Apple trees and Food plots

[CedarSwamp]

Am I stupid to plant up some of our food plots into more apple trees?

We have a 360 acre chunk of land and our land is typical of the surrounding area which is mainly corn, beans, alfalfa, winter wheat fields and the rest (over 50%) wooded/swamp. We have a lot of prime bedding areas on our property. We have 6 small food plots and even apple tree orchards varying from 6 trees to 30 trees each. Only a few are producing much for apple crops. We will be adding a new 15 apple tree orchard next to an expanded food plot next spring. We have edge cover and mast trees planted too, but they’re a longer run return and dropping much yet.

In particular, we have a hard to reach food plot that is in an awesome funnel. It goes from bedding to food plot to apple orchard to farm field. I have about 30 apple trees there in an area next to a creek that can’t be farmed. I want to plant up the 0.4 acre food plot into apple trees and mask trees because I think it’ll make the funnel better and deer will use it more in daylight. Bucks tend to enter this plot right at dark. This place gets hunted a few days/year.

My personal opinion is since our deer will jog across our fields to get to our apple trees and I’ve never seen plots that effective that more late dropping apples is better. Our food plots have never been a game changer for us, but certainly provide nutrition and options for the deer. Our apple trees are far less maintenance than our plots since we don’t do much for them. We harvest does regularly so I don’t think we have a lot of social pressure and our deer eat well with the limited numbers locally. I just feel like I can’t have enough late dropping trees to help attract deer late in the year after corn and beans are harvested.

I want everyone’s answers to be “you need more apple trees” I’m of the belief that if there are more apples than the deer and bears can clean up that we’ll probably just get more deer to temporarily use our property during bow/gun season cleaning up the apples. I believe this is happening already, but don’t really know that for sure. Our plots seem to all have one doe group that uses each....but seems like different groups of does use each orchard that we have dropping apples.

Anyone at that point of apples rotting on the ground uneaten?

Sorry for the long post, just trying to give enough info for feedback.

 

[sandbur]

Most years I have early dropping apples laying on the ground and not eaten.

Now that we have decent deer numbers, late dropping apples are getting cleaned up. The last few years, wintering/ late season deer have used my place more often. Three reasons, end of deer feeding by neighbors to most extent, standing corn, and a banner apple crop last year.

I have the best cover in three sections of adjacent land with the 4 th section having state wildlife management lands with lots of hunting pressure.

I am surrounded by crop land, corn, beans, alfalfa, some clover, sweet corn, and sometimes potatoes and edible beans.

There can be apple crop failures in some years with late frosts. I feel standing corn and perhaps beans are still important for winter survival of deer. You need to find that balance for the herd.


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[sandbur]

In the winter/ late winter there are groups of deer in the apples and corn plot. It is far more deer than family groups in each small apple plot.

Up until the dead of winter, I tend to see more family groups in each area.


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[chummer]

You need more apple trees. I don’t think there is any such thing as too many late dropping apples. You are in a position though to not just plant more apples. I would limit it to one or two varieties that are going to be dropping your favorite week or two to hunt. Put a massive amount on the ground when you know you will be sitting there watching them fall.

 

[Chainsaw]

You definitely need more Apple trees. We added 115 plus apple and pear trees to our property this year. That planting combined with the 2,000 plus released wild apple trees is doing a great job of drawing and holding deer throughout the season. Our emphasis now is on propagating and planting late holding Apple trees to add to our late season draw and provide additional winter food. Besides improving our annual hunts the apples help get the deer to an older age by holding them on our property more during the rut and late hunting season.

More apple trees will be added next spring as well.

 

[Prof.Kent]

Am I stupid to plant up some of our food plots into more apple trees?

We have a 360 acre chunk of land and our land is typical of the surrounding area which is mainly corn, beans, alfalfa, winter wheat fields and the rest (over 50%) wooded/swamp. We have a lot of prime bedding areas on our property. We have 6 small food plots and even apple tree orchards varying from 6 trees to 30 trees each. Only a few are producing much for apple crops. We will be adding a new 15 apple tree orchard next to an expanded food plot next spring. We have edge cover and mast trees planted too, but they’re a longer run return and dropping much yet.

In particular, we have a hard to reach food plot that is in an awesome funnel. It goes from bedding to food plot to apple orchard to farm field. I have about 30 apple trees there in an area next to a creek that can’t be farmed. I want to plant up the 0.4 acre food plot into apple trees and mask trees because I think it’ll make the funnel better and deer will use it more in daylight. Bucks tend to enter this plot right at dark. This place gets hunted a few days/year.

