Backyard Fruit Growers

The informal association of Backyard Fruit Growers began in 1990 as an exchange of information for amateurs and others in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who wish to produce excellent fruit for the family, and to respect the backyard environment. Members get together four times a year at seasonal meetings (Winter, Spring Grafting, Summer Orchard Tour, Fall Apple Tasting) to share ideas and fellowship. Members also receive a newsletter, Backyard Fruit Grower, which has a circulation of about 350. If you live within driving distance of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and if you would like to participate in our seasonal events, subscribe to the seasonal newsletter to receive schedules and directions. To subscribe to the seasonal newsletter, print out this online copy of the Backyard Fruit Growers brochure, and send $15 for 2 years membership and snailmail to BYFG c/o Nils Peterson, 6666 Van Winkle Drive, Falls Church, VA 22044.  .

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Fall 2017 Newsletter (members will need to use the same username and password as for Woodbank)
WOODBANK 2016 is online!

Members can download a copy of Woodbank 2016 in pdf format by clicking here.You can get the depositor list here.
(password is in your current Newsletter)

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BYFG Planning group Meeting
November 18, Oregon Dairy, Lititz, PA (note that there was an incorrect date listed in the latest Newsletter)

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Pawpaw Tour at Ted Weeden's on September 23
reported by Steve Shambeda

Twenty people attended the Saturday pawpaw tour at Ted Weeden's house. It was a very hot day in the upper 80's. After the property tour, we enjoyed sitting in the shade listening to Ted expound on the pawpaws. His presentation was punctuated with the background noises you would expect hear: birds chirping, insects and bees buzzing, and the occasional "THUNK". this "THUNK" is the sound a ripe pawpaw makes when hitting the ground. Ted was even heard to say - That's a Shenandoah! , though they all sounded alike to me. Ted had collected and labeled about 50 large pawpaws. We tasted at least 10 varieties of pawpaws. Some were commercially known names like Overleese, Mango, Shenandoah, and Davis. Mango seemed to be well liked of that group. Ted has several seedlings of named fruit that he has grown out and also has his own crosses. His tree named OS1 (cross of Overleese and Sunflower) was also well liked. Ted said the quality and taste for a particular tree does seem to change as the tree matures and of course the growing conditions vary from year to year. Everybody left with pawpaw fruit in their hands -"some picked them up and put them in their pockets". A good time was had by all. Thanks Ted for a wonderful afternoon !

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Future and Recent Events

Current BYFG Newsletter subscribers and their families are invited to the following events. Please check the website for schedule changes and corrections. See your Newsletter for driving directions and the schedule for each day - Thanks

2018 Dates
Jan 20 Winter Meeting, Farm and Home - Lancaster, PA.
Feb 17 Winter Workshops Farm and Home - Lancaster, PA.
March 24 Grafting Workshop, Landis Valley Museum.
April end Planning Group Meeting, Oregon Dairy, Lititz, PA
May 11-12 BYFG Tree Sale, Landis Valley Musueum
August Mid Summer Tour (contact Chris is you would like to host it)
September Mid Pawpaw Tour(s) Location TBA
October 6-7 BYFG/LVM Tasting, Landis Valley Museum
October TBA BYFG Private Tasting, White Oak Nursery
November TBA Planning Group Meeting, Oregon Dairy, Lititz, PA

2017 Dates
Jan 21 Winter Meeting, Farm and Home - Lancaster, PA. 10am to 4 pm.
Feb 25 Winter Workshops at Landis Valley Museum, Lancaster. 10 to 4.
March 18 Grafting Workshop, Landis Valley Museum.
April 29 Planning Group Meeting, Oregon Dairy, Lititz, PA
May 12-13 Tree Sale/Herb Faire, Landis Valley Museum, Lancaster PA.
August 26 Summer Tour at Gerry Ebersole's place in the Lancaster area.
September 23 Ted Weeden's Home Place Pawpaw Tour of his dozens of named varieties.
September 24 Holtwood Pawpaw Tour through the wild stands on the Susquehanna.
October 7-8 BYFG/LVM Fruit Tasting, Landis Valley Museum, Lancaster, PA.
October 14 BYFG Private Fruit Tasting, White Oak Nursery
November 18 Planning Group Meeting, Oregon Dairy, Lititz, PA.

