Apple for browse?

[Bowsnbucks]

FWIW - The trees I see browsed hardest ( that aren't apple or crab trees ) are maple, oak, and aspen when the aspen are young enough to be reached. Birch to a lesser degree. Our apple trees get nipped where the deer can reach them, or where limb tips stick out of the cages. Despite food plots and acorns, they find the apple trees. I have no idea about their nutritional value. ( must be good for deer to seek out ?? )

 

[Buckly]

The number one individual tree source of browse on this property are wild apple trees. They are hands down the #1 preferred browse tree living on this property today. The deer browse the branches within reach down to finger size and when main branches break the deer find them quickly. The heavy snow often bends the tops down to deer reach during the worst parts of winter.

I allowed complete access of my planted trees after they were about twelve years old(guess on age). They are tall enough that enough branches are surviving and producing fruit.

My point exactly. It doesn't take 50 years it only takes about 10. If you could plant them in a blow down or briar patch or just a bunch of brush, once they get a couple years on them it's lifetime browse plus apples. As Chainsaw says it's the number one browse on my property.

 

[Buckly]

Apparently so. I will also say once they are good and established that birds do all the seeding for you. Thousands of seeds a year get planted. If only 100 grow and only 10 make it to maturity it just perpetuates the process.

 

[chickenlittle]

I was surprised to find 6 to 10 seedlings in a patch of weeds in our old pasture this spring. Tallest was about 6ft but side branches to speak of. Hard to say how old the biggest is.

 

[Buckly]

I was guessing so. I believe apples for browse make perfect sense for you and others in similar areas. Here, apples don't grow like weeds. I've found 1 wild apple on my place and a handful of wild crabs. I notice a few trees here and there while I'm driving, but it is nothing like the apple trees I saw in coastal Maine. I'd guess there's more apple trees there than oaks here...and I've got plenty of oaks.

I think much of the NE US must have ideal soil, temperatures, and rainfall for apple trees.

I'm not sure our soils are that great here, just left over glacial rock and clay but it's not sandy at all. We have thousands upon thousands of apples in this area and I will just consider myself lucky. Apples drop here from July to January. No problems with trees holding, I drive by them all day this time of year. The apples, although extremely plentiful are still out numbered 1000 - 1 by oaks I'm sure.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I have a similar experience as the other Northeast guys....wild apples grow like weeds. I do plant wild apple seedlings every year on my 30 acres in bulk...25 for $25 or so from places like the NH State Nursery. I don't protect them and they get hammered by deer. Any thing that I have managed to get to about 10 feet or so and producing apples then gets hammered by Black Bears.

 

[Chainsaw]

Is your land located in the part of the northeast where wild apple trees grow nearly like weeds?

Yes and no. Thirty years ago the area cover was mostly overgrown pasture brush and apple trees grew like weeds; Today the area is mostly large pole to mature timber and the apple trees are dying off due to the later succession stage the area is in. While this property has close to two thousand released apple trees alive, bordering proprieties mostly have only a handful left and more die off every year as they are crowded out by larger trees.

Want to add that if there is a secret to helping wild apple trees grow in an area like here that they want to it is to cut down those forests with the goal of returning the property to an earlier succession stage. When apple trees are the only browse on a property the young trees will get over browsed. And of course a 100 DPSM won't help the cause either. That more apple trees will survive past seedling age and live is just a theory at this point but I am testing the idea and will know if it works in a few years.

 

[Buckly]

Buckly,

What state are you in? You near NoFo? Sounds like deer Nirvana. Apples, oaks, any ag?

NY. Other than lots of deer, apples and oaks I don't think you want to live here. LOL.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I remember someone else on here from N.Y. talked about releasing apple trees. Can't remember who it was / is. I would think the sunlight getting on the ground after timbering would stimulate new brush growing, plus having the apple trees fruiting again. Sounds like good deer habitat.

I've worked in N.Y. state - there are LOADS of apple trees there. #2 producer I think.

 

[Catscratch]

Wow. I asked this question just to see if it would be worth to plant some apples with the intent of browse instead of fruit (I plant lots of stuff for browse) and I've learned a ton. From listening to the guys who have native apples, I'm guessing that (since I've never seen a wild apple) they won't grow well enough here to provide browse. With this in mind I'll probably stick with planting apple/crab for fruit... and mulberry/osage orange for browse.
There are a few wild pear around here, I might try this with some of them!

 

[Chainsaw]

I remember someone else on here from N.Y. talked about releasing apple trees. Can't remember who it was / is. I would think the sunlight getting on the ground after timbering would stimulate new brush growing, plus having the apple trees fruiting again. Sounds like good deer habitat.

I've worked in N.Y. state - there are LOADS of apple trees there. #2 producer I think.

It could have been me (Chainsaw) from the old forum. And yes you are correct; the huge benefit from releasing apple trees besides saving the apple trees was the large amount of cover and browse that was created. On average ten stems were cut to release each apple tree; some stems(trunks) were 34 inch diameter while others were only 3 inches. Still it let in a lot of sunlight ie; 10 stems times almost 2,000 apple trees released equals lots of openings in the tree canopy.

 

[Shedder]

Here is a wild apple the silviculture cutters found, last year. It is in my oak area and i didn't know it was there. An example of a wild planting a long way from others. A bear may have puked the seed up. The cutters said they found a bear den near it.

Any suggestions on curbing that bad growth form from growing in an old cut?

Should it be cut below the forks or prune the forks? Which ones?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I love the location of your apple trees in the pix. Productive apple trees in hidden spots like that would be killer for hunting.

I'm no expert pruner. But I can tell you that having followed the advice of folks on here & local orchard men who are, I'd pick the strongest vertical grower for the leader, and prune off the lower steeply angled limbs and get the tree growing taller. The strongest branches are the kind that grow ( or are trained ) from 90 degrees - straight out from the trunk - to about 45 degrees. Those angles are better able to hold loads of fruit without breaking. If you want to avoid heavy browsing, prune so your lowest limbs are no lower than 5 to 6 ft. off the ground.

I'd also spray the weeds around the bases of your trees to let more nutrients get to your trees. Less weeds = faster growth. These tips have worked for me at my camp. If you have hundreds or thousands of apple trees, this may not be practical. Then I'd just focus my " pampering " to those trees I wanted to hunt near, - maybe 10 to 20. Good luck with your trees !!

 

[Shedder]

Thx

I only have a few apples. wild ones.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Sorry Shedder - I got you mixed up with Chainsaw or Buckly. Someone said they had thousands of apple trees growing wild - thought it was you !!
At my camp, we released a couple OLD apple trees that were buried in some pines. We put down a bunch of lime to counter the acidity of the needles on the ground. That's all we did & those trees put on a bunch of new growth & blossoms. It only took 1 season to get some apples.

Steep angle, vertical-growing branches are weak - split easily. For new branch buds growing off the leaders, I put clothes pins tight to them on the upper side so they grow out at 90 degrees. That will be a much stronger crotch angle for holding fruit. You can also use limb spreaders to force branches to grow at a better angle. Angles between 90 and 45 degrees make more blossoms / more fruit.

If you have many deer, you might want to cage them.

 

[chickenlittle]

Stoolbeds are cut off each year at ground level and produce apple rootstocks each year for decades. So yeah, apple could survive being browsed to the ground once well established.

 

[chickenlittle]

If you protect it through the summer and fertilized it, it would be productive with deer browsing it to ground by spring.

 

[chickenlittle]

Give it a try this year and report back.

It is on my list along with mountain maple browse plots. But don't expect results from me for 5 years until I get other stuff done.