My personal opinion is since our deer will jog across our fields to get to our apple trees and I’ve never seen plots that effective that more late dropping apples is better. Our food plots have never been a game changer for us, but certainly provide nutrition and options for the deer. Our apple trees are far less maintenance than our plots since we don’t do much for them. We harvest does regularly so I don’t think we have a lot of social pressure and our deer eat well with the limited numbers locally. I just feel like I can’t have enough late dropping trees to help attract deer late in the year after corn and beans are harvested.

I want everyone’s answers to be “you need more apple trees” I’m of the belief that if there are more apples than the deer and bears can clean up that we’ll probably just get more deer to temporarily use our property during bow/gun season cleaning up the apples. I believe this is happening already, but don’t really know that for sure. Our plots seem to all have one doe group that uses each....but seems like different groups of does use each orchard that we have dropping apples.

Anyone at that point of apples rotting on the ground uneaten?

Sorry for the long post, just trying to give enough info for feedback.

Wow. I wish I had your problems.
No I don't think apples will ever go uneaten if falling late in the season. Late summer drop, sure. You might consider some of Jeff Sturgis' (Whitetail Habitat Solutions.com) ideas on planting fall food plot crops and getting rid of summer foods (clover, alfalfa) since you have farm crops for them in the summer. This encourage does to love on the farm crops and the bucks, come fall, to move to your wooded/small-food-plot areas.

 

[sandbur]

Am I stupid to plant up some of our food plots into more apple trees?

We have a 360 acre chunk of land and our land is typical of the surrounding area which is mainly corn, beans, alfalfa, winter wheat fields and the rest (over 50%) wooded/swamp. We have a lot of prime bedding areas on our property. We have 6 small food plots and even apple tree orchards varying from 6 trees to 30 trees each. Only a few are producing much for apple crops. We will be adding a new 15 apple tree orchard next to an expanded food plot next spring. We have edge cover and mast trees planted too, but they’re a longer run return and dropping much yet.

In particular, we have a hard to reach food plot that is in an awesome funnel. It goes from bedding to food plot to apple orchard to farm field. I have about 30 apple trees there in an area next to a creek that can’t be farmed. I want to plant up the 0.4 acre food plot into apple trees and mask trees because I think it’ll make the funnel better and deer will use it more in daylight. Bucks tend to enter this plot right at dark. This place gets hunted a few days/year.

My personal opinion is since our deer will jog across our fields to get to our apple trees and I’ve never seen plots that effective that more late dropping apples is better. Our food plots have never been a game changer for us, but certainly provide nutrition and options for the deer. Our apple trees are far less maintenance than our plots since we don’t do much for them. We harvest does regularly so I don’t think we have a lot of social pressure and our deer eat well with the limited numbers locally. I just feel like I can’t have enough late dropping trees to help attract deer late in the year after corn and beans are harvested.

I want everyone’s answers to be “you need more apple trees” I’m of the belief that if there are more apples than the deer and bears can clean up that we’ll probably just get more deer to temporarily use our property during bow/gun season cleaning up the apples. I believe this is happening already, but don’t really know that for sure. Our plots seem to all have one doe group that uses each....but seems like different groups of does use each orchard that we have dropping apples.

Anyone at that point of apples rotting on the ground uneaten?

Sorry for the long post, just trying to give enough info for feedback.

Wow. I wish I had your problems.
No I don't think apples will ever go uneaten if falling late in the season. Late summer drop, sure. You might consider some of Jeff Sturgis' (Whitetail Habitat Solutions.com) ideas on planting fall food plot crops and getting rid of summer foods (clover, alfalfa) since you have farm crops for them in the summer. This encourage does to love on the farm crops and the bucks, come fall, to move to your wooded/small-food-plot areas.

Clover and alfalfa are also fall food crops in my area, and we have lots of ag around.

There is never a clear definition from area to area of what works.


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[Prof.Kent]

Clover and alfalfa are also fall food crops in my area, and we have lots of ag around.

There is never a clear definition from area to area of what works.


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Clover & alfalfa are summer foods that encourage does to raise their fawns nearby, as they are green in early summer. If you have no clover/alfalfa on your hunting property it encourages doe family units to live somewhere else and bucks to live where the does are not.

 

[homerj]

Clover & alfalfa are summer foods that encourage does to raise their fawns nearby, as they are green in early summer. If you have no clover/alfalfa on your hunting property it encourages doe family units to live somewhere else and bucks to live where the does are not.

Really? Do tell...This seems to be a currently popular theory but true evidence of such is beyond hard to find

 

[buckdeer1]

I have fruit trees around my food plots but really my fruit trees are just fun and cool to have around.I also have alot of pears and asian pears with the asian pears are best for us to eat,pears get eaten alot by coyotes.If you have the time and space I would always plant more.What variety are you planting for late season that far north?

 

[CedarSwamp]

Thanks for all the replies. I feel better about getting more trees there especially for late season.

