How to Grow Apples in the Southern U.S. Virtual Book Publicity Tour January 2012

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Join Trey Watson, author of the gardening book, How to Grow Apples in the Southern U.S. (CreateSpace), as he virtually tours the blogosphere January 3- 13 2012 on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Trey Watson

Trey Watson is a small businessman living in eastern Texas. For almost two decades he has gardened (sometimes successfully) in a region with hot summers and winters that are either too cold or not cold enough. In 2006 he began a nursery operation that specializes in fruit trees for warm climates. During that same year, he began marketing apple trees to southern gardeners and was met with incredulous questions, with many people doubting they would grow. Trey planted a small orchard a few years later and found that some varieties will thrive in the heat and humidity of the South. Trey wrote How to Grow Apples in the Southern U.S. in response to numerous questions from customers.

Trey received his B.S. degree in Horticulture from Stephen F. Austin State University in 2004 and his M.S. in Environmental Science in 2006. Besides running his nursery operation (http://www.leggcreekfarm.com), he also works for natural resource-oriented state agency. He lives in beautiful eastern Texas with his wife and son. For more information on the book, visit http://www.southernapples.net

About How to Grow Apples in the Southern U.S.

How to Grow Apples in the Southern U.S. is a guide book for gardeners living in the southern United States, from south Texas to central Florida, who want to successfully grow apple trees in climates with mild winters. This handy gardening guidebook provides details on site preparation, variety selection, planting, pests, pruning, and care for apples trees in this unique region.

Book Excerpt

From the Introduction

The history of the southern United States is one of farms and gardens, forests and orchards. Even though much of the modern landscape in the South is almost devoid of apple trees, the apple tree was a frequent sight in the region for several centuries. The earliest European settlers were amazed at the abundance of wild fruit in the North American wilderness. Wild grapes, persimmons, blueberries, blackberries, and nut trees populated the forests. Lacking in this wild
abundance were common European fruit, such as pears and apples. As more settlers immigrated to the continent, they brought with them European fruits. Large numbers of seeds from these fruits were planted in the soil on Southern farms.

English settlers of the 16th and 17th centuries had a taste for cider, and apples grown from these trees provided bushels of apples for cider making. In the 1700’s, more than 80% of farms in the southern part of the American colonies had an orchard, and most of these orchards included apple trees. In the late 1700’s, apple trees were imported from England to the southern states. These apples, however, were poorly adapted to the heat and humidity of the region, and they failed quickly. Most southern farms at this time planted apple seeds in autumn and hoped one of the seedlings would grow into a southern-adapted apple tree. The vast majority of these seedling apple trees did not grow well, but a small percentage did. These successful trees become the standard old southern apple varieties: Carter’s Blue, Hall, Magnum Bonum, and twenty or thirty others. From the middle of the 1800’s to around 1900, almost every farm in the South had apple trees as part of the orchard.

For those who live and garden in the southern United States, there is often frustration when trying to find apple trees appropriate for the climate. Many people are surprised when they learn that there are a decent number of apple tree cultivars that grow well in the southern states, and that these trees will bear fruit as consistently as other fruit trees. Apples, like other fruit trees, require a certain number of hours below 40° Fahrenheit, commonly called chill hours. The cold weather allows the buds that formed during the growing season to become the blooms that will emerge the following spring. Blooms, of course, form into apples. The common apple varieties grown in the apple growing regions of the United States usually require 1000 or more chill hours. It is rare that all parts of the southern United States get 1000 or more hours below 40 degrees each winter. The milder winters, coupled with the warmer summers, means that more cold-tolerant varieties will fail to grow well in the southern states.

The purpose of this book is to assist the home gardener or orchardist in growing southern-adapted apple trees. Growing your own apple trees gives you an opportunity to taste tree fresh apples, and to provide a harvest for yourself and your family for years to come.

For the purposes of this book, the southern United States includes all or parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. This includes USDA hardiness zones 7-10. The majority of this region is in USDA hardiness zones 7-9.

How to Grow Apples in the Southern U.S. Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule

To Be Announced Shortly

Trey Watson’s HOW TO GROW APPLES IN THE SOUTHERN U.S. VIRTUAL BOOK PUBLICITY TOUR will officially begin on January 3 and end on January 13 ’12. Please contact Tracee Gleichner at tgleichner(at)gmail(dot)com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing her book. Thank you!

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VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR, BLOG TOUR & BOOK PUBLICITY ENDORSEMENTS: NICE THINGS PEOPLE SAY ABOUT PUMP UP YOUR BOOK

NEW! "Thank you Dorothy for a lovely tour! Thanks so much for the graphics and wonderful trailer!!"Avery Sterling, PRECIOUS BURDENS

"I just wanted to thank you for everything. You ARE the queen. Your are so personable and professional. Your graphics soared beyond. They are beautiful. It was a pleasure to work with you."Jude Hopkins, BABE IN THE WOODS

"THANK YOU for all of these graphics!!! That was a valuable added perk of working with you on the VBT! Thank you for all the work you put into those, and into the organization and follow-ups on the tour itself. It's been a pleasure working with you, Dorothy!"Allyson Rice, The Key to Circus-Mom Highway

