Chummer how are your trees?

[WTNUT]

Hey Chummer how are your trees doing buddy? I have been sick as a dog for a week so I have not seen mine in about a week and a half. I hope I am able to go Satuday.

 

[chummer]

Not good. I am disgusted. What I thought were slow to wake trees appear to be dead. I am not sure if frost zapped the young leaves and new ones will come or if the trees are dead and pushing out leaves that shriveled up was their last gasp. We had a very mild winter but a couple times where it went from warm to -30, not sure if that could kill a young tree. The list of struggling trees; 4 of 5 Liberty, 3 of 5 Enterprise, 2 of 2 Goldrush, and 3 of 4 chestnut crabs. Most of my 4 year old pears also had die back yet again. The only 2nd leaf trees with out issue are Dolgo. If I could go back 4 years I would only plant Dolgo, Kerr, Wolf River, and Frostbite. Everything else has issues. On a positive I think I finally have the 20 plus large native trees released and pruned correctly. They all look great and were loaded with blossoms this year. It should be a record year on those trees. With only two deer on cam so far this year I am going to need those apples to draw in some deer come August-November. Thanks for the inquiry, hope you are feeling better.

 

[chummer]

Liberty, Enterprise, and Goldrush seem to be iffy for zone 4, especially if you're hitting -30. I haven't lost an enterprise yet but did lose a Liberty after a cold winter.

I new they would be iffy but the Chestnut crabs are the ones that really hurt. No answer on those. The part I don't get is some of them are doing great.

 

[WTNUT]

Sorry to hear about the trees. I don't think I would plant anything but the most cold hardy varieties.
I have only experienced being below -10 once. It was -24 and dang I don't know how any Apple could handle -30. I do find it very interesting that your native trees are doing well. Do you have any idea if they grew from seed, were a native variety that was grafted to rootstock and planted?

 

[chummer]

Sorry to hear about the trees. I don't think I would plant anything but the most cold hardy varieties.
I have only experienced being below -10 once. It was -24 and dang I don't know how any Apple could handle -30. I do find it very interesting that your native trees are doing well. Do you have any idea if they grew from seed, were a native variety that was grafted to rootstock and planted?

My guess is they grew random from seed. They are scattered up and down the road with the bulk of them on my property. Some are planted five feet apart while others are 200 yards from the next closest. They also all have different apples from golf ball to large and all different colors. My guess would be some random decade 50 plus years ago there were so few deer they were able to grow without being browsed. All just theories