Past Events:
2016 Dates
Jan 16   Winter Meeting, Farm and Home - Lancaster, PA
Feb 27    Winter Workshops, Landis Valley Museum
March 19    Grafting Workshop, Landis Valley Museum
April 29    Planning Group, Oregon Dairy - Lititz, PA - NOTE DATE CHANGE
July 30    BYFG Contra Dance, Landis Valley Museum
August 13    Summer Tour. Chris and Sarah Manning's place in Steelville PA.
September 17    Pawpaw Tour, Ted Weeden's place only this year.
October 8 & 9    Harvest Days, Landis Valley Museum
October 15    BYFG Tasting, White Oak Nursery, Strasburg, PA
November 12    Planning Group Meeting, Oregon Dairy

Woodbank

Woodbank 2016 is a listing of cultivars fruited by members of the BYFGs who offer to swap scionwood with other listed BYFGs during our seasonal get-togethers. Deposit your varieties with Steve Shambeda by 3/1/17 to be included in the 2017 update. Woodbank 2016 will be free to all depositors who list in 2016. If you are not yet a listed depositor, you may pick up Woodbank copies at seasonal meeting for $5.00 each. Members can also download a copy of Woodbank 2016 in pdf format by clicking here. You can get the depositor list here. You will be prompted for a username and password which you can obtain from your most recent issue of Backyard Fruit Grower newsletter or you can email Chris. The username/password is the same for the newsletter.

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Visit Other BYFG Orchards

The following BYFGs invite you to call or write ahead and arrange a visit:

• Steve Shambeda, 908-442-5133 Bangor, PA. apple, pear, gooseberry, black current, alpine strawberry, blackberry, rocks.

• Chris and Sarah Manning, 5276 Steelville Rd. , Steelville  PA  19310, byfg@epix.net. Apples, plums, pears, kiwis, figs, and keep pastured laying hens and grow a large vegetable garden using integrated pest management methods. Also sollitary polinating bees.

• Bill Dailey, Broomall, PA  dailey@sas.upenn.edu. Intensive orchard of antique and new apples trained as espalier and cordons. Large selection of various gooseberry cultivars. Also other berries, pears, and peaches.

• Tucker Hill, Etters, PA TuckerH@epix.net 717-938-6090. Chestnut, hazel, hickory, black walnut, Persian walnut, hican, pecan, jujube, pawpaw, jostaberry, trifoliate orange, figs, bamboo. Nut tree grafting.

• Bass Samaan , 2184 Drury Lane,  Bethlehem PA 18018, bassgarden@gmail.com. Over 150 cultivars of figs, jujubes, kiwis, persimmons, etc. on a third of an acre. Also visit his website: Trees of Joy

• Rick Stuby, New Tripoli, PA (610) 760-2306. www.holyrootfarm.com. Apples on vertical axis.  Honeybees.
  

Links to other pages of interest to BYFGs

New Additions to the site: (BYFG'ers can email me suggestions to add to our pages) 

• Grafting and Propagating Fruit Trees A great pdf brochure from Penn State.
  
• Vegatative Propagation Techniques A great pdf pamflet on all aspects of plant propagation with many pictures.
  
• Nigel Deacon's Excellent site Nigel Deacon's excellent site on all things apple. Check out the apple breading pages!
  
• Wild Pollinators of Eastern Apple Orchards and How to Conserve Them. A great booklet from the Cornell IPM Center.
  
• Big Horse Creek Farm Scionwood- Many old apple cultivars. $3.50 per stick with 2 stick minimum, plus $6 postage.
  
