We sell our products to retail nurseries, garden centers, container growers who sell to landscape contractors and retail nurseries, mail order nurseries, and anyone else who qualifies. We do not accept direct sales to consumers.
Fresh fruit, beneficial in so many ways, is widely regarded as essential to a healthy diet. Knowing that many fruits reach peak flavor and sweetness only when fully ripe and fresh-picked, many folks are motivated to frequent farmers markets and fruit stands, and to grow their own. In certain climates, however, home fruit growing is limited by prevailing weather conditions - spring rain, hail and hard frost, short and/or cool growing season, severe (or lack of) winter cold. In many such non-Mediterranean climates, greenhouses have long been used to overcome these limitations.
To be economically feasible, commercial greenhouse growing is done on a large scale. For home growing, however, where fruit quality, convenience and perhaps experimentation are the objectives, a small greenhouse is viable.
In a greenhouse, fruiting trees, shrubs and vines may be grown in the ground or in containers. Containerized stone fruits may be kept year-round in the greenhouse, or moved into it for a little as a few weeks to protect blossoms from killing frosts in spring or to extend the growing season for late-ripening varieties. Maintaining humidity as low as the plants will tolerate can minimize pest and disease problems. Many growing styles and techniques as well as a great diversity of fruit are possible in the controlled or semi-controlled environment of a greenhouse.
In Alpine, Texas (4,500 ft., USDA Zone 7a), over a number of years, one fruit hobbyist has developed methods for high-Brix (high sugar) greenhouse fruit growing. For a summary of his methodology and observations, see Greenhouse Fruit Production in West Texas.
For information about keeping home fruit trees small by summer pruning, see Backyard Orchard Culture.