Might have apples this year

[j-bird]

Well if all goes well I just might have some apples this fall! This would be a fair accomplishment for me. These trees have been in the ground for 3 years now (bought as 5 gal containers) and I have seen very few apples. I know that flowers are a good place to start,


Some of you hard core guys love your apple porn so this is more of a "money shot" for those of you that enjoy that sort of thing.


Don't ask what type they are as I don't remember and I was not smart enough to tag them. I do know they are not "Deer" apples but are people apples. I wasn't very smart when I made my purchase, but you learn from your mistakes.

I did a little experiment back in early spring and I wired a pruned branch to a cage to see what the deer would do to it - just to see if I could get away with not caging my trees due to my low deer density. You may not be able to see below, but the end f every branch was chewed off!


So the result of that little trial is "NO - you have to protect them"!

 

[chummer]

Congrats. If I ever see a blossom on a tree I planted it will be a huge victory.

 

[j-bird]

Congrats. If I ever see a blossom on a tree I planted it will be a huge victory.

I just know without the blossom's there is no hope for fruit. So for now there is at least hope! So far I think I have made every mistake possible with apple trees - so if I ever give advice on them........just do the opposite of what I say (thankfully we got folks like Ed and Maya around)!

 

[Turkey Creek]

Cool. Dont let those young trees produce more than an apple or two though.

 

[Maya]

Lookin good J-bird! Going to be at least May 15th before we see any blossoms here! Good luck!

 

[j-bird]

Why do I limit the apples my trees can produce? Is it to prevent stress on the limbs or some other reason? With this possibly being the first apples should I expect them to be "full size"? The othe thing I see is the deer can't reach them with them being caged - seems sort of counter-productive......

 

[Buckly]

Just remember, whatever you're thinking do the opposite. LOL.

 

[Maya]

Why do I limit the apples my trees can produce? Is it to prevent stress on the limbs or some other reason? With this possibly being the first apples should I expect them to be "full size"? The othe thing I see is the deer can't reach them with them being caged - seems sort of counter-productive......

Build a strong framework to hold the weight of a lot of apples first, then let them have some. To often they produce to many to early and that sets back the growth of the tree. Apple growth takes a lot of energy from the tree. If you want to keep your trees small, there is no better way than letting them fruit early and often. Not what you want to do for deer apples!

Size of apples depends more on the amount of apples for the size of the tree. Over crop a tree and you get small apples. Even if you have a small tree like that and only let it have one or two apples on different limbs they will express their genetic possibility and be normal size if not slightly larger.

 

[j-bird]

Build a strong framework to hold the weight of a lot of apples first, then let them have some. To often they produce to many to early and that sets back the growth of the tree. Apple growth takes a lot of energy from the tree. If you want to keep your trees small, there is no better way than letting them fruit early and often. Not what you want to do for deer apples!

Size of apples depends more on the amount of apples for the size of the tree. Over crop a tree and you get small apples. Even if you have a small tree like that and only let it have one or two apples on different limbs they will express their genetic possibility and be normal size if not slightly larger.

Should I remove the blossoms to prevent fruiting now? Or at least reduce the number of them - or is that another sort of "apple sin" or do I wait to see the fruit starting to form and remove it them?

So to make sure I understand - by limiting or preventing fruiting the tree will put the energy into physical growth and not into the fruit production - correct?

 

[leexrayshady]

one question is do you have any other trees nearby that have flowers, if not will it even get pollinated

 

[j-bird]

one question is do you have any other trees nearby that have flowers, if not will it even get pollinated

Yep - sure do. that was one thing I did right. I plant them in clusters of at least 3 (all different varieties) and I originally had a flowering crab apple as a pollinator in each group as well. One of the crabs died due to vole damage and I replaced it with a different apple variety. They SHOULD get pollinated.

 

[CrazyEd]

I would NOT remove the flowers, i'd say let them go and see if you get fruit. If you get fruit then pinch the fruit off. For one they might not even fruit. 2, you might as well let the blossom be a pollinator through pollination season rather than just removing them. Something else could benefit from them.

 

[Rally1148]

JB,

Were the apple trees purchased at a nursery locally? Chances are the are dwarf trees. If they are they won't grow very large anyways. 10-15' or so. If they are then you'll probably have to keep them caged and drop the apples outside of the cage for the deer. You may also want to drive a piece of 10' emt to use as a stake to help support them if you do let them bear a full load.

This makes me wonder what rootstock my trees are on. I got them at a Big Box store on clearance. Any chance they're M111 or B118? Did I end up with dwarfs? If that's the case, I'm going to need some new trees!

 

[chummer]

They don't list rootstock. Most apple trees I see at box stores are semi dwarf with an occasional dwarf. For pears it is the other way around.

 

[Rally1148]

They don't list rootstock. Most apple trees I see at box stores are semi dwarf with an occasional dwarf. For pears it is the other way around.

So I'll just have to wait to see if I need to permanently cage them.... GREAT :/

 

[j-bird]

I'm pretty sure mine are semi-dwarf - but I couldn't tell you specifically as they don't put that info on the tag. I was an idiot and didn't keep the tags in either case. If there is a mistake to be made with apples I have pretty much made them all.

My next go round with apples will more than likely be crabs or deer apples simply because I think they will be less work.

 

[Rally1148]

I'm pretty sure mine are semi-dwarf - but I couldn't tell you specifically as they don't put that info on the tag. I was an idiot and didn't keep the tags in either case. If there is a mistake to be made with apples I have pretty much made them all.

My next go round with apples will more than likely be crabs or deer apples simply because I think they will be less work.

Luckily I caught my major mistake early. I just grafted all DR varieties onto my normal trees. Hopefully I'll only be spraying as a reactive measure.

 

[Rally1148]

So I might not have to keep it TOTALLY fenced if I prune it to have higher branches?

 

[Rally1148]

Well I've got goldrush, enterprise, pristine, Liberty and a Chestnut crab, so we'll see! Since I grafted those trees last weekend I'm pretty sure I've caught the apple tree fever!

 

[Maya]

I'd be willing to bet a fair sum that most big box stores listed as being semi-dwarf are on M7 rootstock

X2!