No doubt. I've had a couple get taken out by girdling. Just laziness on my part on not getting window screen around the base by winter that first year.
Fruit trees for Spring 2023
- Thread starter Bowsnbucks
- Start date
Teeder
5 year old buck +
I took this past Friday off and spent the day grafting apples. 15 onto dolgo rootstock that i planted last year at my hunting property and about another 12 behind the house, top working wild stuff that came up in the old pasture. This was my first try, so I'm anxious to see if they take.
hunts_with_stick
5 year old buck +
Happy to report my grafting has been successful. (1st attempt) I have 10/10 that are starting to bud, some sooner than others, but all so far are growing. In addition, I stuck the waste End of a rootstock cutting in the dirt and it is starting to blossom. I am thinking I can let it grow and then graft it next spring. on four, I am growing from a tree that was on the property when I bought it. The thing is massive, I am glad to be able to keep it going. With my luck the apples won’t be that great to eat!
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Cuttings in the dirt dont work so well. You get lucky every now and then. Was doing good last year, until I went away for a few days and the kids "watered" for me...... Had 30 or so mcintosh and 25 toringo crabapple. Crabapple did better, but all died throughout the summer. Trying red dogwood instead this year, folks do alot better wth that than apple cuttings.
Used 2 cuttings to hold up a 18" tall piece of vole guard on a grafted bareroot. All budding out, be dead in a few weeks though.
Used 2 cuttings to hold up a 18" tall piece of vole guard on a grafted bareroot. All budding out, be dead in a few weeks though.
hunts_with_stick
5 year old buck +
To be honest, I didn’t even know they would root. Sounds like you have done that quit a bit before with some success?
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Litterally was watering them daily before that july trip up to camp. Professional nurseries use a controlled environment to make cuttings quite often. Keep them in a fridge that humidifies more or less. Some cutting propogate easily like wilows. Red dogwood is cose to easy, this is my 2nd time doing it. 1st time put them around swam edges up at camp. Worked ok until the beavers chomped them.
Saw a youtube video where a guy grew a B118 rootstock to about 6ft tall, then layed it on the ground and covered it with saw dust. The shoots coming out of saw dust had some roots. He dig in the sawdust cut to the buried main trunk, then give them a year to grow on their own before grafting.
Im not sure if I will be done with adding trees to camp past what I got in the nursery right now. About a dozen antonovka bareroots on kerr, signal fire, redfield, droptine, crossbow, and all winter hangover. I also got some pencil whip dolgo and trascendent crabapple that need a year before grafting. Likely graft with the same zone 3 friendly stuff.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Good bad indifferent. This is what I did with my heavy clay soil. I rototilled as big as my weedmat will be, then I dug down about 2ft in the middle. I mixed it with a bit of lime and fertilizer, about a half coffee cup of each. The soil immediately touching the roots, I did not add fetilizer. I packed down the lower 1st foot 2ft deep hole. Put the tree in, put the fertilized soil around the sides. Left about a 1/2 of a 5 gallon buckets of soil w/o fertilizer. right on the roots. This stuff got well chopped up so, there little to no air pockets. I push the soil around all the roots, but not too agressively as to damage smaller roots. Dig extra if needed so no root is coil back in, you want them spread out. Water as you go. Then water them the next day or so.
If you feel the need a bit of finer stuff could be added. Keep in mind 2 problems. The loose soil in heavy soil ends up being a water bucket to drown the roots in. Easier to dig and more fragrant soil attracts voles.
Many folks have donw well with the common B118, M111, antonovka, and dolgo rootstocks in heavier soil.
Some folks or tree nursries say fertilize is good, some say not to in the soil when you dig. Potassium and phosphorus has trouble going down in the soil. Nitrogen can burn the tender roots. So, I use 6-24-24. In addition to the 6-24-24, I put in a few agriform fertilzer tablets a few inches away from the root edge. 3 or 4 21gr ones.
I transplanted plum trees from pots in loose nice potting soil. Voles wrecked most of my plums. I ammended the soil maybe 1-2% peat moss and about 5% potting soil with the rototiller with some antonovka bareroots and mulched them, they all survived just fine. Reading peoples experiences on this site, I didn't peat moss or added potting soil to the last tree round. I also used crushed stone instead of wood mulch. I feel I went a bit overkill, but if my success rate is high, so be it. Used 3ft tall aluminum window screen as a vole guard around the trunk, then 2x4 mesh to keep the rabbits n deer out. I initally used 4' tall 10ft of material. I know these trees will survive, but some branches will get bothered some. I have 6ft tall stuff to put in instead. Folks on here say 5' tall and 10ft of fencing works good. Whitetail crabs told me if using 4' then apply 15ft of it.
