Establishing an Orchard, Blank Slate.

[aerospacefarmer]

Aero... I know my question sounded naive. The deer would destroy my trees without cages as well. I was trying to envision individually fenced trees 8 ft apart. My fences are cut to get 6 out of a 100 ft roll... so at 16 ft. 8 in. so roughly a radius of 2 ft 8 in. I love the concept of lots of smaller trees and more excuse to graft, but more $$$ for fencing also.

Well I tried a new concept for me in that I made one fence continuous about 4 ft wide to contain my dwarf trees in a row. I am. It sure it saves a lot of fencing but it allows better access to keep the trees clean under them. I try to get 7 cages per 100 ft roll so a bit smaller for each cage Seems to be enough for a few years but the deer still nip the out reaching branches

 

[buckvelvet]

Well I took friday off work and got my 26 grafted trees on B118 and Antonovka into the ground and this new orchard site. Will be adding more trees next year. Here is some photographic evidence.

I got them all planted, aluminium screened, i have 15 left to cage, i am spraying around them tonight and will put the 4 ml black plastic around them soon after (on the other 9 trees on the other side of this property I folded it in half for an 8ml affect).

 

[buckvelvet]

This isn't 100% accurate by any means but heres a rough layout of what I did Saturday.

 

[TMIL]

Its nice to get 'em in the ground! Good work!

 

[buckvelvet]

Some of these won't take for sure but here is the current layout and varieties I'll deff be replacing the grafts that fail with other varieties so we get a more diverse culture.

 

[chickenlittle]

I started an orchard this year with apples and a few pears. The whole orchard is surround by a 2 row multistrand electric fence that will eventually be removed. The bottom 3 tree rows are staggered on 15ft spacing and more dwarfing rootstocks (g222, g890, m7). That 3rd row has some lower vigor varieties on b118 or p18. The upper 4 rows are p18 or b118 on 30ft spacing. Pears are at one end.

With the ease and cost of grafting, it is tempting to add dwarf trees in between the full size trees. I figure they will decline as the full size trees mature. They'd need caged when the electric comes down. We'll see what I think next spring when it is time to order rootstock. I'll be strong and not look to see who still has rootstock available now.

 

[buckvelvet]

I'll be strong and not look to see who still has rootstock available now.

I dare you to buy some more!

 

[chickenlittle]

Actually, I did look to see what was available. I saw some M7 still available from a few places. I'd rather have some of the newer geneva rootstocks that are similar sized. I think anything smaller would need permanent protection and irrigation to be real productive.