Food plots around Apple trees

[4wanderingeyes]

Because of my limited acres I have planted apple trees in my food plots, to make the best of the acreage. The problem I run into is how do I control weeds? I use to try to spray the plot with gly, but now that I have it mostly filled in with trees, except just between the rows, I don’t want to kill my trees. I had done some damage to a few several years ago. After that I just disced it up, or kept it planted heavy with winter rye and clover. But the plot is getting pretty weedy, and I would like to start over on the plot, without damaging the trees.

Thoughts on how to do this? It is only about 3/4 acre, and I have 4 rows of 5 trees. Most trees are between 3-7 years old. I haven’t disced it in about 3 years, and all I have done is planted heavily, and cut the Canadian thistle out by hand. I could disc it again, but was hoping to not disturb the soil again if there are better options.

 

[Telemark]

Silage tarp.

 

[MRBB]

maybe use a spot sprayer over a ATV mounted one, this way you get more precise placing of things
that or really stay on top of mowing pending what your planting in your food plots, as you didn;t list what you have planted, so??

and also,??

something to consider if your in BEAR country, when planting fruit tree's in a food plot , your almost asking for tree damage IMO
so I would be making sure to have any tree's well fences with some powered E fence!

 

[yoderjac]

Because of my limited acres I have planted apple trees in my food plots, to make the best of the acreage. The problem I run into is how do I control weeds? I use to try to spray the plot with gly, but now that I have it mostly filled in with trees, except just between the rows, I don’t want to kill my trees. I had done some damage to a few several years ago. After that I just disced it up, or kept it planted heavy with winter rye and clover. But the plot is getting pretty weedy, and I would like to start over on the plot, without damaging the trees.

Thoughts on how to do this? It is only about 3/4 acre, and I have 4 rows of 5 trees. Most trees are between 3-7 years old. I haven’t disced it in about 3 years, and all I have done is planted heavily, and cut the Canadian thistle out by hand. I could disc it again, but was hoping to not disturb the soil again if there are better options.

Unless you have a particular problematic weed, I'd just tolerate them. Deer use many broadleaf weeds. I'd consider planting a low growing perennial clover. If you do get a problematic weed, you can use a wicking bar to apply the appropriate herbicide directly to weeds taller than your clover. Since there is no spray, you don't have to worry about wind drift.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Belchertown Bowman]

Quick ?

Can't you just hand spray roundup around the bases of the trees and not hurt the apple tree? I thought if you put roundup on bark it did not hurt the plant. I thought it had to hit the leaves?

 

[yoderjac]

Quick ?

Can't you just hand spray roundup around the bases of the trees and not hurt the apple tree? I thought if you put roundup on bark it did not hurt the plant. I thought it had to hit the leaves?

Glyphosate is generally not effective for basal spraying to kill an invasive tree. You want to hit leaves of actively growing plants for the most effective absorption. However, gly is frequently used for hack-n-squirt where you use a hatchet to pierce the bark and squirt in gly.

Now let's talk about fruit trees. They can be pretty delicate when young. A young tree can be stunted for life if hit with a small amount of gly that does not kill it. So, what can happen. Could an insect or disease cause a break in the bark of a young tree exposing cambium? Could an animal rub or chew on it a little? Do apple trees ever try to put up suckers from the root system? All of these are ways hand spraying gly around apple tree could hurt them. Beyond that, depending on the nozzle setting on your hand sprayer, you could be atomizing some gly. It doesn't take much breeze to float it a bit and get wind drift issues.

Can you hand spray around apple trees? Sure, and you can probably get away with ti much of the time. However, trees are a multi-year investment. Do you wan to take that chance?

 

[Belchertown Bowman]

Thanks Yoder good info.

 

[WTNUT]

Because of my limited acres I have planted apple trees in my food plots, to make the best of the acreage. The problem I run into is how do I control weeds? I use to try to spray the plot with gly, but now that I have it mostly filled in with trees, except just between the rows, I don’t want to kill my trees. I had done some damage to a few several years ago. After that I just disced it up, or kept it planted heavy with winter rye and clover. But the plot is getting pretty weedy, and I would like to start over on the plot, without damaging the trees.

Thoughts on how to do this? It is only about 3/4 acre, and I have 4 rows of 5 trees. Most trees are between 3-7 years old. I haven’t disced it in about 3 years, and all I have done is planted heavily, and cut the Canadian thistle out by hand. I could disc it again, but was hoping to not disturb the soil again if there are better options.

How Bout some pics. I put trees in all my plots have ideas but need some idea as to how much space you have.


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[Ben.MN/WI]

I have apple trees planted in a portion of my food plot and because of spray concerns I've switched to a clover/chicory/alfalfa mix there. I don't want to disk up near the trees and I don't want to spray round up and potentially harm apple trees. Apple trees and clover plots like this are a good combo in my opinion.

Broadleaf weeds can usually be controlled pretty well with timely mowing and when grass creeps in I spray by hand with clethodim. I have never had any issues with clethodim hurting apple trees, but I only spot spray the grass.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Seed with a half rate of radish, a full rate of clover/chicory, mow, and walk away.


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