Fruit

[Maya]

Speaking of thinning, what is the best way to thin them? Pull the small fruit off by the stem? Or cut them off at the stem? I don't have any spray, and would prefer to thin them by hand. Since there more then likely won't be too many.


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Pinch them or use pruners/scissors. Generally the center apple (king) in the center of each clusters is the strongest, try and keep that one. Depending on variety you can peel the outside 4 weaker ones back, like a banana and they will snap off.

Appleman, I'm going to have to spray one more time tomorrow w/ 5ppm of Fru-tone. I'm down to some singles, but still have some 2's and 3's to weed out. Terry B came by yesterday and toured the orchard. What a wealth of knowledge. He helped me w/ a few things but said it looked good out there. He suggested the above spray for me. I'm glad he stopped by yesterday, good timing to pick his brain on thinning.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Being I am a rookie at this whole apple thing, I have a dumb question. I know, there are no dumb questions, but just wait, I will prove that wrong!

My apple trees are planted mostly for the deer, even though I will pluck a few off occasionally. My trees are fenced in individually to prevent the deer from getting to the trees, now when the apples fall, they will fall inside the fenced in areas. This will be less of an issue I am sure as the trees are mature, but when they are 3-5 years old, there isnt much tree hanging outside the fence. So, my question, how do you get the deer the apples? Do you just grab them off of the ground in side the fenced in area and chuck them? But technically then wouldnt that be baiting? Do you just leave them in the fenced in areas to rot? Another question is when hunting, is it legal to give the trees a little shake to drop some of the apples?

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Shake those trees for sure and I don't consider taking fruit out from behind the fence as baiting. You can always lift the cage a bit when apples are dropping

 

[sandbur]

Being I am a rookie at this whole apple thing, I have a dumb question. I know, there are no dumb questions, but just wait, I will prove that wrong!

My apple trees are planted mostly for the deer, even though I will pluck a few off occasionally. My trees are fenced in individually to prevent the deer from getting to the trees, now when the apples fall, they will fall inside the fenced in areas. This will be less of an issue I am sure as the trees are mature, but when they are 3-5 years old, there isnt much tree hanging outside the fence. So, my question, how do you get the deer the apples? Do you just grab them off of the ground in side the fenced in area and chuck them? But technically then wouldnt that be baiting? Do you just leave them in the fenced in areas to rot? Another question is when hunting, is it legal to give the trees a little shake to drop some of the apples?

Some states consider anything outside of normal ag practices as baiting. One other definition I heard is that foodplots have roots attached. Bait does not, especially if it is moved from where it grew.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Once the trees get 8-10 feet tall, I take down the big cages and put a 4 foot tall cage just around the trunk. In theory this will protect the trunk from rubbing while allowing most of the apples to fall where the deer get them. This is the first year I've done this to a large number of trees and it has worked so far but time will tell. I will say I'm surprised how high a deer will reach to get the newly exposed Apple leaves. They eat most of the leaves under 6'.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

After checking my apple trees this weekend, expecting to have to thin out some of the apples, there weren't any to be found. Looks like my trees will be putting their energy into growing more again this season. I actually am ok with this, because now I wont have to worry about the bear knocking down the trees this year. This winter I will prune them well, and be hopeful of a good season for next year.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I think you'll find bears to be the biggest problem you face once apple trees begin to produce. You can spray for bugs and diseases, but there's no spray for bears !! Buy a supply of skunk scent from a trapping supply house and spritz some on your cages. Get bear tags and invite friends to hunt bear with you. Deer are easy to protect trees from - bears are like military tanks with an appetite for most anything, and are curious yet to boot.

 

[Barndog56]

Had the same thing happen with my Granny Smith. Had about 10 apples a couple weeks ago, then like 3 days later they were gone. Guess it wasn't ready yet, which is fine.

My Zestar tree kept them though. Thinned it down to 1 apple per bunch, about a dozen of them. Pic is from a week ago.