Hi All from the Far North

Hi everyone,
I am new to the forum although I have been stalking it while living in Australia.
My husband and i have finally moved home to our lifestyle block in the Far North and are excited to be developing it.

We already have some sheep and a German Shepherd.
Planting fruit trees is my mission at the moment as well as planning some gardens.

Welcome to the forum!
Sheep and German Shepherd? A scary combination.

What fruit are you installing?

Hi Ruth,
Yes, lots of training required!! Our GSD is only 8 months old so still learning.

I have planted oranges, lemons, limes, mandarins & Feijoas.
I am about to put in Plums and going to try 2 cherries to see how they go.
Also Blackberries, Rasberries, boysenberries, blueberries and grapes.
Next year will be pip and stone fruit (on a south facing slope).

My asparagus bed is ready for planting with 80 plants on order; awaiting their arrival.

Very excited about the future when they all start to produce!

We have a cherry. I haven't looked at it for a while but we must go and do some pruning soon, so inspection will be in order.

Where in this lovely land are you?

Houhora

Aha, dry warm and sandy! Or clay? Certainly a different climate from ours on the Eastern side of the Herekino Range.

Make sure you have a tick programme in place for the comfort of your dog and take care of yourselves also, if any of you have allergies to them.

And, welcome to the LSB. We had fun putting in our orchard and had a really successful year with all sorts of fruit last season.

Welcome and good luck . I suspect that you are very optimistic to hope that the trees you are planting that require winter chill for fruiting will produce fruit.

Yes, I wondered about the cherries. I have them planted in Rotorua (much colder!) and no fruit yet. Still, its fun trying

Welcome. We’re in Kerikeri and also planting fruit trees (and poplars) at the moment.

Lo-G wrote:
I have planted oranges, lemons, limes, mandarins & Feijoas.
I am about to put in Plums and going to try 2 cherries to see how they go.
Also Blackberries, Rasberries, boysenberries, blueberries and grapes.
Next year will be pip and stone fruit (on a south facing slope).

Very excited about the future when they all start to produce!

Hi Lo-G,
Welcome and all the best with your orchard dreams!

You are further north than we are, (near Whangaroa Harbour area) and should have no problem with growing the citrus and feijoas and berries and grapes.

Our plums are hit and miss. The Heritage plums are producing but not the Black Doris and Santa Rosa. Doris fruited twice but none for Rosa. ? not cold enough?
The supposedly low chill Compact Stella cherry has not flowered since being planted 4 yrs ago. It did flower in south of Auckland 5 years ago, but never fruited.
Flowering but not producing are the Almonds and low chill apricots.
Killed by frost: Tamarillos
The best peach we have is a Black Boy
The Burre Bosc pear produced well after a cold winter about 3 years ago. The Taylors Gold not producing. The Winter Nellis has fruited regularly. The Heritage pears are still too small for fruiting.
Heritage apples are fruiting.
Fuyu Persimmons are producing well and we will be adding more,
Loquats love it up here.
Havent been too successful keeping the avocado trees alive... apparently they do not like clay...
Olives are doing well,
Bananas still hanging in there, still too small for fruiting and dont like the occasional frost we get.
Figs are doing well and had their first crop this summer.
Black and red Currants will fruit here.
Medlar trees fruited for the second time
Southern Highbush and Rabbit eye Blueberries fruit here. A blueberry grower in Kerikeri has Dixi producing well even though it is recommended for areas south of Auckland.

Just starting to get larger are the oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes, grapefruit with the odd tree producing their first crop. We had removed the forming fruit while the trees were small.
Feijoa trees carried their second crop this year. As with the citrus, we had removed the fruit to allow trees to grow.

Our greatest challenges have been... Kikuyu grass, hares, rabbits, slugs and snails.
The slugs and snails really go for the citrus and figs. The hares and rabbits also nearly wiped out our citrus and ring-barked an olive tree. The other critters we have to watch for are possums (eat most fruit) and wild pigs (love feijoas).
Free ranging chickens attacked the currants, blueberries, fig cutting buds, ate the pear, persimmon leaves and left the slugs and snails alone. Not a good combination.

In Honeymoon valley (near Peria) there is a Heritage Apple nursery www.tastytrees.co.nz/

There is an Apricot that is acclimated to the Far North and comes from the Hokianga Harbour. I'm still trying to track down.

Happy planting!

Welcome to the forum!

My Grandfather was born & breed in Houhora. His family owned The Wagner Muszem. He was one of 13 children & was youngest.

Update on the Cherry and plums:

This spring the Santa Rosa was covered in blooms and is forming a small crop of plums. Last year it produced a couple plums. It flowered before the Black Doris which is meant to be pollinator partner. Black Dorris is setting its largest crop to date, so looking forward to seeing how it goes.
The Stella cherry has flowered... amazingly! Only a couple blooms and after such a mild winter.
The low chill apricots also put out some flowers which was interesting... will be checking if fruit is forming.
The Winter Nellis pear tree is covered in blooms, the Burr Bosc a few.
The Taylors Gold pear; none as usual, but its root-stock quince stem is forming fruit instead.

Hope all is going well with your orchard.