How many apple trees?

[Powder]

There is always a lot of talk of the different varieties of apples/crabs to plant, when they fall, best methods of planting etc. But what I haven't seen much of is how many are needed. I know there are some on here that get addicted to planting them but I believe most of us are planting them as an addition to our foodplots and therefore are looking for an optimal amount.

For 'normal' deer numbers, how many are really needed? Obviously it depends a bit on variety but if your sole purpose was to supplement your foodplots how many would you want planted?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

It depends on how much acreage you have to work with. Assuming 20 acres, I'd want at least 6. Varieties would depend on your zone and drop times you want. My camp is on the border of 6 and 5 - so I'd plant a Dolgo, Chestnut, and Kerr crab - and a Liberty, Enterprise, and a Goldrush for regular apples.

 

[chickenlittle]

All you need is one mature full size tree that is putting apples on the ground at the right time and location. That would put out so many apples that deer would have trouble eating them all unless you were over run with deer.

In reality, you plant more varieties to make sure you have that one tree. Trees need cross pollinated by other trees that are blooming at the same time. Trees ripen and drop at different times. Early bloomers could get hit by frost. Boom years cause some trees to go biennial and have few apples the next year. A tree could die. It will be years until you get full production. Do you want a wide range of ripening times at the same location?

Hard to tell you what to do. I think a group of 4 to 10 trees is ok. If you just wanted late or early droppers and paid attention to bloom times, I'd plant 4 is that was all the space there was. You want more variety at a location, you need more trees.

 

[Buckly]

I have a bunch of new plots and I'm putting 4-6 apples/crab apples in each. A fully mature tree can put out a lot of apples but you want some different drop times. I have one existing 1/2 acre plot that has 12 mature apples around it and they drop between September and the End of December . Literally thousands of apples. The deer eventually clean up every one.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

I know many say sometimes the deer can't eat all the apples and this is one year that seemed to be the case and we had apples lying around in October and November in great numbers. However as the weather got colder and as the grains stopped producing the deer started hitting the apples hard and in the case of my wild trees they have eaten (along with the the squirrels, raccoons and other small animals) the ground bare if any apples. In my 45 tree orchard they have eaten every grounded Apple as of Monday except my enterprise which still has some on the ground. I have over 300 apple trees and right now the deer up at my place are keeping pace and even trying to get inside my cages for the ones that have fallen inside. I am amazed at how maypny apples have been eaten and not rotting. My deer look very healthy too. I did harvest quite a few apples as well but most of my late apples were never harvested and the deer are enjoying then now. I hope it brings me success on Monday which is the beginning of our gun season in PA

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Here is a photo from this past week with some sort of Jonagold that is holding apples very well. We had a few freezes and they are getting a bit mushy now but I still have a lot of food for the deer for gun season on Monday. You can see my stand in the background. I hope I don't shoot the cam that takes these pics lol

 

[chickenlittle]

Paul, you better get more rootstock ordered. :)

 

[aerospacefarmer]

10 max this year. Need to concentrate on thinning and finding a way to sell some apples and cider this year. Might buy up to 10 from the local conservation Districts and have about 10 leftover grafts from this year to plant