Apples,apples and more apples

[Chainsaw]

I would add that we should gather seed from disease free wild trees and grow it out. The fruit won’t be like the mother tree, but will have some of the genetics.

I have also planted seed from some favorite domestic apple crabs.


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Good Point Sandbur.

 

[Chainsaw]

Had a relaxed day of grafting just Turning Point. Pic shows 73 Turning Point grafts in cooler. Last year used buckets-hoping the cooler is an improvement but don't know for sure. Note; did each one carefully and concentrated on getting the most mileage out of each scion stick. Hoping speed will come with experience- not pushing it (yet).

 

[AtomApple]

Had a relaxed day of grafting just Turning Point. Pic shows 73 Turning Point grafts in cooler. Last year used buckets-hoping the cooler is an improvement but don't know for sure. Note;View attachment 34040 did each one carefully and concentrated on getting the most mileage out of each scion stick. Hoping speed will come with experience- not pushing it (yet).

Do you just use a topsoil blend? I heard others use saw dust or sand, and I’m getting ready for grafting in about a week.

 

[Chainsaw]

Do you just use a topsoil blend? I heard others use saw dust or sand, and I’m getting ready for grafting in about a week.

Atom Apple, I'm using 100% woodchips but they are getting pretty rotted down. Saw dust seems to be the preferred choice but I happen to have old wood chips. Used the wood chips last year and it seemed to be fine. It is only to keep them damp while holding them in the dormant stage. I think I would shy away from using topsoil and would use clean sawdust if you have it available. I'm trying to keep them in the below 40 degree temperature to keep them close to dormant. Last year I let them start to leaf out before transplanting and then we saw temps in the low twenties-close to half died after three nights of those below freezing temperatures.

 

[Gravel Road]

Gravel Road, Over the last few years red dogwood has taken hold here naturally on its own in a few spots. It looks like a really great companion plant to apple tree groves. It gets browsed regularly especially in late February and March here yet it comes back and it grows well in the marginal wet areas. I'm thinking of trying caging just a few hoping letting them get to maturity might be a good way to help get them spread throughout the various apple groves throughout the property.

Elderberry grows here and I think Nanny berry as well but they haven't been able to multiply themselves here like the red dogwood has. If it weren't for the deer browsing the red dogwood so heavily it would take over much of our lower ground areas.
Am looking forward to hearing how your plantings of the cuttings work out and their possible applicable use as a secondary plant in apple grove areas.

Chainsaw,
I'm very excited to get red osier started here. There are tons on dogwood on my property, but not the red osier variety. Hopefully the reds will do okay in the wetter areas. I have about 10 acres that are something of a dead zone with minimal wildlife usage due to being wet in the spring, heavy clay soil and thick with cool season grasses. There are zero viburnums in the area so any variety will be interesting. If the red osier take off it should make for easy propagation. Like the elderberry, it's easy to take the pruners and get a bucket of cuttings in only a few minutes and poke them into the ground. Hybrid poplars are also starting into the mix this year. Experimenting is fun ;)

 

[sandbur]

Chainsaw,
I'm very excited to get red osier started here. There are tons on dogwood on my property, but not the red osier variety. Hopefully the reds will do okay in the wetter areas. I have about 10 acres that are something of a dead zone with minimal wildlife usage due to being wet in the spring, heavy clay soil and thick with cool season grasses. There are zero viburnums in the area so any variety will be interesting. If the red osier take off it should make for easy propagation. Like the elderberry, it's easy to take the pruners and get a bucket of cuttings in only a few minutes and poke them into the ground. Hybrid poplars are also starting into the mix this year. Experimenting is fun ;)

I had copied part of an article, but deleted the picture.

The author recommended making two long vertical slices through the bark on the lower ends of the red osier cuttings. This would be the parts shoved into the soil. This was done right before pushing them in the ground if my memory is correct.
I have never tried it.