I hae not staked any trees yet, but will do so this summer. Get the tree upright, also the less the tree moves in the wind, the better it is for the root system. I have had plants barely grow because it kept breking roots from swaying in the breeze. Then I staked them, and they start growing alot better. Mostly with dwarf potted citrus tree collection and cacti I put outside in the summer here in NY. Not a big deal breaker if you cant when you plant, and quite a few folks have nice mature trees that weren't staked either.
I pruned my trees when they came. Growth in the right place is better than untamed messy trees. Improper branch location or bad crotch angles will be broken limbs of less than ideal fruit. Double leaders, or branches than start turning up towards the sky, get rid of them. You can always leave a branch for a year then prune it off, if you don't have alot of material to work with, or had to remove a major chunk of the tree to get it growing to a proper central leader.
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Charles Clear
5 year old buck +
I did a few experiments with my heavy clay. A few trees I added peat moss to the holes. These trees seemed to grow way better especially since my orchard is remote and I do not water my trees. Growing clover in my orchard and mowing it once a month also helped add a lot of organic material. I've seen my topsoil get deeper and deeper over the years. I see a ton of worms now too. I do not have trouble with voles where I am so, I also mulch my trees. Basically, I keep building up my soil with organic material.
Fair oak
5 year old buck +
10 Bluehill trees in the ground. Clay sucks! I mixed in a shovel of peat moss in each hole and it helped make it a little more workable. Probably should’ve let it dry out a bit but I had the trees today and I had the time today.
Attachments
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
One arm willie put my 1 golden delicious tree from turkey hill in. Had the hole already dug from a tree transplant.
Picked up my state soil and water trees. 25 black walnuts for a coworker, and another coworker is splitting a 25 pack of white spruce.
Had my son-in-law dig up the holes last week, so I could us a hand shovel to get them in. The grass root ball on 2 spots were hiding a mess of ants.
There several tips n tricks to apple trees. One of them not mentioned lately is ant killer. Even more so if you use tree mulch or chips over stone. Sprinkling that today.
Picked up my state soil and water trees. 25 black walnuts for a coworker, and another coworker is splitting a 25 pack of white spruce.
Had my son-in-law dig up the holes last week, so I could us a hand shovel to get them in. The grass root ball on 2 spots were hiding a mess of ants.
There several tips n tricks to apple trees. One of them not mentioned lately is ant killer. Even more so if you use tree mulch or chips over stone. Sprinkling that today.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Ants are often a sign that you have aphids - but don't go into a panic over aphids. The ants "use" the aphids - they collect the "honeydew" droppings of the aphids, I believe. A couple long-time apple tree experts on here said aphids aren't the big problem many folks make them out to be - with the possible exception of VERY young apple trees. I was told in a PM on here that apple trees aged 5 years or older typically can withstand aphids as long as the trees are healthy. We had black ants going up & down our apple trees, and I thought we had problems - but a couple apple experts on here explained why the ants were there - aphids. (I can't remember who posted the info on ants / aphids - probably Prof. Kent, "Appleman", Crazy Ed, or one of those other experienced apple growers).
Ladybug beetles are the biggest aphid predators. If you don't have any / many naturally, they can be purchased from bug vendors for releasing on your property.
Yea, they definitely slow down young trees. I don't notice them on my older trees but my younger ones would get covered in the damn things. I'd spray sevin a few times a summer and they'd get knocked back. Tent caterpillars are way worse.
I break open the tents with pole saw and spray bifen,Reading where you tried cuttings and then mentioned laying a tree in sawdust got me thinking about what we used to do with cottonwood trees.We would dig a root from a cotton wood that produced cotton and cut one end away from tree and pull it up out of the ground then pack dirt back.After it started leafing out we would cut off close to tree and replant.i was always told these would be cottonless.I never planted any of these cuttings and never went to see if any of the ones my friends planted grew but may be something to think about
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
See below what happened to the new emerging persimmon leaves night before last. It also did that to some of the Sawtooths. However, it looks like most of my apples and pears are going to be okay.
