Project W: Columnar Apple Shot Plot

[Lordkiwi]

Tyni, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by growth style. You can see many examples of my trees on the previous pages. They do grow in a columnar form. They will get some branches which tend to be upright. I did not prune that much to start with as I wanted scionwood to graft with. This winter, I'll prune everything back to a single leader this winter.

I was hoping you could share scions next spring. I also bought the 7 currently available columnar cultivars. I know you where collecting the previous stark spire series and Maypole. Do you think you will have any material from those trees to share after your winter pruning? But given what you have to say about successful tbuding maybe I could invest in sending you root stock and compensating you for tbuding and that first summer of TLC.

 

[chickenlittle]

Kiwi, i should have a decent amount of scionwood for those to share. Graft a few of each and you should be successful.

 

[chickenlittle]

Busy weekend. Dug up and transplanted 19 apple trees. My first shot plot is now complete. I have 2 dozen columnar apples and a dozen dwarf apple trees in 3 caged groupings within bow range. I'll expect a few trees to fruit next year and most to fruit the year after. Based on my oldest columnar trees, i am confident I'll have apples throughout archery season.

Now i can start prepping a 2nd and 3rd location. I might mix in a few late, disease resistant apples on dwarf stock for those too.

 

[chickenlittle]

Removed the 2 blushing delight apples a couple days ago. We've had some nights in the teens and these were now mushy but still holding on. Only 2 seeds each so I am a little disappointed I won't have more from this to grow out. Maybe get to taste these next year.

 

[tynimiller]

Looked out at the two columnars planted in my back yard and was amazed they haven't dropped a single leaf yet it appears. You noticed any of your columnar holding longer than other trees in area by comparison?

 

[chickenlittle]

I can't say that i have noticed a difference in holding leaves. A lot of my trees are pretty young. Since colunnar trees tend you stiffer, that must pay a role in how wind affects the leaves.

 

[Lordkiwi]

So this is what one season of growth for me looks like. I am very happy with the growth, with the exception of the third from the left

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[Lordkiwi]

I got the Irish Spire (scion) head cutting? any suggestions on how to graft this?

 

[Turkey Creek]

I got the Irish Spire (scion) head cutting? any suggestions on how to graft this?

View attachment 17013

Looks like there are good buds above the abscission line, cleft graft that onto a root stock. I have worked with worse!

 

[chickenlittle]

I'd start with a cleft graft at the start of last years growth. And then decide after that whether you could get a 2nd graft out of it. Probably not. For grafting, that is the biggest problem with the columnar trees. You have more than a dozen buds in less than 3 inches but only get to use one or maybe 2. If you chip bud, you could get a bunch more grafts out of that stick but I have never tried chip budding.

 

[chickenlittle]

New seedlings getting started to see if they will be columnar and worth planting out for deer. I was a bit lazy caring for the seeds over the winter. I put them ziploc bags with a moist paper towel and stratified in the fridge. I should have checked on them every month or so but did not get to them until a few weeks ago. Some bags got dry, some got a little moldy. I washed the moldy ones and then applied some Captan to them. Put them back into the fridge for bit. Then pull out for a few days and plant any that develop a radicle root. I should get plenty of seedlings to evaluate and will have less worry about where I'd plant them for a few years to evaluate them.

 

[buckvelvet]

I hear what you mean about getting lazy CL. Every year between Nov/March (heck even April) I don't think about the trees to much, mostly because the sheer amount of work ahead of me stresses me out. This whole thing is a love/hate relationship for the simple fact that a 1 man crew is a hard road to hoe, but the end will be worth it. :)

 

[chickenlittle]

Very nice day today and my trees haven't broken dormancy yet so I did some work in the backyard nursery. I dug up about 15 columnar trees to plant on my parents farm next weekend. There were several 2016 Tbuds on B118 and the rest were 2017 bench grafts on MM106. The MM106 did poorly in the nursery bed they were in. While it is a raised bed, the soil still may be too heavy and wet for MM106. These grafts only put on a few inches of growth and the roots were not much better than when I planted them last spring. Hopefully they like the better drained soil at my folks.

That leaves me with space for 70 new pear grafts. I grafted 50 on OHxF87 this weekend. Waiting seedling rootstock to arrive from Burnt Ridge to finish bench grafting pears. That will fill the raised beds for another year or two. After that, I need to buy a hunting property of my own before I do much grafting again.

As for columnar apples, my project moves to seedlings while waiting for my shotplots to produce. I have 4 dozen seedlings growing now under lights and hope to get a couple dozen more to germinate. I do need to think about a larger space to grow out and evaluate the seedlings for next year. I might have enough columnar apples this year to have 500 seeds. With the right fencing, Dad has some old pasture that should work well.

 

[chickenlittle]

Maypole seems to want to flower and fruit early. I have 2 maypoles on B118 that were T-budded in late summer 2016, grew between 12" and 18" and are flowering this spring. Here is the larger one. For reference, the chickenwire cage is 24" tall. I'll go ahead and remove any apples that set.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

The parents farm is the one in Columbia Co. ?? Just wondering .......... my camp is about 1 1/2 hrs. NW of there.

 

[chickenlittle]

Yes, NW Columbia Co and near the line with Lycoming.

 

[Lordkiwi]

I grafted the Irish spire to B118. Its looking great. The rest of my attempts are not doing as well. I think it might have to do with scion storage. The Irish spire came wrapped in wet paper and I kept it that way, Chickenlittles came waxed and the scions from my own trees I did not cut until about two weeks I grafted. I stored them all in my scion fridge One confirmed death was the very first one I grafted a Crimson Spire, I checked it today and upper part of the scion was showing a green scratch test today while the lower portion was dead. I need to go back and figure out the dates, I grafted most of the columnar scions the week before the 90 degree heat wave except for the Irish spire and I grafted my non columnar trees during the heatwave. My heatwave grafts are all doing fine.

 

[chickenlittle]

Well, grafting can be a funny thing. Sometimes it is so easy and everything seems to work. Othertimes you think you did everything right and it fails. As long as the rootstock lives, you can T-bud in July/August or regraft next spring.

 

[chickenlittle]

Seedlings coming along. Many have fallen over but not a problem for what I'm doing. Have a bed prepared and will move them out when we get a cool, wet spell.

 

[chickenlittle]

Comments on my maturing trees. I know some at the farm are setting fruit and I'll catalog them next time I'm down. In the backyard at home, I'll have fruit on all but the Crimson Spire (2015 bench graft on P18 rootstock) and Wijcik Macintosh (2015 tbud on P18).

Trees from Stark planted in 2016...MM106 rootstock?
Maypole crab - flowered and fruited every year included the year I planted it.
Emerald Spire - many flowers this year
Scarlett Spire - some flowers this year

Trees from Raintree planted in 2015
Golden Sentinel - much larger tree as received. fruited every year included 2015. Big year last year, few flowers this year, - biennial?
Scarlett Sentinel - many flowers this year. Don't think it has flowered previously.
Norhpole (maybe goldlane/tangy green) - good amount of flowers this year, little last year
Tangy Green (might actually be northpole) - a few fruits in 2016, none in 2017, many flowers in 2018, still a few blooms on tree
Golden Treat - a few fruits last year, some this year, still a few blooms left.
Blushing Delight (moonlight) - some flowers this year, had some fruit last year
Tasty Red (rondo) - had some fruit last year, only a couple flowers this year.