trampledbyturtles
5 year old buck +
Im in an interesting dilemma, an Im not sure how to proceed, was hoping for some advice on an old apple planting.
Little long winded, plz stick with me,
About ten years ago, Dad an I planted 12 apple trees into 2 different locations.
At the time we lived over an hour away, an until recently, live close enough to take care of them.
They were essentially the first none-crab apple fruit tree planting out there. And to say they were left to their own devices is an understatement.
Here is a list of all they have suffered through
1 - planted way to deep, most are sitting in bowls, initial reasoning was that it would help collect water, cause rain can be sparse at times.
2 - no weed barriers or weeding after planting.
3 - No pruning or yearly maintenance
4 - no fertilizer
5 - no supplemental watering
6 - no fungicides, lots of CAR
7 - the initial snow fences meant to protect them, did not hold up past a couple years, and they suffered a decent amount of browsing pressure. And in the end, almost smothered a few from restricting growth.
8 - no painting of the trucks, most have some level of sun scald
9 - no screen to protect from rabbits or mice.
Surprisingly there are some survivors. This year to try an save face, they all received five star care. All the fences replaced an properly staked, fertilized, sprayed with fungicide, pruned, painted an screened. Plus watered weekly to try re-kick start them.
In the west orchard 4 out of 5 died an were all replaced this spring. The lone survivor looked decent, with a bad case of sun scald though, and am going to give him a chance to see how he responds next year.
The north Orchard is a little more complicated, only 1 was replaced outright. 1 was severely stunted, but came back surprisingly well once given some space to grow. 2 Are growing just fine an should produce apples next spring after another pruning I would hope.
That leaves 3 oddballs
1 - tall an spindly goofy bugger (8-9ft tall) with almost no branching the bottom 6 ft, and just a branch or 2 the top, he was the first to turn yellow an sickly looking this fall while everyone else still held green leaves.
2 - a short stunted little guy less than 3ft tall, that looks like the leader was snapped in half a long time ago, started to regrow a single branch above the graft, made ok growth this spring. But will have to do major surgery to remove the old growth this spring.
3 - another tall lanky goofy looky fella, still growing but my trees planted this spring look way better than this fella.
So that is the dilemma, I have an extra 4 trees on order for this next spring.
Do I cut my loses on those 3 trees, and just start over.
Or do I give them a chance, with the hope being that after 10 yrs of root development. They should be able to respond and put on growth faster.
Hear quite often the first five years are the most important, so not really sure what ten years of neglect will do to long term prospects.
I initially wanted to just replace after seeing how well my trees did this year
But on some level want to keep them, seeing as how its a project Dad an I did.
In the end I want the to make the right long-term management decision.
Thoughts?
An for all those still reading, thz for sticking with it.
Little long winded, plz stick with me,
About ten years ago, Dad an I planted 12 apple trees into 2 different locations.
At the time we lived over an hour away, an until recently, live close enough to take care of them.
They were essentially the first none-crab apple fruit tree planting out there. And to say they were left to their own devices is an understatement.
Here is a list of all they have suffered through
1 - planted way to deep, most are sitting in bowls, initial reasoning was that it would help collect water, cause rain can be sparse at times.
2 - no weed barriers or weeding after planting.
3 - No pruning or yearly maintenance
4 - no fertilizer
5 - no supplemental watering
6 - no fungicides, lots of CAR
7 - the initial snow fences meant to protect them, did not hold up past a couple years, and they suffered a decent amount of browsing pressure. And in the end, almost smothered a few from restricting growth.
8 - no painting of the trucks, most have some level of sun scald
9 - no screen to protect from rabbits or mice.
Surprisingly there are some survivors. This year to try an save face, they all received five star care. All the fences replaced an properly staked, fertilized, sprayed with fungicide, pruned, painted an screened. Plus watered weekly to try re-kick start them.
In the west orchard 4 out of 5 died an were all replaced this spring. The lone survivor looked decent, with a bad case of sun scald though, and am going to give him a chance to see how he responds next year.
The north Orchard is a little more complicated, only 1 was replaced outright. 1 was severely stunted, but came back surprisingly well once given some space to grow. 2 Are growing just fine an should produce apples next spring after another pruning I would hope.
That leaves 3 oddballs
1 - tall an spindly goofy bugger (8-9ft tall) with almost no branching the bottom 6 ft, and just a branch or 2 the top, he was the first to turn yellow an sickly looking this fall while everyone else still held green leaves.
2 - a short stunted little guy less than 3ft tall, that looks like the leader was snapped in half a long time ago, started to regrow a single branch above the graft, made ok growth this spring. But will have to do major surgery to remove the old growth this spring.
3 - another tall lanky goofy looky fella, still growing but my trees planted this spring look way better than this fella.
So that is the dilemma, I have an extra 4 trees on order for this next spring.
Do I cut my loses on those 3 trees, and just start over.
Or do I give them a chance, with the hope being that after 10 yrs of root development. They should be able to respond and put on growth faster.
Hear quite often the first five years are the most important, so not really sure what ten years of neglect will do to long term prospects.
I initially wanted to just replace after seeing how well my trees did this year
But on some level want to keep them, seeing as how its a project Dad an I did.
In the end I want the to make the right long-term management decision.
Thoughts?
An for all those still reading, thz for sticking with it.