"Oh, awesome!! Thank you so much! You ran such a lovely tour. Those images are great, I look forward to using them and will miss seeing the regular postings on Twitter ;-).
I really appreciate your steadfast and ongoing support. It means a lot!!"Palmer Pickering, MOON DEEDS

"Just wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you again for the amazing blog tour and to tell you that we will be adding the tour to Mark's author website in the next few days. We will of course be recommending your company to other authors we know. And when Mark's next book is out, we will use your services again." Kirsten Grenside on behalf of Mark Grenside, FALL OUT

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Maria Andrade, DEFIANCE AND REDEMPTION

"Everyone did an excellent job. The blog pages were beautiful, and the trailer was so clever and funny. Thanks for sending these lovely "souvenirs" from my tour. I will be able to use all of these posts on Twitter. I enjoyed this so much and look forward to my next tour!"
Irene Woodbury, HONEYMOON ROULETTE

" I am delighted with the results of my recent tour with Pump Up Your Book. Dorothy is meticulous and professional, presents beautifully laid out pages, maintains constant contact with the client, and gives more than expected value for money. In a nutshell: you get what you pay for and more on top! I will certainly be using Dorothy’s services for my other Regency romance books.”
Arabella Sheraton, THE LORD BLACKWOOD REGENCY ROMANCE SERIES

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Wendy Leighton-Porter, THE SHADOW OF ATLANTIS

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M.B. Lewis, THE PILATE SCROLL

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Kathleen Shaputis, HIS KILT DROPPED HERE

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Joni Ankerson, TO KILL OR BE KILLED

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Aiken Brown, SON OF A SOLDIER

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Laura Preble, ANNA INCOGNITO

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Lena Gregory, GRAVE CONSEQUENCES

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Jennifer Chase, FLOWERS ON HER GRAVE

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Elysia Strife, A PROMISE IN ASH

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Miri Leshem-Pelly, SCRIBBLE & AUTHOR

"I think you did an excellent job last time, thank you!"
Shami Stovall, KNIGHTMARE ARCANIST

"Just wanted to thank you for the book tour. :) You did a great job. :)"
Suzanne M. Hurley, THE TEDDY BEAR EYE CLUB

"I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful virtual tour in August for Brimstone and Water. I was very happy with the amount of attention given to the book and to me. I am mentioning it to friends on line that haven't gone to the site yet to be sure and take a look. Thanks for all your work."
Sharon House, BRIMSTONE AND WATER

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Christine Donovan, BLACKJACK

"You’ve been a joy to work with, and I’d do another tour with you in a heartbeat. Overall, it was an excellent experience and a good value. I’ll be sure to look you up when it’s time to release my next book."
Michael Allan Scott, GREY DAZE

"Just wanted to thank you for putting together a great tour for You Won't Remember This. I think the author was pleasantly surprised and overall very pleased."
Bacon Press Books

"Dorothy, thanks so much for another great VBT!!! The Twitter-Party was a new feature this time that I particularly enjoyed. I will continue to recommend PUYB to my writer-friends, because you are simply the best!!!"
T.M. Wallace, WINTERGARDEN

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I’m in the middle of my third book and will definitely call on you again when it’s time to market it."
Deborah Serani, DEPRESSION AND YOUR CHILD

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Ashley Fontainne, GROWL

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Mary Lawlor, FIGHTER PILOT'S DAUGHTER

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Lee Papa, TEMPLE OF ALL KNOWING

"I can't believe the response this book is getting! I am so very thrilled that she liked it!!! You are THE BEST, Dorothy, for hooking up this amazing tour with all these stunning reviews! This was the book I was going to keep under my bed forever and ever and now WOW. I can't believe this is happening. It's like a dream come true!"
Madeline Wynn, DAUGHTER OF THE FALLEN

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Mary Lawlor, FIGHTER PILOT'S DAUGHTER

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Karen-Anne Stewart, ASH TO STEELE

"When it comes to looking for a virtual book tour coordinator, Dorothy Thompson of Pump Up Your Book Tours is simply the best. I have tried several virtual book tour coordinators and have even set up a book tour on my own, but none of them were as successful as my tours with Pump Up Your Book Tour, which has the combination of expertise and experience needed to get the author the results they need. On this latest tour, TWELVE TO MURDER made it up to number three on Amazon! Thank you, Dorothy!"
Lauren Carr, Best-Selling Mystery Author of Mac Faraday, and Lovers in Crime, Mysteries

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Monique Roy, ACROSS GREAT DIVIDES

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Kaylin McFarren, BURIED THREADS

"Thank you for a great virtual book tour. I thought it went really well and it was great to have a wave of PR that flowed through the two month period of my book release. I'm working on my next book - and will definitely reach out to you when it comes time to market! You were a delight to work with and really made me feel looked after. As I've mentioned before, I just don't know how you do it all."
--Deborah Serani, DEPRESSION AND YOUR CHILD

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--Carol Nicolas, THE SIXTH POWER

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--Jo Sparkes, THE BIRR ELIXIR

"I just wanted to let you know that tonight Steven Manchester's Twelve Months became The Story Plant's first #1 Kindle bestseller. This couldn't have happened without you. Barb's cover is an absolute showstopper, Sue's copyediting boosted the overall work, Jackie's proofreading kept all of us honest, and Tracee Gleichner's blog tour started what has become an avalanche of great reviews."
-- Lou Aronica, STORY PLANT

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How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

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