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Just a heads up that Fleet in Wausau has 5’ - 6’ apple trees for $15.99. I bought three Macintosh.
DT, If you have room for more you should add some other varieties that mature at different times. Maybe you already have more planted.
DT, have you had good luck buying apple trees from the box stores? They scare me versus getting bare root trees from nurseries and getting them in the ground before they break dormancy. I often see bare root trees out of dormancy at our FF in Germantown and that is a kiss of death.
I have bought the potted trees at box stores and so far each one has survived. Has not always been the case with my bare root trees. I will add that I do a better job now of watering during the summer than I used to. That one thing seems to have improved the survival rate of my trees. When I know I won't be up at my place for a bit I use the tree bags to aide in watering over time.
I always fence and mulch my trees as well.
Bill
Two thoughts
1.apple typically need cross pollination. So you need two types
2. deer, bears and other wildlife are not nearly as picky as we are of fruit quality. 2a. so any tree, even from seed will be eaten 2b. rooting trimmings, if you have some skill, is a way to propogate lots and lots of nearly free fruit trees.
Per48R: Time for some tutoring! I have 36 fruit trees on our property. Buy bare root and have done well. Teach me what your doing here please?
Root stock is very important........If you don't know the root stock don't waste your time. Seek out B118
I have about 40 apple trees at each of two locations. Bare root is the only way to go. You can separate the roots in multiple directions for best strength in wind or heavy apple loads. If the bare root trees are in a refrigerated location it is not too late to go that route yet this year. I prefer semi dwarfs. If you are doing it more for feeding deer then you might want to go full size but they get hard to keep pruned because of their size. Lots of potted trees are just bare root stock that have been stuffed into a pots with little care taken to do it right. Parker and Patton pear treas are good choices except that they do tend to grow too high without pruning. Both are hardy to about the EauClaire latitude.
Best bet is to order bare root trees you want in winter from a place like Woodstock Nursery in Neillsville to get a good mixture of healthy trees. I did get one tree from them that had a split trunk, they replaced it with no hassle.
I just cringe when I see trees in small pots in July at places like Home Depot where they likely get very little attention.
I agree with Fletch and Jeff. I have been getting some trees from St. Lawrence nursery in NJ. You get a known root stock and they are grown there and have proven they can handle our zones. The trees are guaranteed as well. The others I get are from the Delta County Conservation District in Escanaba, MI. I've had good luck with those bare root trees as well. They are larger than the ones that come from St. Lawrence but they are not shipped. I got them all in the ground prior to last weekend.
I had 4 American Plum trees come from St. Lawrence this year and I had to wait close to 2 weeks to put them in. I kept the roots moist and covered and the trees in a cool and shaded area (in my garage) yet a couple still started to break buds. They are in the ground now but I am concerned about that.
For deer, I really like a mix of crabapple trees in the group. They are hardy and not as high maintenance as regular apple trees. I'm now pushing for close to a 50/50 mix.
I've been getting apple trees from Wallace Woodstock and Cummins nursery for about 7 years. B118 rootstock, very good trees. Liberty and Enterprise are my #1 but Chestnut Crabapple has grown very well also. It typically takes 5 years to see fruit.
I have almost 300 apple trees and most of them are from Wallace Woodstock, and if I recall correctly there are 10 or 12 varieties. In this bunch I also have 12 from Wolfrath Nursery in Hortonville and a handful from Fleet Farm. The trees form FF are doing just as well as the expensive ones from the nursery. I find it hard to pass up any trees at a good price if they are in good shape! Especially of they are disease resistant.....
Wow, Mike. That is a lot of trees. Do you keep them all mowed and pruned or just let them grow 'wild'?
Jeff,
About half are mowed the other half are have clover planted and they get mowed 3 times a year. the majority of them are pruned, some were left to grow wild because they are planted in pairs and seem to be doing fine. I open them up if I think they need to be opened up.
Mike F, that is a boat load of trees! Your caging costs alone had to be through the roof. I could not imagine the time and materials costs of spraying all those trees. Kudos to you!
What about digging up wild trees that are about 4-5' tall, can these be transplanted easily? How would you go about it......Keep a root ball or go bare root?.....What's the best soil preparation at the transplant site? Thanks
What sprays are you guys using?
Screwball. If you have trees now you can propogate them from the trimmings and then plant those trimming. You will loos the attributes of the root stock. That may mean, dwarfing, water or drought tolerance, disease or winter resistance.... But if you don't mind full size trees (the deer don't) and you want free trees then search for "propagating fruit trees" on youtube..... Heck, if you want to, you can propagate the root stock from the suckers growing at the base of your paid for trees. That is what they company that sold you the trees ultimately did.
Trimming your trees is something you should do every year. So the trimmings are free.
I thought about putting apple trees in by my land in Oneida Co. but fear the bears will destroy them.
