Fruit Trees: Preparing for a Future Harvest
Welcome to the July 2021 Workcation series. The seventh and final post in the Workcation Series is a labor of love, we planted additional fruit trees on Kowalski Mountain. If you missed the overview post, about all the tasks we completed during our July Workcation you can find it here. I’ll link all the posts in the series at the bottom in case you missed any of them.
Preparing for a Future Harvest
One of the tasks that we want to complete before moving to Kentucky is to plant a variety of fruit trees on the property. Trees take many years to mature and bear fruit, so we want to plant them early enough to mature before we hope to harvest the fruit. We have planted four trees already, but unfortunately during the rut, the deer damaged some of them so significantly that they will not recover. Two have survived, one better than the other. We are planting them along what will become our future driveway that leads to the house.
Peach Trees
This trip we planted four peach trees. They can bear fruit from 2 years old to four years old, however, a significant crop should not be expected until the trees are at least four years old. Peach trees are self-fruitful meaning that they do not need to pollinate between multiple trees. We have had these trees for about a year already, so hopefully, we will see fruit in a couple of more years when we are ready to move to Kowalski Mountain.
Persimmon Tree
We also planted one persimmon tree. These trees take a significantly longer time to mature. We have had fruit on our trees already but not much. Grafted trees bloom in less time, two to three years, so it’s quite possible that this tree was grafted. Ungrafted they can take up to 10 years to bear fruit. Some varieties of persimmon trees are self-pollinating, while others are not. I am honestly not sure of the variety this persimmon tree is.
A Planting Blunder
I am doing a little research while I prepare this post and I think we made a blunder. Peach trees need about 15 feet of space between trees, I think we are ok with those; however, the persimmon tree needs a recommend 20 feet between trees. It does say minimal spacing is 10 feet, which I think we have accomplished. Thankfully, I know a tree guy to keep my trees pruned and manageable.
Working Together to Plant the Fruit Trees
We planted the trees on the final morning we were in Kentucky. I had told Philip he would be on his own, as I still needed to pack and clean the RV before we could leave, however, I made a point to help with the trees, even if it set my schedule back. The persimmon tree we planted is kind of special. Our neighbor, Robert Duvall passed away a year ago and we are planting this tree in his memory. You can read our tribute to Robert here. We planted this tree at the top of the line of trees so that it will be in sight of the house when built.
A Challenging Job
Planting in Kentucky is challenging, the ground is very hard. In our areas, the soil is referred to as Zanesville Silt. In Florida, I can dig a hole, the sand is easy to dig in. However, In Kentucky, it is really challenging. Phillip used both the tiller and the auger to break through the soil and dig the holes. Even with good tools, the job was tuff. I came in with the shovel behind him to try and help and give him a few minutes break when wrestling with the equipment. Slowly but surely, we were able to dig the five holes we needed for the five trees.
Giving the Fruit Trees a Boost
Once we got them planted, we fertilized and watered each tree, and we also added a water bag. These water bags hold 20 gallons of water and drain slowly to promote deep-rooted growth for trees. They can provide watering for up to 8 hours. Thankfully, we have gotten significant rain since we left, so our trees are being well watered.
The thing I was most excited about watering the trees, was Philip ran a hose from our off-grid water pressure system at the RV and we were able to reach all the way up the hill to the highest tree with the water hose. No heavy buckets to carry up from the creek. It did take a while for the water to get there but once flowing it flowed well. That is a distance of over 300 feet, uphill!
Future Fruit Trees on Kowalski Mountain
The five trees we planted this year are planted to what will be the right of the driveway. We have one apple tree on what will be the left. In the future, we plan to plant more apple trees and likely pear trees.
These plants are dual-purpose, they will provide fruit for us, but also will provide fruit for the deer. Helping us to provide a haven that encourages the deer to reside on Kowalski Mountain.
I hope you have enjoyed this workcation series. Thank you for joining us. Please be sure to comment on the blog posts, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and like any videos you enjoy. All these simple actions help our brand to grow!
Watch how challenging this task was!
About the Author: Barbra-Sue Kowalski grew up on a small hobby farm. She was always drawn to farm life, however, she was stuck in an urban life far from her roots. Barbra-Sue was a single mom for 13 years, raising her 3 children on her own. She met Philip in 2018 and they married in 2021. Between the two of them, they have 5 grown children and 6 grandchildren. These empty nesters are following their dreams! As they both turn 50, they are building their off-grid homestead to live the life that they dream about. Learn more about Philip and Barbra-Sue here. Contact them here. To leave a comment on this post, please scroll down.
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The Full July Workcation Series
Workcation Overview: July Workcation: A Summer Tradition
Building an Animal Pen for a Special Guest
Farm Chores: Feeding the Deer Feeders
Hauling Logs: Cabin Build Project
Off-Grid Water Pressure System
Wild Blackberry Season is in Full Swing
I would love to have peach trees someday!