Fruit orchard in planning stage...need help!

Hi there, I'm looking for help in planning my fruit orchard. I've never grown fruit before, and I have 20 holes dug, and I would love to plant anything that will grow here in zone 9. I've made a list from a gardening book, and before I go buy my selections, I 'm hoping you all out there could give me some advice.
I live in Wildomar, north of San Diego and just south of Lake Elsinore. How do I find out the number of chill hours we have here?
Here are some random picks I came up with...
Plum - Ozark Premiker and Santa Rosa,
Peach - No idea.
Apricot - Tilton?
Blood Orange ?
Tangelo?
Apple -Anna?,Gala? Dorset? Do any grow here?
Lemon - Meyer (cant wait)
Cherry - Bing? Black Partarian?
Avacado - Haas (ummo)
Nectarine ?
Pear - Bartlett & D'Anjour
Pecan?
Almond?
Grapefruit?
Any suggestions would be appreciated, I've been told to buy locally, should I buy 5 gallons? and how do I plan it so I'm not overwhelmed with produce all at the same time? Is that a stupid question? Is there anyone out there that's done this????Thanks in advance...Lisa....

Here's a website that keeps track of chill hours, hopefully one of their stations is close enough to you that you can use it. The number of hours it's showing now is how many chill hours have happened so far this year, so if you want to know how many hours to expect over the whole winter you can click on the name of the station closest to you and look at historical data from previous years. http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/chillcalc/index1.htm

The other thing you'll need to pay attention to on some of your trees is that some of them require a pollinator in order to bear fruit. This site has some good pollination charts showing which cultivars are good pollinators for others for several of the types of fruit you want to grow: http://www.raintreenursery.com/pollin_home.html

And this site has some good info on citrus: http://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/solver/varietyinfo.html

Lincoln apples are wonderful and will grow here. You just have to compete with the squirrels. I wouldn't be without my Fuyu persimmon. It's such a beautiful color in the fall.

Thanks for the links, I've been reading up all day long! Can you believe we only get 70 chill hours here! I'm heading out to our Armstrong Nursery tomorrow to see what they have to say. I'm real curious as to why our local nursery would sell fruit trees that require 500 chill hours, do people buy them just to have the tree and not enjoy the fruits???

A Sunset Western Garden Book would be very helpful for you. Are you new to Wildomar? If so, ask around and see if gophers are a big problem for you there. I plant everyhting, especially fruit trees in wire cages.....fruit trees are expensive to lose.
For your zone 18...Sunset lists these apples:
Adina
Anna
Beverly Hills
Braeburn
Dorsett Golden
Ein Shemer
Fuji
Golden Delicious
Golden Russet
Gordon
Gravenstein
Newtown Pippin
Pristine
Tropical Beauty
Winter Banana
Perhaps others have grown some of these to let you know their opinions of the fruit.
Sherry

I'm not sure you're reading the chill hour charts correctly--if you're really in zone 9a it seemed strange that you would have that few chill hours (70 hours would be more likely for zone 10) So I looked at all the stations in Riverside County and all of them already have more than 70 chill hours and we're only halfway through the winter so those numbers will probably about double by the end of winter. If you pick Temecula which seems to be the lowest chill hours of any of the stations and look at how many chill hours they get each year, it ends up in the 150-300 range depending on the year, and that seems to be about the least number of chill hours of any of the stations there. To see the typical chill hours for the year, you need to click on the station name, then click on the radio button to show historical data, then on the next screen scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and look at the cumulative chill hours at the end of February across the years of data that they have, that will give you an idea of the range of chill hours to expect.

As far as why the nurseries sell trees that need lots of chill hours--you're in an area where you don't have to drive very far to get to higher elevations and colder weather, so there are probably lots of people who shop at your Armstrong nursery who do get 500 chill hours. Hopefully if they've got well trained employees they should be able to help you select ones that are appropriate for your area

Huh! I looked and saw Wildomar and didn't even look at the zone listed...Wildomar is Sunset zone 18. I don't know where 9a comes from. Now that I think of it, I've never gone by any zone guide other than Sunset.
I don't know about the other plums, but I 've had Santa Rosa and now have Beauty...like them both.
Avos...you should be able to grow:
Bacon
Don Gillogly
Mexicola
Stewart
Zutano
I love persimmons......Fuyu, Hachiya
Nectarines and peaches.....a whole bunch of those to choose from
You have so many more choices for Wildomar than I do for Fallbrook...that much difference in winter chilling.

I agree, I find the Sunset zones much more useful than the USDA ones. In terms of USDA zones though I think Wildomar could well be in 9a based on how far inland it is.

