree, with Fuji (on a good year) second. Luckily here in Zone 10 I have had really good luck with GR, and I am organic (zero sprays). My other apples (except for Granny Smith, Lady apple, and Golden Delicious), have bugs and bitter pit (the Fuji). Golden Rust gets a teensy bit of fireblight and wooly aphids, but nothing that damages its ability to give me great, aromatic, delicious apples and look pretty too.

" Scott has tried a lot of stuff not far from you without much spray and should provide about the best advice. Olpea isn't in such a wet and humid climate as you."

I agree but the OP's second post seems to indicate a desire to order from Peaceful Valley to get a discount. Unfortunately Peaceful Valley has a very limited amount of peach choices. Redhaven, Loring and O'Henry are all grown commercially in NC and have been carried by Adams County for years so should do fine for her.

If the OP isn't locked into Peaceful Valley then of course there would be more options.

As Olpea noted, if you are flexible about where to get the peaches, you could go with FruitTreeFarm or VaugnNursery. Both have Winblo and Carolina Gold, two varieties he has recommended in the past. Both nursuries are quite inexpensive- you should be able to get both trees for ~$30, including shipping. If you aren't price sensitive (~$80), you could go to Tierra Madre, and get Gold Dust and Old Mixon Free. They are both among Scott's highest rated (each is 2 stars in his profile) and would give you more variety, both in terms of yellow vs white and ripening time (Gold Dust is early, Old Mixon Free late). I ordered the first two last year and the 2nd two this year.

I think harvestman is right to recommend getting varieties more reliable in your area. Even what these guys are calling "fair" quality fruits are going to be far superior to anything you get in the grocery. You won't be disappointed. However if you have to spray a lot and get varieties that don't set well in your area you may be disappointed.

I would say olpea's peach recommendations will be fine to get from PVFS. RedHaven is the most grown peach around here and Loring is pretty common as well. O'Henry is not common but I grow it and its a good peach most years (every 4-5 years it will crack). The main advantage of getting peaches like Winblo and Carolina Gold is they have very high disease resistance so will be somewhat easier to grow. Don't get Saturn or Polly, I agree with the remarks above on those.

Re: apples I have Golden Russet and it has never gotten any fireblight in spite of massive attacks elsewhere in my orchard.

Scott