Apple trees in bloom

[bornagain62511]

many of you will remember me as "whitetail fanatic" on the QDMA forums years ago. Here's some photos and a short video of some of my apple trees as well as some of the other habitat projects on our farm. I've t-budded probably around 500 to 600 apple trees over the past 8 years or so, you can see some of the oldest largest ones in some of these photos and the video.

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[yoderjac]

Welcome to the forums! Glad to see you here!

 

[bornagain62511]

thanks yoder! Here's some photos for anyone who doesn't do facebook.

 

[yoderjac]

I don't have facebook, so I'm glad you posted the pics!

 

[bornagain62511]

you're welcome yoder! These are all trees that I've t-budded over the last 10 years or so. It's hard to tell just by looking at the photos, but the biggest ones are probably 20' tall give or take, and 5-6" in diameter.

 

[yoderjac]

Hopefully this is a preview to what I'll see in the upcoming years. Apples were low on my list because of the maintenance, but I finally started with them. Minimizing long-term maintenance is my goal, so I've started with seedlings. I grew a few crabapples from seed as an experiment a couple years ago and planted them in the field. I've been grafting them at chest height above a few branches so I can see what kind of fruit the seedling offers. I've grafted both crabapple and a few disease resistant domestic varieties. This year, I decided to make it part of the program. I've got probably over 100 seedlings on my deck now. I'm considering chip budding some of them later this month while they are still in containers using dormant buds from left over scions from my spring grafting.

I hope to see some pics like yours in a few years!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Those are wonderful pics! I can practically smell the bloosoms. And you've been incredibly busy with the many grafts too.
Do you plant out all your trees in your orchard?
Any odd varieties?

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[James P. Bipps]

Thanks for the photos. Non Facebook user here too. Any regrets with your T budding adventure over the years? I've learned that not all crabapple rootstock are conducive to the process, but overall it's a very easy process to do.

 

[bornagain62511]

Those are wonderful pics! I can practically smell the bloosoms. And you've been incredibly busy with the many grafts too.
Do you plant out all your trees in your orchard?
Any odd varieties?

Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Thanks for the photos. Non Facebook user here too. Any regrets with your T budding adventure over the years? I've learned that not all crabapple rootstock are conducive to the process, but overall it's a very easy process to do.

In the early years, I planted seeds from good looking healthy growing wild apples. I would plant the seeds in the garden and let them grow the first year in the garden, they would get around 24" tall. The following spring as soon as the frost was out I'd dig them up and transplant them to their permanent location in the field. At first I was just going to let them grow wild, then I learned about t-budding so I started doing that when most of my oldest trees were 6 feet tall or more. So a lot of the oldest trees are t-budded 5 to 6 feet off the ground.

Then I learned about buying rootstock and since then all my trees have been young B-118 rootstock from Willamette Nursery. I buy like the 3/16" diameter B-118 rootstock and plant them directly in their permanent location upon arrival from Willamette. After 1 or 2 years growing in their permanent location, I t-bud them anywhere from 2 to 4 feet hi off the ground.

The biggest regret I can think of is that I started by planting wild seed instead of B-118 rootstock. Many of the wild seed grown trees turned out to have very poor growth characteristics, but I have plenty of them that turned out great too. The B-118 are much better in a lot of ways.

 

[yoderjac]

In the early years, I planted seeds from good looking healthy growing wild apples. I would plant the seeds in the garden and let them grow the first year in the garden, they would get around 24" tall. The following spring as soon as the frost was out I'd dig them up and transplant them to their permanent location in the field. At first I was just going to let them grow wild, then I learned about t-budding so I started doing that when most of my oldest trees were 6 feet tall or more. So a lot of the oldest trees are t-budded 5 to 6 feet off the ground.

Then I learned about buying rootstock and since then all my trees have been young B-118 rootstock from Willamette Nursery. I buy like the 3/16" diameter B-118 rootstock and plant them directly in their permanent location upon arrival from Willamette. After 1 or 2 years growing in their permanent location, I t-bud them anywhere from 2 to 4 feet hi off the ground.

The biggest regret I can think of is that I started by planting wild seed instead of B-118 rootstock. Many of the wild seed grown trees turned out to have very poor growth characteristics, but I have plenty of them that turned out great too. The B-118 are much better in a lot of ways.

