2020 Apple Tree Planting

[Bowsnbucks]

Chad - You might also want to contact your state university there for apple / fruit tree / fruiting plants info or publications. I know Mich. State, Penn State, U. Illinois, Purdue, Cornell U., and Rutgers U. all have comprehensive fruit tree programs and have publications / online info and bulletins. I bought Penn State's book "Fruit Production for the Home Gardener" and it covers many fruiting trees and fruiting plants plus care for all of them. $12 - money well spent in my case!!!

 

[BobinCt]

I too agree with Apple Junkie. I would try to get a bigger rootstock than M-7 in the future. But maybe you don’t want your trees so big. Some of us have different ideas and goals. When I first started planting trees, I planted a few M-7s myself. If it wasn’t for this website, I could only imagine what my trees would look like. I probably wouldn’t have any for a few different reasons. This website is priceless.

 

[chummer]

I am no expert but I have managed to kill a lot of trees which may actually make me an expert in that. I would take those screens off. Besides the zip tie I don’t like the screen being black. It may be fine until winter but I could see it absorbing heat in the winter and leading to sun scald. Other than that it looks like you are off to a good start, welcome to the addiction.

 

[chummer]

Order some ag-lock or poly chain for attaching to stake. You can get a big role for $30 and it is always handy to have around.

 

[BobinCt]

I use the ag-lock too. Great product IMO.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Thank you! I do plan to document how things turn out. If everything turns out well, I will probably be adding to the orchard next year. I already planted the seed with my wife that honey bees might be in our future as well. :)

All of the trees came from Bailey's Nursery and except for the Chestnut Crabapple (Standard) all are semi-dwarf M7 rootstock. I don't have much experience with looking at trees but I was quite happy with how the looked and how tall they were.

Chad

dont worry about bees unless you get over 500 trees. Use that money for more trees. I am sure there are enough pollinators in your area to take care of those trees. I have over 400 trees in 3 diffe locations on my farm and I get plenty of apples. Your rootstock needs support so I would definitely add that as soon as you can and attach trees to it using ag lock

 

[ChadHable]

Chad, as you build and grow your orchard, I think you will find the devil is in the details. Going forward, I’d encourage you to pay close attention to the rootstock your trees are grafted to.

Deer, coons and bears all love apples as much as you do. Unfortunately, they don’t really care about how much damage they can do to your trees as they go after them. You’re going to want a large, sturdy, well-anchored tree. The M7 rootstock grows a tree that is roughly 65% as large as a tree on standard rootstock. A tree on M.111 or B.118 rootstocks will grow a tree that is roughly 85% as large as a standard rootstock, and a tree on P.18 or Antonovka rootstocks will grow a full-size tree (approx. 25’ tall). Your M7 rootstock trees will be fine, but going forward, you might want to consider the larger rootstocks too. I would not go smaller than what you have now.

You can learn all you need by googling rootstocks. I’m looking forward to your posts as your trees grow to maturity.

Thank you! This planting was stage 1. My overall goal is make sure these trees survive. Stage 2 is to add trees to this location and expand to other locations on our 90 acres. There is only one nursery around where I live (I like face to face interaction rather than buying online) that has larger rootstock, but the price was almost double per tree. I wasn't prepared to invest that much on a proof of concept.

I definitely have the itch. I live two hours away and I constantly find myself checking the weather forecast!

Thanks again!

 

[ChadHable]

Order some ag-lock or poly chain for attaching to stake. You can get a big role for $30 and it is always handy to have around.

Thank you! Do you happen to have a picture of how you use the poly chain?

 

[silver_yummies]

Thank you! Do you happen to have a picture of how you use the poly chain?

This is what I bought several years back and works great.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00TIK5TSG?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title&th=1