Great story. Always interested to see people setups and plots.

I myself am starting full-time sales next year. I am concentrating on microgreens and peppers with a few other things like ginger and melons thrown in. I'm in Victoria, BC Canada, so the things I'm growing aren't exactly abundant at the local farmer's markets, LOL.

Cut down the apple orchard and start over again. I have tried twice to rehab neglected orchards and have found you will get far more and better fruit from new trees and you will not have to deal with a lot of past mistakes on tree care and pruning.

You should probably should do the same with the blueberries and raspberries as well. Especially the raspberries which should be replaced every 3 to 5 years anyway and likely have several serious disease issues that will be resolved only by removing all the canes, buying new canes and planting them somewhere else on the farm (crop rotation). Oh and 5+ year old canes generally do not produce nearly as well as younger canes.

I agree with boulderbelt about starting over on the apple trees, with one caveat: try to figure out what varieties you have. If there are any unique/ rare varieties or specialty types, you may do well to rejuvenate if possible, or graft onto new stock to preserve what you have. a planting of fresh trees will come into fruit within 3-5 years. It will likely take at least 3-4 years of pruning to get the structure back you will need for economical production. On the other hand, if economical production (marketing for a profit) isn't as important as producing enough for friends and family, prune away. I find it very rewarding to rejuvenate a tree into producing good fruit again, even if there isn't very much of it. You just need to consider what the ultimate goal is for the orchard.

Great story, BTW.

"This year was my second season selling vegetables from my overly large garden (~2500 square feet). I have a full time job, wife and kids so this is really another hobby for me, but I try to treat it like a business. I have friends that run an organic CSA, so I don't try and undercut anyone on pricing. I mostly sell to friends, co-workers and family. "

Sounds like my efforts to a T. I've been able to market tomatoes and a few odds and ends to a downtown restaurant. I'm getting into growing specific items for them. Good luck!

You're at least the third Canadian market grower on this forum. I'm in Sask.

I have plenty of land, but have done a lot better by staking off a small portion and going full-out on that small piece of ground with as much soil improvement as possible. Good soil makes good flavor in your produce, and that attracts repeat customers.

Thanks for the advice and kind words! Life got in the way of me checking the forum lately...

As soon as I get my hands on a brush hog, the blueberries are going to be mowed down - maybe only a third or a half of the patch per year. Blueberries are big around here, with the "world's largest supplier of frozen blueberries" just down the highway from me - lots of knowledgeable growers for me to ask questions.

I have identified 5 of the 6 or 7 apple varieties I have from the dozen or so trees. I may not cut the whole thing down, but introduce new trees to another part of my property. Mostly because I can see the orchard from the kitchen window - when they are all in bloom, it is quite the site - when you stand under them, it is down right loud with all the bees buzzing around. I also like watching the grouse hang out in them in the fall and the deer browsing them in the winter.

I intend on adding some plums and pears too. I did a serious amount of pruning old canes on the raspberries last year, but that ended up backfiring on me slightly. We had so much snow last winter, the remaining new growth was knocked flat and didn't come back this spring. The wife absolutely loves raspberries, so convincing her that we have to start over might me a hard sell. Again, I think re-planting in a new area might be the way to go. Once she sees how much better the new plants are growing and how much easier they are to pick, I will have an easier time cutting them down.

Here is a link that might be useful: Oxford BB

This post was edited by akr71 on Fri, Dec 5, 14 at 14:37

There are a couple apple varieties (august white, russet, honeycrisp) that I would hate to lose. It looks like I need to teach myself grafting...

While I love my cold-frames as season extenders, they are not very practical for large quantities of plants. I aim to incorporate low tunnels this spring. Also I plan to move the 'sprawling' plants to separate mounds (pumpkins, melons, squash) so they don't take up valuable garden real-estate.