I had one tree partially uprooted by a bear either trying to climb the tree or pull it over last fall. It was one of just a few trees that had any apples left on it. Neighbor had a very old large tree busted and clawed up by a bear climbing it, also about the same time last year. I doubt the 6x6 inch concrete reinforcing wire I use under each tree will stop a bear either.
I prune in March and fertilize with 10-10-10 in early April. I normally dont spray but last yr I did spray Sevin a few times since a few trees had Japanese beetles on them.
Happy-
I only caged a few for a couple of years. I put up solar electric fence 3 strand with 2 strand 5 ft apart and the deer seldom went over it. I took it down after 4 years. I did the same thing with poplar that I grew from trimmings last year. The deer stayed out, but the rabbits went in under the fence this winter and killed them all....
I have 3 solar charges left and will use 1 of them again this year when I plant some more apple trees in another spot!
As far as spraying, I spray Bonide fruit tree spray on the tree's by my Mom's house, the rest of the apples are for the critters. The few that we do take make good pies and apple sauce. I do use wasp traps on the trees. I haven't fertilized since planting either. I do like grabbing a couple on my way to the stand every once in a while.... Pruning takes a couple of weekends and if I find something I don't like about the tree I prune it when ever I can. It doesn't seem to hurt the tree. I haven't seen any Japanese Beetles on the trees in Waupaca Count, but here at home I have. I use the beetle traps on a yearly basis.
I have a couple apple trees in my yard that produce pretty good apples. I was looking into spraying them and actually bought some spray. But, in reading it, you need to constantly spray them the way it sounds.
Live2hunt- It all depends on what you are spraying for. If you have disease resistant trees then there is no need to spray. Do a little research on the trees you have before spraying. You might have to spray for aphids, moths, leaf miners, etc. I don't do pesticides, because I like to have honey bees around. They have a hard enough time dealing with the GMO crops that the farmers are planting.
I use Bonide's dormant apple tree spray each spring on the young trees. I try to spray them a couple of times a year (I live 3.5 hrs from camp) with Bonide's Fruit Tree spray for insects. Maybe I don't need to do either. I just have so far.
Mike, they get a mold type coating on them and they are lumpy like? I am not sure what kind they even are as I did not plant them.
Live2hunt, That sounds like scab to me. Which is a fungus. You can apply a fungicide early in the year when the leaf tips show up and continue on a 7 - 10 day schedule until the petals fall off the apple blossoms. 7 day s for wet weather and 10 day schedule for dry weather.
If you have orange or yellow spots on your leaves that is apple rust from cedar or junipers. That is treated with a fungicide also.
Both treatments are safe for pollinators, so I am told....
Thanks Mike, I will try that.
Started spraying mine all last year. 3 times picked up apple scab real bad. Big difference. Will do the same. 36 tress is a bunch 300 wow! Prune them all. Use Bonide from Farm and Fleet to spray real good luck.
Screwball - finding time in winter to prune is the easy part. Finding time in fall to sit in the stand is the hard part.....
WOW, I just finished my first post blossom spraying. LOTS and LOTS of apples on all the trees. Going to be a good year, by far the best ever if nothing goes wrong. The bees and other pollinators really did their job this year.
One puzzling thing is one tree that is for food for the birds (I think korean pear) is totally dead. It had been doing fine for many years.
Cage, weedbarrier and pea gravel.
Cage, weedbarrier and pea gravel.
I graft on about 50 scions a year. Of my 15o trees, most have 4-5 varieties on them
I graft on about 50 scions a year. Of my 15o trees, most have 4-5 varieties on them
Before I sealed with tape and grafting compound.
Before I sealed with tape and grafting compound.
I typically will use a sharpened coat hanger as a branch spreader when the trees are very young to train for fruit production and strength.
I typically will use a sharpened coat hanger as a branch spreader when the trees are very young to train for fruit production and strength.
Great link Fletch. I agree with most everything in it.
turned.
turned.
When the branches are properly trained, they can bear an incredible load without breaking.
Dang, looks great Trapper! That whole grafting thing has always intrigued and amazed me.
As much fun as it is to see the (Fruits) of your labor, it really p!!ses me off when bears get into them and completely wipe out the apples on 100 trees. 25 years ago I never had problems with bears in Southern Shawano county, now it seems like its a weekly occurrence. I seriously doubt that if I had new property, that I would plant apple trees. Fortunately most of my trees are now 6"-10" caliper so it really doesn't affect the trees much by loosing a few limbs to the bears.
I believe this is a 5 year old scion.
I believe this is a 5 year old scion.
South Farm, A friend of mine bought a property that has probably close to 150 Crab trees on it. Last year I taught him to graft onto them, later in spring he grafted close to 100 scions on to them, He said he had an 80% success rate which is about correct. These scions in 5 years will be producing 5 gallons of apples per scion if properly located on the tree. Pencil sized scions will be wrist size in that amount of time.
