A Microfarm

[Barndog56]

My first ripe apple of the year is a Zestar! It's grafted onto a Bud 9 rootstock and this is year 3 for it. I thinned it down to just 1 apple. It's got the perfect texture. Not soft like most early apples, or hard like some of the newer apples. It's got delicious sweet flavor with a little bit of brown sugar, and just enough tart to taste it. Supposedly stores for 2 months in refrigeration, but I can't see any of mine making it that long before they're eaten.

It's from the University of Minnesota breeding program and should be good to zone 3, although it blooms early. My trees have shown moderate vigor. It is susceptible to scab, but I've had no incidents since I started supplemental cobalt on my apple trees. No signs of CAR.

 

[Barndog56]

Zestar

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[SD51555]

Do the deer hit your rope pretty frequently? Is that a hemp rope by chance?

 

[Barndog56]

Do the deer hit your rope pretty frequently? Is that a hemp rope by chance?

First time using one so we'll see. It's a 1" hemp rope, 10' long, bought off Amazon. I used half for that, with the end hanging down to waste level. I frayed the bottom 8 inches, with a zip tie right above to keep it from fraying farther up.

 

[Barndog56]

Toka plums are starting to drop. This tree was bought from a big box store, and has been the most vigorous of the dozen trees I bought that way. The 150 trees since then are all ones I grafted myself.

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[SD51555]

150?! Holy buckets! Are all those grafts of this first tree?

 

[bueller]

Just found this thread. Thanks for sharing and hope you have another successful season this year. We camp south of you and have also hunted a little bit of the public down there also, just across the Marquette County line.

 

[Barndog56]

150?! Holy buckets! Are all those grafts of this first tree?

No, no, no. I've got 165 fruit trees on my property, with 150 of them being apples I've grafted over the past 5 years. There are 58 different varieties of apple.

 

[Barndog56]

Just found this thread. Thanks for sharing and hope you have another successful season this year. We camp south of you and have also hunted a little bit of the public down there also, just across the Marquette County line.

Yes. I thought I had sandy soil until I drove to Wisconsin River Meats over your way. They were doing road construction and all of the 'soil' they displaced was a pretty orange!

 

[b116757]

My mothers place in Northern Wisconsin is literally sitting on a gravel pit. My grandfather choose to keep it a sugerbush and not open a pit.

 

[TenPoint]

No, no, no. I've got 165 fruit trees on my property, with 150 of them being apples I've grafted over the past 5 years. There are 58 different varieties of apple.

That’s it?









;)

 

[Barndog56]

Pretty much at my limit now as the wife's horse pastures take up the largest chunk of our land.

 

[Barndog56]

Picked a Pristine apple today. Only left two on this young tree at thinning. Deer are the first apple, which was about 25% larger than this one. Here are my notes on Pristine.

Developed under the PRI program.
Medium sized, round, and lemon yellow color.
Flesh is yellowish, fine-grained, and crisp.
Juicy, spicy, somewhat tart, maturing to sweet. It has a tendency to brown when exposed to air.
Moderately vigorous, spreading tree, bears fruit on spurs and branches.
Must be thinned, tendency to become biennial.
Keeps up to a month in cold storage.
Immune to scab, highly resistant to cedar apple rust, resistant to powdery mildew and somewhat resistant to fire blight. Highly susceptible to brown rot.
Harvest period can span for several weeks.
Drops when fully ripe.

 

[Barndog56]

Pristine

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[b116757]

I considered planting Pristine only thing holding me back is the early ripen date.

 

[Barndog56]

My apples are dual purpose. The majority of my late hanging, or crabapples are planted in the back corner of my orchard, where my small food plot is. Those won't be picked much, but left for the deer. The apple trees on the near side of my orchard will be picked for eating, with the apples with flaws left for the deer to clean up.

Then I also have 2 dozen trees up near my house, where deer never venture. Those are for eating, and eventually selling in our roadside stand. I'm thinking I could use more Zestar and Pristine for that purpose. I've not seen a single FB ad selling apples yet in my area, so if I had a half dozen trees of each I could corner the early market!

I've got deer on camera picking apples off of 2 different trees of mine, so they would probably appreciate a couple of early ripening trees.

 

[Barndog56]

I've had trouble keeping Chestnut trees alive. I bought 25 from a county conservation office, that were about 6 inches tall and they didn't grow much before the winter. Most of them did not come back the following spring.

So then I bought 10 from a Jung's garden center that ranged from 12-18 inches. Those didn't do much better. So then I bought 6 Dunstan Chestnut trees from Walmart. Those have only fared slightly better.

I'm still fighting winter die back, but have made some progress. I have 3 Chinese and 2 Dunstans that are 6+ feet tall, with another 5 that are about 3 foot tall. The largest Dunstan has catkins this year, but I'm still not expecting nuts any time soon.

The deer better love these things when I get some!

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[Barndog56]

Checked on my single Moonglow pear yesterday and the stem broke in half. I'm sure it will need a week or two on the counter to finish ripening.

And one of my Contender peaches had fallen off the tree. The shoulders were just starting to soften up. Ate it today and it was delicious! It's got about 40 more still on the tree.

I don't know what's up with these Franklin Cider apples. They're very small and very marked up, for the second year in a row. The trees themselves are growing very well with excellent branch angles. If the apples aren't better next year, they may become Frankentrees.

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[Barndog56]

Today's apple is a Dayton. Left just one on this young tree on Bud 9. It tested out at 13.6 brix. Here are my notes on Dayton.
From the PRI breeding program.
very resistant to scab and rust
slightly susceptible to canker, fire blight and mildew
Moderately vigorous tree with upright branches
medium to large apple
Tough skin, flesh is crisp and firm
Juicy, sweet, slightly tart
fruit hangs for 2 weeks after it's ripe with no loss in quality
Stores for about a month

 

[Barndog56]

Dayton

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