• Skipley Farm apple scionwood
  
• Red Manse Farm apple scionwood
  
• Fedco sells apple scionwood
  
• Apple Scionwood from Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boston. $3 per scion with 4 stick minimum. Many very old cultivars.
• Masonville Orchards in Colorado sells scionwood for $3 per stick plus shipping. Apples, Pears, and a few plums.
• Maple Valley Orchards offers scionwood for $3 per stick plus shipping. Many apples, pears and a few plums.
• Heirloom Orchardist. A listing of resources including scionwood, trees, etc.
• Cornell Fruit website- An outstanding resource from Cornell University. Includes many fruits. Nice IPM manuals for apples and grapes.
• www.organgepippin.com is an excellent site with descriptions and pictures of many apples. While based in the UK, there are links to US sources for many of the trees.
• Gooseberry and Currant culture information with excellent information and some links. It's a pdf file.
• A Grower's Guide to Organic Apples
• Production Guide for Organic Grapes
• Excellent website on bagging apples for pest protection
• Joe Volk's "Fruits for Home Gardeners"
• Blog for New Hampshire Fruit Growers

Highly Recommended Sites

• www.NorthernNutGrowers.org - Northern Nut Growers Association: Founded in 1910, this 100-year plus association is dedicated to advancing knowledge of nut tree culture.
• www.GrowOrganicApples.com - Michael Phillips site.
• www.VeggieGardeningTips.com -Kenny Points Gardening site from Harrisburg. He has many articles and blogs on gardening. 
• Best Resources for Backyard Fruit Growers  - The best books, periodicals, etc nominated by our members.
• Picture Gallery- the beginnings of a library of images about fruits and fruit cultural practices
• Pictures from the Grafting Workshop 2005- See what the fuss is all about!
• Images from the 2001 Winter Meeting- Lots of apple pictures from an apple tasting.
• Tasting Results from the 2001 Winter Meeting(in pdf format)
• Tom Burford's Top Twenty Desert Apples(in pdf format)
• The Online Pennsylvania Tree Fruit Production Guide
• Pennsylvania Small Fruit Production Guide
• The BYFG Pawpaw Page - a page devoted to that most misunderstood fruit. Check out the 1997 BYFG Pawpaw Tour photos!
• Applesource - a unique service that allows you to taste test a wide variety of apples by mail order. Many apple descriptions with ripening dates. Highly recommended
• Kearneysville Experimental Farm Home Page has a great set of links with lots of pictures of diseases and bugs, and links to the Mid-Atlantic Fruit Loop. Highly recommended!
• North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX) publishes the quarterly Pomona.
• MidFEx Home Page - a local NAFEX group out of Chicago.
• Northern Nut Growers
• Marc's Gooseberry Site - An excellent site with variety descriptions and pictures.
• Virtual Orchard (University of Vermont and Rutgers University)
• California Rare Fruit Growers
• Pollination Home Page
• Corvallis Germplasm Repository
• Washington State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center
• Oregon State Extension Northwest Berry and Grape Infonet Page
• NYSAES WWW Server
• The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture library at Cornell - A huge number of old books are online, like Small Fruits of NY, Apples of NY, etc!!

