MN Wildlife Orchard Startup
- Thread starter Trank17
- Start date
sandbur
5 year old buck +
In central Minnesota, I would plant Norland, Whitney, dolgo, chestnut crab, kerr, haralson, and NW greening. Then plant some more dolgo seedlings for rootstock and topworking in future years. In a few years, I maybe able to add Kerr, wickson, kindercrisp, breakey,and golden hornet to the list.
This spring, watch for the blooms from wild trees in your area. mark them with ribbon and see what they produce and when they drop.
There are some real gems for wildlife trees in our wild stock!
I have seedlings that are still holding fruit and there are early varieties that drop in late july in some years.
You have a much larger variety of choices in your location than those of us further north. Pears have not worked for me.
This spring, watch for the blooms from wild trees in your area. mark them with ribbon and see what they produce and when they drop.
There are some real gems for wildlife trees in our wild stock!
I have seedlings that are still holding fruit and there are early varieties that drop in late july in some years.
You have a much larger variety of choices in your location than those of us further north. Pears have not worked for me.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
This is my suggestion for a good starter wildlife orchard.
Apples; Empire, Liberty, Arkansas Black, Galarina, Chestnut Crab and Dolgo Crab....a Honeycrisp for you to pick a few coming and going to stand.
Pears; Moon Glow, Korean Giant, Becton, Gallaway, Gate, Gilmer Christmas, Miss Laneene.
Once you get started with fruit trees you get addicted to messing with them fast...then start planting nut trees and bedding strips and cover trees..digging ponds...it's a blast!
Apples; Empire, Liberty, Arkansas Black, Galarina, Chestnut Crab and Dolgo Crab....a Honeycrisp for you to pick a few coming and going to stand.
Pears; Moon Glow, Korean Giant, Becton, Gallaway, Gate, Gilmer Christmas, Miss Laneene.
Once you get started with fruit trees you get addicted to messing with them fast...then start planting nut trees and bedding strips and cover trees..digging ponds...it's a blast!
Apple Junkie
5 year old buck +
In my opinion, just as import as variety of apples you select is the rootstock they're grown on. You'll want to make sure they get above the browse line, hold up well as free standing trees, and are well suited to your soil. My preference is either the Bud.118 or MM.111. Good luck, and keep us posted!
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Trank17 - Sandbur knows what will work in Minn. ( post #2 ) Crazy Ed's suggestion of Galarina is also a good one. It's a good disease resistant variety. Your local wild trees are also great choices - those stories of local wild tree stocks have been well-documented by a number of guys on here over the years. If those trees have survived Minn. winters and diseases - they're proven winners.
What area of SE MN are you from? I live just outside of Rochester. I have a couple dozen fruit trees planted by my house here and a lot more on my hunting land in NW WI.
I really like apple trees from St. Lawrence Nursery since they are grown on standard rootstock which will give a bigger tree. Those trees work great, but to be honest I've also had pretty decent luck planting some trees here I bought at Menards on clearance as well (box store trees do fine for me in SE MN, but not very well in NW WI). You rarely know the exact rootstock on big box store trees, but as long as you steer clear of any dwarf options you should be fine (semi-dwarf and semi-standard are fine generally). My trees here are just starting to drop fruit, but I've planted a wide variety of trees to hopefully have apples from August through winter. For early season there are yellow transparent and other similar apples that drop early. Mid season I've had good luck with NW greening, Haralson, McIntosh, freedom, honeygold and some random crabapples. For late season there are a number of russets and I also have a number of crabapples and a black oxford. Those haven't started dropping fruit yet, but I think this might be the year. If you're going with 2 dozen trees, just get a really wide variety and you should be happy.
Plan on putting tree cages around the trees to keep the deer away and also window screen around the base of the trunk to prevent mice from girdling the trees. I also paint the SW side of my trees with white latex paint every September to prevent SW injury.
Good luck-
I really like apple trees from St. Lawrence Nursery since they are grown on standard rootstock which will give a bigger tree. Those trees work great, but to be honest I've also had pretty decent luck planting some trees here I bought at Menards on clearance as well (box store trees do fine for me in SE MN, but not very well in NW WI). You rarely know the exact rootstock on big box store trees, but as long as you steer clear of any dwarf options you should be fine (semi-dwarf and semi-standard are fine generally). My trees here are just starting to drop fruit, but I've planted a wide variety of trees to hopefully have apples from August through winter. For early season there are yellow transparent and other similar apples that drop early. Mid season I've had good luck with NW greening, Haralson, McIntosh, freedom, honeygold and some random crabapples. For late season there are a number of russets and I also have a number of crabapples and a black oxford. Those haven't started dropping fruit yet, but I think this might be the year. If you're going with 2 dozen trees, just get a really wide variety and you should be happy.
Plan on putting tree cages around the trees to keep the deer away and also window screen around the base of the trunk to prevent mice from girdling the trees. I also paint the SW side of my trees with white latex paint every September to prevent SW injury.
Good luck-
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I am right in the middle of the state and you are one or two zones warmer than me. You have lots of choices in varieties.
Most of our Minnesota nurseries handle Bailey's trees. If you buy something in standard or near standard size from them, it works well. They usually won't tell what the rootstock is. Check with orchard people in your area.
I just prefer crab apples in most cases for wildlife. I think they do better on my soils and my part of the state.
