Badgerfowl's habitat projects

[CrazyEd]

In my opinion you can get away with minimal work. There are a few key factors because the establishment years are critical. Pick disease resistant varieties and use rootstocks that do well based on your soil, in pure sand that means B.118.

1. If you are in beach sand you need to amend the planting hole (manure and watersorb), if you don't you are wasting your time. My trees have done pretty well, there is a guy just up the road, we drive by his house every time we go to our land. His trees haven't grown an inch in years now, they are runted out at 6' on his high and dry sand pile. My dad and I kind of laugh every time we go by. I also prefer to use black pastic as a weed mat, even over Lumite. I have black plastic going on 8 years, by the heavy stuff. It really helps keep the moisture in and the weeds away. put 2 bags of pea gravel on top of that.

2. Cage, mandatory.

3. window screen around the trunk - mandatory

after that, spraying, i too am reactionary. I spray about once a year, and only if I see tent caterpillars, that's it.

I prune because I need more scionwood, it also helps keep your tree on track, don't let it get bushy, remove water sprouts/suckers, allow for airflow to the middle of the tree. I did a lot of training earlier on my days of planting, it really really does help if you have the time to do it. That said, I have less and less time for that, but at the same time i'm growing more and more crabs so i'm not as picky. You might be able to find a balance if you can do some pruning.

You can make it work with almost no work. Yes, it does require effort and money at the time of planting. Planting apple trees is not free, it's an investment. Be prepared to open your wallet for planting materials.

 

[badgerfowl]

That's a good post Ed and what I tend to do mainly as well. Sometimes I wonder if plastic is best for mine or not given that I can be pretty water logged in the spring. I went w/ knock off lumite this year for that very reason as these trees are in areas that do tend to have water puddle up in the spring or has higher ground water seasonally. Figured it might help the soil breathe better than plastic.

I'm also wondering if that runted out the PS right away or if that was just an anomaly. I used a pretty big piece of plastic around that one. I still haven't removed it but the tree is on the right track now. I will probably try and get every tree over to lumite for this reason. I've got enough left to do the majority of them.

 

[bueller]

In my opinion you can get away with minimal work. There are a few key factors because the establishment years are critical. Pick disease resistant varieties and use rootstocks that do well based on your soil, in pure sand that means B.118.

1. If you are in beach sand you need to amend the planting hole (manure and watersorb), if you don't you are wasting your time. My trees have done pretty well, there is a guy just up the road, we drive by his house every time we go to our land. His trees haven't grown an inch in years now, they are runted out at 6' on his high and dry sand pile. My dad and I kind of laugh every time we go by. I also prefer to use black pastic as a weed mat, even over Lumite. I have black plastic going on 8 years, by the heavy stuff. It really helps keep the moisture in and the weeds away. put 2 bags of pea gravel on top of that.

2. Cage, mandatory.

3. window screen around the trunk - mandatory

after that, spraying, i too am reactionary. I spray about once a year, and only if I see tent caterpillars, that's it.

I prune because I need more scionwood, it also helps keep your tree on track, don't let it get bushy, remove water sprouts/suckers, allow for airflow to the middle of the tree. I did a lot of training earlier on my days of planting, it really really does help if you have the time to do it. That said, I have less and less time for that, but at the same time i'm growing more and more crabs so i'm not as picky. You might be able to find a balance if you can do some pruning.

You can make it work with almost no work. Yes, it does require effort and money at the time of planting. Planting apple trees is not free, it's an investment. Be prepared to open your wallet for planting materials.

Great post Ed. In my limited experience I would add that painting the trunks white is mandatory. I've had damage on many of my trees and I believe it was the cause of death on at least one or two.

Instead of half assing it I've decided not to plant any the last couple years. I'm more of a food plot and native tree/shrub guy at this point. Maybe that will change one day.

 

[badgerfowl]

I've never painted any of my trunks...yet. I might try and do it later this year still. That's one of those things that always gets away from me. I do try and window screen them before the winter though. I missed a couple one winter and had one fatality to girdling.

The only thing I don't like about screening at planting is that I always tend to get branches growing under the screen. Then to remove them you have to undue the screen. Pita I don't feel like dealing with so I wait now til the end of the growing season.

 

[bueller]

Funny you mention the growth under the screen. I have that on most of my trees and like you find it to be a real pain. I have some that I should've taken the screen off and pruned a couple years ago :oops:

 

[badgerfowl]

Same here. Eventually I get sick of looking at it and open them up and trim. Typically when doing spring pruning.

 

[CrazyEd]

I agree on the painting. I painted all of the trunks on my trees last summer, and there was definitely less cracking on them when I checked them this spring. And all my new grafts that go to the farm get painted now. Badger - I think that NG i gave you was probably painted?