I'm still not completely sold on the genetic rootstock for a wildlife setting where I hope to use a permaculture of fruit and nut bearing trees as part of a long-term program to feed deer. There is certainly something to be said for breeding rootstock for disease resistance but I'm not sure it is the final answer. While clonal rootstock is bred to resist certain diseases, it is genetically fixed while disease continues to mutate and adapt. As large volume of trees are genetically stagnated at a specific variety with a specific clonal root stock meet changing disease that outwits them, I can see large groups of trees suffering. When disease and trees mutate and adapt together you don't often see disasters like the chestnut blight. In that particular case the disease was geographically isolated from the trees for many years and that isolation broke down.

So, I'm cutting the baby in half. I'm using both clonal rootstock and named variety scions as well as seedlings with named varieties and with productive wild trees. I love the idea of grafting at the 5' level with seedlings. This allows for a few branches of the original seedling to be preserved. In cases where the apples they produce have qualities I like, they become a scion source for other seedlings that are less productive. Yet, I will have a known quantity growing above those native branches to protect my time and effort investment.

It will take plenty of time to see how well this method works, but it is the path I'm currently on.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I'm still not completely sold on the genetic rootstock for a wildlife setting where I hope to use a permaculture of fruit and nut bearing trees as part of a long-term program to feed deer. There is certainly something to be said for breeding rootstock for disease resistance but I'm not sure it is the final answer. While clonal rootstock is bred to resist certain diseases, it is genetically fixed while disease continues to mutate and adapt. As large volume of trees are genetically stagnated at a specific variety with a specific clonal root stock meet changing disease that outwits them, I can see large groups of trees suffering. When disease and trees mutate and adapt together you don't often see disasters like the chestnut blight. In that particular case the disease was geographically isolated from the trees for many years and that isolation broke down.

So, I'm cutting the baby in half. I'm using both clonal rootstock and named variety scions as well as seedlings with named varieties and with productive wild trees. I love the idea of grafting at the 5' level with seedlings. This allows for a few branches of the original seedling to be preserved. In cases where the apples they produce have qualities I like, they become a scion source for other seedlings that are less productive. Yet, I will have a known quantity growing above those native branches to protect my time and effort investment.

It will take plenty of time to see how well this method works, but it is the path I'm currently on. For my soils and area M111 is the best clonal rootstock for me.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[bornagain62511]

I'm still not completely sold on the genetic rootstock for a wildlife setting where I hope to use a permaculture of fruit and nut bearing trees as part of a long-term program to feed deer. There is certainly something to be said for breeding rootstock for disease resistance but I'm not sure it is the final answer. While clonal rootstock is bred to resist certain diseases, it is genetically fixed while disease continues to mutate and adapt. As large volume of trees are genetically stagnated at a specific variety with a specific clonal root stock meet changing disease that outwits them, I can see large groups of trees suffering. When disease and trees mutate and adapt together you don't often see disasters like the chestnut blight. In that particular case the disease was geographically isolated from the trees for many years and that isolation broke down.

So, I'm cutting the baby in half. I'm using both clonal rootstock and named variety scions as well as seedlings with named varieties and with productive wild trees. I love the idea of grafting at the 5' level with seedlings. This allows for a few branches of the original seedling to be preserved. In cases where the apples they produce have qualities I like, they become a scion source for other seedlings that are less productive. Yet, I will have a known quantity growing above those native branches to protect my time and effort investment.

It will take plenty of time to see how well this method works, but it is the path I'm currently on.

Thanks,

Jack

I've been keeping the branches trimmed off below the t-bud, so those that are budded 5 to 6 feet above ground don't have branches below that. The lowest branches we can have is about 6 feet around here anyway, anything lower than that the deer eat off.

 

[James P. Bipps]

This year I have 10 B118 rootstock planted. I will T bud to them when the time is right. When will that time be? Having never done this before, I was thinking it would be his year. You are suggesting it will be in 2018 or 2019. How will I know for sure?

 

[bornagain62511]

You can t-bud them in August (southern Wisconsin, might have to adjust the time of year depending on where you are located) whenever they are around pencil thickness in diameter. you can do it close to the ground like only several inches off the ground if you want, but for my situation it's easier if I do it 2 to 4 feet above the ground. Whenever I have a rootstock about pencil thickness at that height, I t-bud them in August. Sometimes its slightly smaller than pencil thickness, and sometimes they are a bit thicker, but that is about ideal thickness, like a pencil