Online Catalogs, Sources, etc

• Big Horse Creek Farm  A North Carolina Nursery specializing in old southern apples but has many, many varieties and online descriptions.
• Henry Leuthardt Nurseries  A Long Island family nursery with great prices on fruit trees and soft fruits.  Also one of the few places that grows and sells various espalier forms of apple and pear.
• Whitman Farms- A great source for currants, gooseberries, other unusual fruits and landscape plants.  Good prices and service.
• Raintree Nursery- Excellent service and selection on all kinds of fruits.
• One Green World- Another Northwest nursery with all kinds of fruits.
• Burnt Ridge Nusery and Orchards A Washington State nursery with good selection and prices.
• Bear Creek Nursery - Unfortunately now out of business.  Here are some scanned pages from one of their old catalogs showing how to graft, t-bud, and chip bud. These are the main methods of propagating fruit trees.
• Southmeadow Fruit Gardens Hundreds of modern and antique fruits available by mail order with a descriptive online catalog. NOTE- a change in ownership has apparently made this an unreliable nursery. See here for customer concerns.
• Cummins Nursery Wide variety of fruit trees. Carries some new releases from Cornell.
• Peterson's Pawpaws- Neal Peterson's selected and patented pawpaw clones Shenandoah, Susquehanna, and Rappahannock available by mailorder. Lots of information on growing pawpaws.
• Stark Brothers Nursery A source of many fruit plants.
• St. Lawrence Nurseries Online Catalog- many apple variety descriptions.
• Edible Landscaping Online Catalog.Many unusual fruits.
• Burchell Nurseries
• Pense Nursery- Arkansas nursery specializing in small fruits and very low prices.
• Benner's Gardens- Products for deer and varmit protection.  Almost invisible fencing.
• Bay Laurel Nursery- California nursery specializing in Dave Wilson creations.  Many, many fruits.
• Nourse Farms- Massachusettes nursery specializing in small fruits.  Good prices.
• Indiana Berry - Many small fruits.
• Hartmann's Plant Company- Many small fruits.
• TRECO- Wholesale rootstock sales, also trees.  Minimum order of 100 rootstocks.
• Nafex Nursery/Supply Source List - The North American Fruit Explorers listing of suppliers.

Bees, Bees, Bees

• Pollinator Paradise- An excellent sournce of solitary bees, resources.
• Wild Pollinators of Eastern Apple Orchards and How to Conserve Them. A great booklet from the Cornell IPM Center.
• Information on Solitary Pollinating Bees 
• A very interesting and information-packed Web site about solitary bees
• USDA-ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center
• Solitary Bees- A great bunch of links and information from Idaho.
• Alternative Pollinators: Native Bees
• Mason Bees and supplies, books, etc.

Figs

• Trees of Joy - Bassam Samaan's site in Bethleham PA. Lots of info on figs.
• Figs4fun - excellent page with propagation and other information 
• Encanto Farms Nursery - Many figs available as scions or plants
• California Fig Growers Page.

Fruit Production Information Links

• Darren Gordon's description of "bagging" fruit to protect from insect damage. Excellent!
• Joe Volk's "Fruits for Home Gardeners"
• Bill Dailey's Espalier Bibliography from February 2005
• Rick Stuby's Integrated Pest Management Talk from February 2005
• Good Fruit Grower- online magazine
• Iowa State Univ. Extension Service- Tree Fruits section
• The National Clonal Germplasm Repository- the USDA ARS genebank at Corvallis, Oregon
• OSU Farm & Production Agriculture: Fruit Section - from Ohio State University
• Pear Pages - from the Pear Bureau of Oregon, Washington, and Californina
• Pruning Fruit Trees- a guide from the Nebraska Cooperative Extension site (file is in PDF format)
• Washington Apple Commission - apple recipes, apple variety information, and apple facts
• The Virtual Orchard(Univ. of Vermont and Rutgers Univ.) - apple production information, and some research links
• Washington State Fruit Commission

Gardening Links - Seeds

• Burpee- the seed company's Home Gardening Pages with lots of good information.
• Pinetree Garden Seeds A TREMENDOUS online catalog featuring many different kinds of seeds and some fruits. Great prices.
• The Garden Web - a collection of gardening resources, including an on-line seed/plant exchange service

Miscellaneous Pages of Interest

• A great French pomological site by Alain Roueche. MANY pictures and descriptions of apples and pears, much translated in English.
• The Real Cider and Perry Page Everything you wanted to know about making cider and perry.
• The Whittenham Hill Cider Page Excellent page with lots of information about small scale cider production.
• Biocontrol Contents
• CropEXPERT
• Disease and Insect Management in the Home Orchard
• Espalier Information
• Trellis Espalier Information
• Fruit Facts Individual Pages on Fruits From the California Rare Fruit Growers
• USDA Home Page

Orchard Links

• North Star Orchard- Ike and Lisa Kirschner's wonderful orchard and vegetable Farm located in Cochranville, PA.
  
• Lakeside Orchards (Manchester, Maine) - offering apple gift packs.
  

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Comments or suggestions for including other useful information or links to other web pages can be sent to Bill Dailey