Can anybody simplify this stuff for me?

[McLovin]

My brother and I would like to plant some apple and pear trees in NE KS. The more I read, the more confused I get. Too many options and variables. These trees will be for deer only, they probably will never get sprayed or trained. We will prune them as I think I have the gist of that. There are lots of red cedar in the area and we plant them for cover on the property as they are the only trees that seem to survive. Can someone recommend 2 or 3 varieties of pear and apple that will drop late October and/or early November and a place in MN to buy them or a website to order from? We tried bare root pears a few years ago and only a couple survived, would prefer to use potted ones this time or take suggestions on how to keep them alive during storage and transport from MN to KS.

Thanks

 

[McLovin]

...brown soil? Sorry Stu, I'm not a farmer, I would say it's more clayish than sandy. A lot of corn and beans in the area but a half inch of rain will make driving a truck in there impossible and the 4 wheeler will be caked with gumbo. We are down there about once a month during the summer and can water them then. Drought is what killed most of the pears but we're prepared for more casualties.

 

[McLovin]

Boy lots of things to work thru , don't think I would drive to Minnesota as most trees are produced elsewhere and brought here bare root then potted, Might be better off buying bare root and potting and tending your self the first year or just planting bareroot and make a plan to baby them for a couple years or mulch heavily at planting to conserve water , lots of trees produced just down the road from you at stark nurseries or many others like Cummings .Lack of water = mulch will be your savior on this project

We live in MN, it's a 6.5 hour drive to the property in KS. Duly noted on the mulch, thank you. Would it make sense to dish out around the tree like you would for a floor drain to try to catch and hold more water?

 

[j-bird]

McLovin - see if this site will help you with defining the soil type you have. It should tell you how it drains and the like. From what I understand for maint free you may be better off with some crabapple varieties vs apples. I'm an apple newbie so I can't be much more help than that. Watch the "mulch" - I used wood mulch once and the critters got into it and chewed off all the support roots and killed the tree. I now use a weed fabric and stone from a near by stream - seems to have worked much better. The key is getting the tree established and the summer temps and dry conditions more than likely will cause you to need to water them maybe as often as once a week. Some some pointers I can add from my limited knowledge. P.S. - cage them or the deer will eat them to a stick and then rub them to death!

http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

 

[McLovin]

There are some apple trees on an abandoned farm not far away that bear fruit, and the neighbor has a pear tree that looks pretty old and uncared for that was full of fruit as well. I don't think there's nurseries nearby other than box stores or small landscaping type places. We could stop anywhere between St Paul MN and St Joseph MO to pick them up so I'm sure there's a place somewhere along that route.

 

[McLovin]

You guys are fantastic. What about pollinators? Do I need to mix in som crabapples or do they pollinate each other? Stu, that irrigator looks perfect for our situation. Is it durable? It'd be nice to fill it at the mobile home and haul it out to the tree but it's going to weigh 200 pounds, dragging it into place may damage it?

 

[chummer]

If you want a low risk $ wise you can usually get ornamental crabs on sale in the fall for real cheap.

 

[McLovin]

I think we're going to do it this spring, we had 2 out of 12 survive in a drought, I think we can do a lot better with those irrigators. We already have 10 cages sitting empty so I think we can get 15 trees done in a weekend. I'm just gonna go with disease resistant pears and see how they do. Thanks again for the help.

 

[McLovin]

Not that I'm any kind of expert, but if drought is what your fighting, I would give fall planting a serious consideration. You could do a half spring and half fall then you get the same amount of trees in this season and learn what's best for the next 10 trees. And if you tell us this is the last time you plant fruit trees, I call BS :)

We may try that as well. I'm sure we'll have at least a few not make it through the summer.