Last winter the deer would come religiously to check for the falling mushy apples. It would be great to have as much as possible falling in that Nov - March time period. I know some years they don’t seem to hold into winter, but more times than not I have trees holding onto them in our area.

By far our most productive camera was under one of my apple trees last fall/winter.

 

[CedarSwamp]

I have fruit trees around my food plots but really my fruit trees are just fun and cool to have around.I also have alot of pears and asian pears with the asian pears are best for us to eat,pears get eaten alot by coyotes.If you have the time and space I would always plant more.What variety are you planting for late season that far north?

I have had good luck with Liberty, Enterprise, Eves Delight, Connell Red, and some more that I don’t have labeled for holding on into winter. The past few years I’ve switched over to planting crabapple trees. I’m very high on Kerr....I think it’ll be my all-time favorite based on the qualities of drop time and holding into winter. All-Winter Hangover will be another one that gets planted here. I’ll still plant other varieties, but I think Dolgo, Chestnut, and Kerr will be the foundation of every new planting that I do. Franklin will get some attention too, but crabapples will be my focus.

I like to have a couple early season varieties in each orchard as well. I think Yellow Transparent and Norland will be what I plant for early trees. I read about disease issues with Yellow Transparent, but our Yellow Transparents do excellent and have heavy crops most every year. Great way to get early season pics! I bought Whitney’s for early season trees, but I think they may not be as early as I thought they would be.

 

[Prof.Kent]

Really? Do tell...This seems to be a currently popular theory but true evidence of such is beyond hard to find

I remember 30-40 years ago people knew nothing of deer rubs. Common belief was that rubs were made by bucks to remove their velvet. I used to subscribe to all the big name hunting magazines back then and they all said the same thing. Old theories die slowly. All we can do is hypothesize, test, and try to disprove by observation; that's the Scientific Method.

 

[H20fwler]

Most of my fruit trees are still very young six to seven years and under. The only ones that I see late into winter still hanging are a few of the crabs, some into spring. I do not have high deer numbers even though they seem to browse and rub everything I don't want them too.
Don't know if you are too far north or not but here the deer really go after pears as they fall early or late varieties...everything eats them. So my recommendation for you would be late hanging pears if your zone permits. And lots of nice late crabs.

 

[CedarSwamp]

Most of my fruit trees are still very young six to seven years and under. The only ones that I see late into winter still hanging are a few of the crabs, some into spring. I do not have high deer numbers even though they seem to browse and rub everything I don't want them too.
Don't know if you are too far north or not but here the deer really go after pears as they fall early or late varieties...everything eats them. So my recommendation for you would be late hanging pears if your zone permits. And lots of nice late crabs.

I’m in zone 4. I’ve read so many great things about pears yet for some reason I’ve never planted any. I should plant a few to see how they do.
I’ll definitely go heavy on late crabs! My oldest orchard looks amazing again this year and guessing it’ll be our most productive camera location for buck pictures again this year. I’m looking forward to when the rest of my orchards get older.

 

[Knehrke]

You definitely need more Apple trees. We added 115 plus apple and pear trees to our property this year. That planting combined with the 2,000 plus released wild apple trees is doing a great job of drawing and holding deer throughout the season. Our emphasis now is on propagating and planting late holding Apple trees to add to our late season draw and provide additional winter food. Besides improving our annual hunts the apples help get the deer to an older age by holding them on our property more during the rut and late hunting season.

More apple trees will be added next spring as well.

Agreed. We are likely near you (Rochester, NY), and even though both of my properties together don't total 100 acres, we've planted over 100 apple and pear trees and released another 50 wild trees, some of them big and beefy. In a few areas, I get to watch young bucks come running in most evenings to scoop up the drops that happened during the day. It's wild. What a draw. And the tracks in the snow late season don't lie - deer love late drops.

 

[Chainsaw]

Agreed. We are likely near you (Rochester, NY), and even though both of my properties together don't total 100 acres, we've planted over 100 apple and pear trees and released another 50 wild trees, some of them big and beefy. In a few areas, I get to watch young bucks come running in most evenings to scoop up the drops that happened during the day. It's wild. What a draw. And the tracks in the snow late season don't lie - deer love late drops.

We are just two hours east of you, twenty miles south of Watertown. Last years camera arsenal of 39 Brownings plus a few of each of a couple of other brands that work sometimes over and over showed daytime movement of mature bucks mostly in/among in the woods apple trees. It sounds like you are experiencing the same and are also very busy planting more.

 

[Knehrke]

I LOVE my Browning cameras. The new ones are good, but it's hard to beat the BTC5HD model on almost any level. I'm playing with cell cams now, and have yet to reach a firm conclusion.