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[PatinPA]

PatinPA, All of the trees Ryan carries are good solid varieties and among the very best proven trees for wildlife available anywhere. What is important though is not every tree is appropriate for every property. For example if you hunt mostly early then trees that drop earlier are more appropriate for you. If your property needs more winter feed then some of the extra late droppers would match well with your property. For me I like some early apples to accustom the deer to feeding in my apple groves long before hunting season even begins, a large amount of apple varieties dropping during the rut to draw the does and thus hold some bucks to help keep them alive to grow another year or two and a lot of varieties that drop throughout the winter to help feed the deer then. So I end up with something like twenty percent early, forty percent in November and forty percent throughout winter type apples. Each persons properties of course could be different. This works good here and gave us regular daytime movement of mature bucks from about October 24 through the end of our season which is around December 15. Additionally it helps feed the deer throughout winter and into March.

The deer below is standing in front of the tree named "Sweet November" seven weeks into our hunting season(Sweet November is to the right of and slightly behind the buck). Sweet November is 39.5 feet tall and it dropped apples all thru November and had a good amount of apples in early December. I credit this tree with helping this deer get thru the season at least until the first week of December for sure. This tree is an excellent tree with no signs of any diseases if you are looking for a November/December dropping tree. It is being offered for the first time this coming fall and of course it being its first year being trimmed, it will be in short supply. I wouldn't put it above Turning point but rather as an equal but just with different genes. I will be grafting many scions of both for our hunting property here.

View attachment 34018

Thanks. I really like his drop chart. Most of what I've planted so far is supposed to drop mid october to mid november but I would like to add some earlier droppers and some later. I very rarely see bucks all summer into early fall. Then they show up around mid september into hunting season. I'd like to cover that timeframe as best as I can. Now I just need to keep the trash pandas and random bears from thrashing everything and I'll be set.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Had a relaxed day of grafting just Turning Point. Pic shows 73 Turning Point grafts in cooler. Last year used buckets-hoping the cooler is an improvement but don't know for sure. Note;

What rootstocks did you graft to?? You're the source guy for "Turning Point", right??

 

[Chainsaw]

I'm grafting to Dolgo seedling rootstock. Last year I used Antonovka seedling rootstock. (EDIT_ Also used various clonal rootstocks but ended up using Antonovka the most-liked the larger root system it had compared to the clonal rootstocks.) And yes the original Turning Point tree lives here within sight of our sunroom. We watched deer travel to it through many winters before it dawned on us that making copies of the Turning Point tree could have a huge impact on our property as well as other deer hunter properties throughout the country. And that is when our grafting journey along with the awareness of the importance of planting and propagating the "RIGHT" apple trees began. Ryan is now the source guy for Turning Point as he has trademarked Turning Point and has grown several grafted Turning Points to create a continuing source for the scions needed to grow Turning Point grafted trees. Since becoming aware of the presence of special trees, I have been on a mission to seek and find other special apple trees that are standout deer trees.

 

[Chainsaw]

Thanks. I really like his drop chart. Most of what I've planted so far is supposed to drop mid october to mid november but I would like to add some earlier droppers and some later. I very rarely see bucks all summer into early fall. Then they show up around mid september into hunting season. I'd like to cover that timeframe as best as I can. Now I just need to keep the trash pandas and random bears from thrashing everything and I'll be set.

There are bears living a few miles from us but to date they have not moved into our immediate area.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

There are bears living a few miles from us but to date they have not moved into our immediate area.

I would be willing to send you a few bears in trade for a few turning point scions :)

It is such a great feeling when you get a good crop of trees to carry apples into late fall, and the bears destroy them.

 

[PatinPA]

There are bears living a few miles from us but to date they have not moved into our immediate area.

I don't get many. Mainly young ones that pass through in the spring looking for a home. Usually they just hand around a week or so and are gone but last year I had one shred a plum tree, snapped off a nearby poplar, and I think killed a fawn. Something killed it, I blamed the bear but I can't be sure 100%. It all happened in the same week that I started getting pics of the bear so I blamed it all on him.

