A New Batch of Trees

I was at a conference in Baltimore Md this week. I was sitting at a table taking a break between classes and a walk through the exibit hall. A guy walking buy asked if I minded if he sat down. Of course I said "No, have a seat." He was also waiting for the exibit hall to open and we started chatting.

This was a trade conference so he and I had work in common, even though he worked in Austin TX and I work in NJ. We had almost an hour to kill so the conversation eventually made its way to the economy, politics, and lots of other stuff. At one point, he confessed that he had bought several acres in Pennsylvania with a plan to farm if the economy really went south. I was suprised. I've got lots of close friends who are making similar plans: buying wood stoves, stockpiling supplies, buying small farm equipment, and stashing cash. But this was the first time I heard someone I had just met say the same.

I told him that I started planting fruit trees, grapes, and lots of other stuff a few years ago. At the time, I told my wife that I was worried about the economy. I had a bad feeling that Americans were letting themselves get too far into debt and that eventually the bottom would fall out.

I also told him that I had been planting a big garden every year, even though I don't enjoy it because I was concerned that I might need the skill sometime soon.

I really thought I was the only survivalist nut around. It was a surprise to hear it from somebody else.

Well, it's rare that I'm right. But it looks like I was right about this one. You can be sure that I'll be bringing that up for the rest of my life. I've got a few more crazy predictions but I don't want to sound too crazy so I'll just write them down somewhere so I can get the book out later and say I told you so.

As a continuation of my paranoia, I placed an order for several more trees. I got the delivery this week. I was away at the conference when the boxes arrived so I didn't get to really deal with the boxes until today. They sat for a few days in the cool attic stairwell but seemed to be in good condition.

new fruit and nut trees in the box

Most of what I ordered was bare root plants wrapped in saturated newspaper for delivery. A couple of the nut trees had the roots wrapped in plastic bags filled with peat moss. We measured and marked out the locations of a couple of new fruit trees with mark-out paint and planted everything this afternoon.

I'm still waiting for one more peach tree that hasn't shipped yet but the total order included:

Two peach trees. I already have two semi-dwarf peach trees. One was a late ripener and did very well since the peaches came on last year after most of the insects were gone. The other ripened in the heat of the summer and the insects got just about everything. So I ordered two late ripening varieties this time. I also ordered standard size trees instead of the semi-dwarfs I already have hoping that I'll eventually have more fruit.

One full size apple tree and one semi-dwarf. I've got two dwarf odd ball 5-in-1 apple trees with several varieties grafted onto one tree. All I've ever gotten off of those is golden delicious. I also put in a semi-dwarf Fuji apple last year that I almost lost to fire blight disease. One of the new apples is a full sized Jonafree red apple variety and the other is a semi-dwarf Red Rome which I planted in place of the pear tree I lost to fire blight last year.

I also ordered two more walnut trees and two pecan trees. I've got two Walnuts that I planted a few years ago and have gotten a couple of hundred walnuts the last couple of years. I don't know much about the pecans but I know there are a few in this area so it's another experiment. As for nut trees, I've also got two chestnut trees that I planted two years ago. These have been very slow to take off and aren't much more than 3 feet tall now. It will be a long time before I have any nuts if they ever take off.

So, when the rest of my predictions come true, I'll have fruit and nuts. I figure if it gets really bad, I can grow, build, or kill just about whatever I need to survive until the war's over...oops, wasn't supposed to say that out loud.