Apple/Pear varieties for food plot help
Massachusetts
Hello Crew,..
So I am thinking of adding an apple tree and/or a pear tree to my first food plot as I got the ok from the land owner a while ago but thought it was just a crazy, ideal.. After talking with Big Country today,. I decided to make the jump and add a few trees.
Does anyone have any recommendations on varieties etc,.. as I am (once again) venturing beyond my normal sphere of knowledge here,..
I am guessing I want apples falling during early bow season,. is that even possible?
Tree people needed,.. thanks!
PS I am willing to buy some advanced age,.. more expensive, trees to get fruits sooner,..
Full size or semi dwarf ?? and why,..
double post
I blame it on Will ! LMAO!
The semi dwarf will bear fruit faster. While your looking at something like 6 -10 years for a standard. For an October fruit look at Liberty and Enterprise. For November check out Gold rush and Spitzenburg. Don't over look chestnut trees either. They bear fruit every year, and start to bear in about 3 years or so. There was a few on our lease in Ohio, and the deer can't resist them. A soon as they hit the ground they were gone.
X2 Murphy, also my 12 apple trees are fairly high maintenance, spraying for gypsy moths and disease, fertilizing, pruning, shooting apple loving squirrels. But I find it's worth it. I bought several varieties at lowes/depot and almost all survived 5 years so far... about half are mature enough to produce some apples. Takes time ....
Ya I was looking over the Dunstan Chestnut tree and they look interesting,.. Was suggesting that to BigCountry also,..
http://www.chestnuthilloutdoors.com/store/pg/9-The-Best-Food-Plot-Tree.aspx
Thx Murph
MB if you ignore them they will still produce fruit for deer right?,.. just not quite fit for human consumption right? Worms,.. blight,.. etc? Still fruit for deer right? I will not do any maintenance on the trees,.. or at least I do not plan on that!
BB Apples dont have to be complicated. For the sake of argument you probably dont want to spend a ton, so if you go to lowes, depot, tractor supply and grab some $20 trees, you going to see, stuff like fuji, cortland, gala, mac. All of which bare fruit late september, earlly october which is pefect. Most all bare fruit in that general time frame anyways. The most important part is not what type of tree, but how many different types of trees, because they need to pollinate each other and generally different types of trees do this beter then several of the same type. If your lucky you might have some native crab apple around which works very well. First year the only thing you got to do is keep the roots wet, you dont need to fertilize til the second year, spraying for bugs isnt that big of a deal. So general purpose insecticide in a pump spray bottle will work. DONT spray while the tree is flowering. And trim some of the vertical growing limbs off after three years. The triming helps the nutrients go to the fruit rather than tree growth. Triming should only be done when the tree is dormant in winter. Like you said above apples do pretty well even if you dont to any of this stuff. If money gets tight and you dont feed, or spray for bugs one season all is not lost, the tree will still grow and produce fruit. Your not trying to grow apples to sell. The deer dont really care if the apples are small and have worm holes. If you are going out thier to take care of a food plot, adding a few fruit trees will seem easy in comparison.
U should at least prune them, so they will produce the maximum of amount of apples that they can. More fruit= more food for the deer.
True, deer dont mind a little rust or blight, however, here in eastern ma the moths have been ferocious the last several years and without treatment of some kind they will leave you with a Charlie brown tree.... the chestnut idea sounds good to me as well, fast growing is a quality I like...
Muh ha ha ha - I've infected you with the infamous double post bug BB :)
For the tree, I've not tried planting them, but definitely notice that the deer seem to like them best after a frost or two, and even better, after a snow. Not sure if that's all apples or just the ancient trees I've found on old farm's I've hunted or, literally, found in the woods (which must have been old homesteads at some point). Makes me think those "earlier" (IE drop/ripe late sept/early Oct) options noted above make good sense.
I wonder if you would have to protect the trunks as well. Seems that in 3-5 years they could be perfectly sized and located to be rubbed, which they may survive, or die from...
BB, In my last home ( Twas an Apple farm from late 18th-19th century) I had planted several new trees that became mature producers. ( it is some work for sure but not difficult, mostly keeping low hanging branches and an open crown for good light into the middle. Of course, spray as needed. Dormant Fruit tree oil will do the trick and old timers used motor oil... but that discussion leads to a place we don't need to visit... do we? ;)
There was an ancient tree out back and what I would guess was a few sucker trees (descendants) that sprang up close by it. Deer regularly chowed down on these trees but I doubt they saw much fruit. The buds and stems were constantly munched. So it is well advised to protect the young trees or they may not get a chance to produce. Either way, the deer will love the branches too. Thre is no reason that they must be planted in a normal way ( up and down) Perhaps laying a few over will produce abundant branches that will be good for the browsing. (I had one tree that had fallen over and recovered, it did very well. It was a favorite hang out for the local deer)
I had good results also with transplanting suckers from one tree that produced many. I don't know what the rootstalk was on the original that gave up theses sproutings but they grew quickly and did produce fruit. Perhaps if you have an Apple farm close by, you could ask for these, as they are undesirable to the farmer's intentions.
Plant as many as you can ... any fruit trees, ground cover and grapes too. Good luck.
Christ sake,.. seems like a lotta work,..
Thinks more about the Chestnuts,.. now them seem my speed!
So in reviewing the Chestnut trees in greater detail I can buy a 4 year old tree for 90 bucks,.. they start producing when 3 to 5 years old,.. so I should be just a few years away from a few nuts,..
No spray,.. care free,..
NUTS!
BB, I planted two pear trees in the backyard and the damn deer mowed the buds and branches down to nothing so needless to say I have two anorexic trees so protection from deer is vital. Also like what was said above you have to research what tree specie cross pollinate each other. I thought buy and stick in ground boy was I wrong.
Yah spike they sell these sleeves, cloudy plastic tubes that are like 6 feet tall and ya put the entire tree inside em for the first year, they are cheap. Allow in light and water keep out critters.
I recommend “honey crisp” apples, because they’re delicious. If the hunting’s a little slow, you can just have an apple.
BB I looked into the Chestnut idea 2 seasons ago for a friend's property. If you are going to have access there for years to come I would do it.