 

[Chainsaw]

I would be willing to send you a few bears in trade for a few turning point scions :)

It is such a great feeling when you get a good crop of trees to carry apples into late fall, and the bears destroy them.

Bears here would be awful, maybe not as bad as wolves though. I'm figuring to get as many trees as possible into the ground while they can have a free ride bear wise. For some reason the bears just seem to stay put in the big woods towards Chummers' land. I do recall the feeling though. Back around 1990 we planted over a hundred bare root apple trees unfenced trees and hundreds of other trees,--never tried planting trees unfenced again. Only a few Crabs that were sent to us by mistake survived the deer browsing.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

There are bears living a few miles from us but to date they have not moved into our immediate area.

Count your blessings on zero bears, Chainsaw!!!!!! They're like having a 7-year-old behind the controls of a military tank. Curiosity + destructive capability + hunger = you lose.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I have been trying to keep up on the bears destroying my apple trees, some years I need to replace 3 to stay even, some years I just trim them way back, and they get set back, and should be replaced. I have learned to remove the apples fro the trees after hunting season, and that has helped. Last year I was about to just give up on the apple trees, and just let them kill the off, but I decided to not let them win.

 

[AtomApple]

Atom Apple, I'm using 100% woodchips but they are getting pretty rotted down. Saw dust seems to be the preferred choice but I happen to have old wood chips. Used the wood chips last year and it seemed to be fine. It is only to keep them damp while holding them in the dormant stage. I think I would shy away from using topsoil and would use clean sawdust if you have it available. I'm trying to keep them in the below 40 degree temperature to keep them close to dormant. Last year I let them start to leaf out before transplanting and then we saw temps in the low twenties-close to half died after three nights of those below freezing temperatures.

Ok this might be a silly question.... I have a large bag of red cedar chips, is that ok to use, or do I need to worry about a chemical reaction like tannin or CAR?

(long story, I got that bag from an auction where I purchased ”contents of shed” . I got a bunch of great stuff for really cheap. Like 9 gas cans, lake herbicide, an apple picker, and more...)

 

[sandbur]

Ok this might be a silly question.... I have a large bag of red cedar chips, is that ok to use, or do I need to worry about a chemical reaction like tannin or CAR?

(long story, I got that bag from an auction where I purchased ”contents of shed” . I got a bunch of great stuff for really cheap. Like 9 gas cans, lake herbicide, an apple picker, and more...)

I have used red cedar chips around my apple trees. Others probably have more experience.


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[Chainsaw]

Ok this might be a silly question.... I have a large bag of red cedar chips, is that ok to use, or do I need to worry about a chemical reaction like tannin or CAR?

(long story, I got that bag from an auction where I purchased ”contents of shed” . I got a bunch of great stuff for really cheap. Like 9 gas cans, lake herbicide, an apple picker, and more...)

No question is silly. The way the rust works I don't see how using the chips would encourage rust. However I have not used cedar chips per se, but do use chips from a pile that was left by the guys clearing along electric lines. No doubt there is a bit of every tree type in my wood chip pile. I have seen zero problems from it to date.

 

[Chainsaw]

Count your blessings on zero bears, Chainsaw!!!!!! They're like having a 7-year-old behind the controls of a military tank. Curiosity + destructive capability + hunger = you lose.

That is pretty graphic Bowsnbucks. I will do my best to keep bears outta here. However from what people tell me an individual landowner has little control over the bears as they expand their range. WE'LL SEE. And good for you Wanderingeyes; keep the bears at bay.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

That is pretty graphic Bowsnbucks. I will do my best to keep bears outta here. However from what people tell me an individual landowner has little control over the bears as they expand their range. WE'LL SEE. And good for you Wanderingeyes; keep the bears at bay.

Yep - they go where they please. Bull-in-a-china-shop critters ............. with big appetites.