I haven't got a clue as to what the usda thinks Fallbrook is...lol....

Fallbrook zip code 92028 is in USDA zone 10.

Thanks, doss.....

I suggest you go to some growers' web sites, Lisa. If you find something of interest, call them. You will get the straight scoop about what will work for you. We bought heirloom organic apples from Trees of Antiquity http://www.treesofantiquity.com/ and they were very helpful with choices - they're doing great in our zone 10. There are lots of growers in So. CA - once you know what you want, a good nursery should order it for you if they don't have it available, if you don't want to mail order. Also, a good nursery (or one supplied by a good grower!) should have "low chill" on the label -I believe that means 400 hours or less. We had a low chill peach that grew fine in Carlsbad, so you should be able to find whatever you want with a little searching.

Good luck!

Thank you all for your help. After much reading, I realize that I have made a mistake on the chill hours here, I stand corrected, we actually get 1200 chill hours in some near by areas, and as low as 300, this was confirmed by a very helpful, well educated, employee at Armstrong Nursery in Temecula, Sheri was sooo nice and helpful, I was happy to spend the small fortune to put in my orchard. My husband and I successfully completed the planting today, I wont be able to move tomorrow. Here's what we selected...

Plum: Santa Rosa,Satsuma
Persimmon: Fuyu
Cherry: Bing, Stella
Apple: Gala, Pink Lady
Apricot: Gold Kissed, Blenheim
Peach: August Pride, Red Barron, Honey Babe
Nectarine: Panamint
Pear: Hood, Florda, Shinseiki Asian
Lemon: Meyer
Orange: Washington Navel
Tangerine: Gold Nugget Mandarin
Grapefruit: Cocktail
Fig: Brown Turkey

What an experience! A true dream come true! It looks so beautiful....so now we just wait for,oh say, 3 years or so.....next project: nuts and avacados....and of coarse tomatoe seeds need to get started!!!
Does anyone know about special discounts given by So Cal Edison to help out with the cost of our well? I heard if you have more than 100 plants of one species you can qualify for special rates. Do you think strawberries count??LOL...My veggie garden is over 5000 square feet...last year I have over 600 tomatoes, this next year will less in quantity, but more in variety. Sooooo much to do, soooo little time!
Thanks again all, it's so nice to have others to ask these supid questions to, sorry if you spent alot of time on that "chill time".

Glad you got things all figured out! You're really going to enjoy all that fruit a few years from now!

Oh, to have the space to plant and grow all those and have room for vegies, and all sorts of plants...sigh....

Wow, sounds wonderful, Lisa. I'm glad you found someone knowledgeable to help. Be sure and come to the Roundup and bring some samples. lol

What's the Roundup all about??Another question if I may...how do you use the "diary" to keep track of plantings, I'd like to be more organized this year!

A roundup is a DG get-together--DrDon usually hosts the SoCal one at his ranch in Temecula. People come, eat, swap plants, get to know each other, etc.

As far as being organized about gardening, I use my diary primarily to keep track of how my beds look over time. I had a big landscaping project done last year, so I have lots of before, during, and after pics. And I plan to put in updated pictures every year as the garden develops. I also use the separate journal feature to keep track of the individual plants in my garden. You might find it helpful to peek at some other people's journals and diaries (now called blogs) to see how they use them because different people do things differently. Just click on someone's username and then you'll see links to view their diary and journal if they've made them public. Or go to the "communities" tab and go to the blogs or the journals and choose someone's to view.

Gosh, Liz, I hadn't seen your latest pics - your garden looks fantastic. I just love the way your steps are done. And the plants! Wish ours look near as good. Guess I'd better get out there and do some work!

Lisa, do keep your eye on the California and Roundup forums for the plans for this year. It's such a fun group and we have a great time meeting each other. Look forward to seeing you there.

Thanks Kathleen! But I can't take credit for a lot of it...the landscapers did most of the hard work! I did the design and planting in the backyard, only thing I did in the front yard was put in all the drip tubing and lay down mulch! They did all the hard work like building the steps and retaining walls.

Thanks for the info, I will keep an eye on the roundup, it sounds great,. Temecula is just 5 miles away, and my business is in Old Town Temecula, so I know it well. I look forward to meeting ya'll there!

The forum has pictures from the past two years if you need inspiration!

Kaperc: OK I'm in, looks like a great time, how do you get to host a roundup? I'm so not ready yet, but maybe in a few more years.....we love to entertain, have you seen the new show on Food Network yet? I'm not sure if it's started yet, but the chef grows all his own food, sounds great to me...there's nothing better than homegrown, homemade, good people and good wine!!!