Welcome aboard AndrewJ! Right off the bat - you've got way more apple trees than me But I may have ya beat with figs ... I've got (let me think?) at least 7; two Brown Turkeys and the remainder Desert Kings. But what do you plan to do with all those apples?! ...Sell them fresh in farmers markets, fruit stands, local stores, or processed some way? Man - that's a lot of trees/apples!

Anyone else have to look up "muscadines?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V.....tundifolia

Good ol, or 'new' Wiki: "Muscadines (Vitis rotundifolia) are a grapevine species native to the present-day southeastern United States that has been extensively cultivated since the 16th Century. Its recognized range in the United States extends from Delaware south to Florida, and west to Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. They are well adapted to their native warm and humid climate; they need fewer chilling hours than better known varieties and they thrive on summer heat.The muscadine berries range from bronze to dark purple to black in color when ripe. They have skin sufficiently tough that eating the raw fruit often involves biting a small hole in the skin to suck out the pulp inside. Muscadines are not only eaten fresh, but also are used in making wine, juice, and jelly.Although in the same genus Vitis with the other grapevine species, muscadines belong to a separate subgenus, Muscadinia (the other grapevine species belong to subgenus Vitis), and some have suggested giving it standing as a genus of its own. Some taxonomists have also suggested splitting two additional species off from Vitis rotundifolia, Vitis munsoniana and Vitis popenoei. All have 40 chromosomes, rather than 38, are generally not cross-compatibile with other Vitis species, and most hybrids between the subgenera are sterile. A few, however, are at least moderately fertile, and have been used in breeding. The cultivar 'Southern Home', released by the University of Florida, contains both muscadine and subgenus Vitis in its background."

...There, it came back to me -- that third 'Vitis' - rotundiflolia! I don't know anyone growing them... maybe we lack the heat? But please keep us posted!

About those figs; you say a frost got them? You mean a deep freeze killed them, or nailed their crop? We're borderline with figs for sure; at 350 feet and surrounded by mountains we never get our 'second' crop. And I've had trouble establishing them too due to deep freezes, low teens. With my Brown Turkey's I'd caged them with 'hog fencing,' then buried them with leaves for about 3 years every winter. It worked! But don't leave those leaves on too late or mice begin to chew the plants. Also, let their sprouts develop into a 'clump' instead of a stand-alone one-trunk tree. An old friend taught me that, said the outer 'trunks' protected the inner ones during the coldest weather; and she had 40-plus year old fig 'clumps' and a yearly clientele driving out from the metro area to buy them by the pound!

You going for eatable chestnuts? I've heard the trees get extremely big. My Dad began collecting the eatable ones years ago in Portland (OR) and turned me on to the fact they all weren't 'poisonous' as my Mother had warned.

Can't grow Japanese plums..? No idea why? They're one of my least pest or disease prone fruit / trees. They're what I recommend to 'everyone' as a near bulletproof fruit tree. ...And Joe's blew me away! ...salivating at the thought! I wish 'I' could do apricots, any luck with those 'back there?' You get a summer humidity I've only heard tell of, and I'm told that transfers and encourages diseases we don't suffer from.

"My motivation is my love of fruit and nuts! I love to eat them and when I was a child just could not get enough." --- Me too Andrew! What I can't grow I'll do my best to locate, if only to gorge once that season! I spent a beautiful day last week picking up English walnuts from a friends homestead orchard. I had my Dad with me, an added treat as he's the one most responsible for turning me on to fruit. After tasting and trying to ID the battered apple trees, we were cracking 'raw' walnuts on a pile of rocks in the sunshine. He showed me that if you peel the skin off the kernel it hasn't any bitterness. Wow - what a delectable nugget!

Tell me you're caring for the kids..? That's what I had the privilege (and 18 hour a day responsibility) of doing! One of them's now my #1 bench-graft-wrapper! ...But the older they get the more difficult it is to get them (willingly) into the garden... But I'll bet those fresh fruit memories will stay with them forever! Hey, just pressed my last batch of apple / pear juice for the season. At 18 gallons, we drink all we can and give away the rest...

Hope I can handle your questions, and welcome to our Forum!

Viron

I think the NW, including N Cali, is the easiest place to grow plums. Some fruit, like black mulberry, just aren't grown in the South due to disease/humidity problems. I bet plum is one, but with the high heat units, things like pistachios and pecans could be a breeze. It is a different set of problems/advantages. Apricots, nectarines, and peaches are difficult in most places, but not in Western Colorado.
JohN S
PDX OR