Kerr Crab

[sandbur]

Ed.. Is it safe to use black plastic on apple trees?? I thought apple trees would not do well with it.

I think the consensus was that it was OK with light well drained soil.

I did use 2 foot square viz pore plastic tree mats on flowering crabs that I planted 25 years ago and I still use them on some crabs. Not on the heavy soils, but on the light stuff.

 

[CrazyEd]

Art, in my sandy soil it is perfectly safe to use black plastic. i'd go one step further and say apple trees thrive with black plastic in my sandy soils. It's important to note that my soil is like beach sand, it's very different than the average person on this forum's soil. In heavier soils I would use caution. I think anyone growing apples should take a very close look at their soil type and conditions before they make the decision to or not to use black plastic, in the wrong scenario it will be fatal. I feel pretty confident saying that some of my trees would have died during the drought of 2012 if they did not have black plastic.

 

[Lot2Learn]

Ed.. Is it safe to use black plastic on apple trees??

UpP, if you decide not to go the black plastic route based on Ed's comments above, suggest you consider using Lumite (http://shawfabricproducts.com) which has worked great for me in heavier soils.

 

[sandbur]

Art, in my sandy soil it is perfectly safe to use black plastic. i'd go one step further and say apple trees thrive with black plastic in my sandy soils. It's important to note that my soil is like beach sand, it's very different than the average person on this forum's soil. In heavier soils I would use caution. I think anyone growing apples should take a very close look at their soil type and conditions before they make the decision to or not to use black plastic, in the wrong scenario it will be fatal. I feel pretty confident saying that some of my trees would have died during the drought of 2012 if they did not have black plastic.

Thanks, Ed. I have used layers of cardboard under cedar chips for what I planted this year. I did not want UP to jump on the black plastic if his soils was heavy or wet.

 

[CrazyEd]

Here's what i'm planting in and why i get away with using black plastic. When I say beach sand i'm not joking. Our area in Wisconsin is referred to the central sand plains or central sand prairie.

 

[UP Powers]

wow. you are not lying. that's like a beach. I will look buy some luminite. I used some landscape fabric that I had left over from a home project, it wasn't a high quality, but I figured it was better than nothing. I love how you do the rocks around your trees.

I loved the pics of your kids too. Makes it all worth while.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Don't want to come off as rude or impatient, but in the exchange of info on here, sometimes questions get overlooked. No problem. But for the sake of good info, I'll ask again what Sandbur & I wanted to know earlier on this thread - Does anyone grow Violi's hanging crab? if so, how big is the fruit - and drop time? Again - no problem. I think our questions just got by-passed by a lot of other good info & answers. If anyone's got Violi's - thanks for any advice!

 

[greyphase]

My Violi crab is on it's 3 leaf with no fruit yet. According to their catalog it gets a crab 2 inches in diameter.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks, Grey! I just located my SLN catalog. ( I put it somewhere I wouldn't forget - you know how that goes! ) I see the 2" size in there now. I guess I'll order one for the spring planting season. Is your Violi's growing well?

 

[greyphase]

Hey B&B

Last year it showed little growth & the leaves looked yellowish. I fertilized this spring and it has put on some good growth this year but I fear that it's a year behind in it's growth.
Looking through the SLN catalog two other crabs have caught my eye. The Trailman crab and the Kola crab. Anyone have any experience with either of these two?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Yo Grey - I planted a Trailman apple-crab this spring from SLN. It was a 4 ft. whip when planted and it put on about 2 ft. of growth and branched out. I add aged mushroom compost to each hole when planting any fruit trees. Mushroom compost is a black, crumbly, rotted mix of straw, sawdust, soil, manure. It's what mushrooms are grown in here in S.E. Pa. Other than that, they just get watered. I hope to get fruit on it in maybe 2 yrs., but it seems to be growing well. No experience w/ Kola.

 

[sandbur]

I put a trail man in this spring, also. It has shown little growth. Perhaps I pruned it back too far at planting. The last few weeks have shown better growth. All of the SLN seemed to be slow to take of as comapred to cummins. I suspect that is a result of the rootstock. Nova Easy Go has done the best from sln. sln trees were in a wetter location, so not a fair test.

 

[greyphase]

Hey B&B
I use the mushroom mulch in a lot of my plantings too. I think it's a Pa. thing:D.

Hey Bur
Looking forward to hearing more about your Trailman (and other crabs) in the years to come.

I think in 4 or 5 years we'll have a wealth of crabapple info here :cool:.