 

[badgerfowl]

Yup the only one of mine that is. :)

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Badger, post # 504 - My SLN trees haven't taken off like gangbusters the first year or 2 either. But by the 3rd year they took off and are cooking right along now. I think Antonovka takes a couple years building roots ( No expertise here, just seems that way ). We also are not sandy at my camp, like you guys have up in your country. I have no knowledge of Antonovka in sandy soil. The trees we do have on Ant. rootstock are now growing like weeds - I have NO complaints. We also have trees on B-118 and MM-111 and all are growing well. I don't see a distinct difference between the 3 types of roots as far as growth goes, other than Ant. starting off a little slower than B-118 and MM-111.

I too see growth of shoots under my screening. I just slide the screen up the trunk and snip off the new growth and then slide it back down into place and pile gravel around the base again. So far, it has worked well for me. A few of the very first trees I planted, I put 1/4" hardware cloth around the trunks. Those trees are going to need that replaced next spring and I'll switch to aluminum window screen on those trees too. Screen helps keep borers from getting in better than hardware cloth. I've also seen no " southwest damage " cracking on the screened trees. Maybe the screen helps reflect the late winter sun enough to prevent cracking ?? FWIW !!

 

[badgerfowl]

A couple of the SLN trees have started to put on decent growth. Couple have just existed. I won't get too worried for a few years.

I still get some cracking with the window screen which is why I may try and paint them this year yet. The B118 has done very well at our place. Antonovka and mm106 are new ones for me this year.

 

[badgerfowl]

Planted a couple different BOB brassica mixes that I had bought at half price back in December. For less than $10 for each bag there isn't much difference in price. Shipping costs nixes any savings from a place like Welter's.
This is biologic maximum I picked up for $9 at menards. I planted it last year and it did well. Here it is 2 weeks after planting. Throw, mow, and spray here. Have had 2"+ of rain since but by sunday the ground was pretty dry again so I'm hoping we get something out of tomorrow's chance. Otherwise these might be toast.

WTI Winter-greens planted 3 weeks ago. I must have done a crappy job of broadcasting or germination was spotty. Thick in some areas and almost non-existent in others. Winter rye thatch on the ground here.


Crabs planted this spring are pushing over the 5' cage. Of the 9 planted I think only 1 is not at least 5'. All started about 3' whips.

Shot of the older trees. Finally killed the vegetation in between trees within the rows. Makes for easier mowing of the clover.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Spring-planted crabs are looking real nice, Badger. Older trees look good too. You should have plenty of attraction in a couple years. Nice job !!

 

[badgerfowl]

Thanks! All but one of the SLN crabs have shot up in the last few weeks. One is still just there. Leafed out but no growth. Others are pushing 5' now.

 

[buckvelvet]

Looks great BNB, hope ya get your extra helping of moisture!

 

[bueller]

That is some real nice growth on the trees you planted this spring. My brassicas planted early in the season came up much like yours. I'm wondering if heavy rainfall shortly after seeding "floated" the seeds into puddles.

 

[badgerfowl]

That is some real nice growth on the trees you planted this spring. My brassicas planted early in the season came up much like yours. I'm wondering if heavy rainfall shortly after seeding "floated" the seeds into puddles.

It could have, but I think we only got a couple of 0.2" rainfalls after I planted that particular plot. We got heavier stuff after that but they had already germinated from the 0.2" events. I'm guessing I just did a poor job of broadcasting. It's tough to see where those tiny seeds are going most of the time.

 

[bueller]

It could have, but I think we only got a couple of 0.2" rainfalls after I planted that particular plot. We got heavier stuff after that but they had already germinated from the 0.2" events. I'm guessing I just did a poor job of broadcasting. It's tough to see where those tiny seeds are going most of the time.

I didn't think mine floated either but I sure had some really thick areas and many bare areas :confused:. Could be that the bare areas dried out after sprouting. I don't know. Hopefully the ones I planted a few weeks back are better.

 

[badgerfowl]

Even w/ all the rain recently, its dry again. If we don't get any today, I'm worried they'll burn up as it doesn't look like much rain after today for awhile.

 

[Weasel]

Looking good BF!

 

[CrazyEd]

Did you catch a little bit of rain last night? My dad was up at the farm on Wednesday and he dumped an inch out of our gauge which might have been enough to get my food plots germinating. Then he thought thought we got around .6 just according to the weather websites last night. The Radar looked pretty nasty for a while so i'm hoping we got a little more. I might try and head up next weekend. I probably need to check a few stands and see where things are at.