Orchard Ladders

[Maya]

Maya great info. What size is your long reach pruner?

5' maybe?

 

[Maya]

Maya - What's the best, safest way to secure twine for tying down limbs ?? At the limb end and the lower end. Re-bar stakes O.K. ?? I don't want to tie to the cages in case bears push cages and break limbs.

I tie to cages or to the leader and pull the branch down to where I want it. You can also strip them in 2 or 3 pieces length wise to pull down more than one at a time. I also use 19ga. wire too, to and hook the ends, again back to the leader, or to the cages.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks, Maya. I think I'm gonna try re-bar stakes driven in at an angle to help hold cages down and give us a good anchor to tie down to. We use other re - bar stakes to anchor the cages, these will be in addition to those. Leery of just tying to the cages, although it would be much easier. The bears sometimes get " playful " with the cages and shove on them and bend them. I'm hoping independent stakes will save some damage.

Do you tie to the limbs with something to " soften " the bite of the twine - rubber ? - or wrap several times so the twine doesn't cut into the limb ??

 

[Lot2Learn]

For mm.111 and b.118 trees, I'm thinking a 12' ladder and the 6' version of the pruner Maya mentioned.

That should give me a comfortable margin to reach the tops of the trees, shouldn't it?

 

[Maya]

Thanks, Maya. I think I'm gonna try re-bar stakes driven in at an angle to help hold cages down and give us a good anchor to tie down to. We use other re - bar stakes to anchor the cages, these will be in addition to those. Leery of just tying to the cages, although it would be much easier. The bears sometimes get " playful " with the cages and shove on them and bend them. I'm hoping independent stakes will save some damage.

Do you tie to the limbs with something to " soften " the bite of the twine - rubber ? - or wrap several times so the twine doesn't cut into the limb ??

That is why I use that twine, it's about 1/2" wide. If you get the branches early that isn't an issue. You also only need them on for a couple months.

 

[MA VT Flatlander]

I think the size of the ladder should be in correlation to the size of your trees. I've got 25+ trees close to 30' in size. A 14' ladder and 13' pole saw doesn't get me anywhere near the top. I agree for most starting out a smaller ladder would do.

Nice old trees. makes me wonder what the original variety is to grow that well in the woods of NH.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks, Maya. I didn't catch the fact the twine was 1/2" wide. Makes sense now !!

 

[WTNUT]

I am bumping this one back up because yesterday I worked on training some new laterals that have grown since spring. It would have been nice to have a ladder. About 50 percent of my orchard(s) is located on a slope. How are these on a slope? I seem to recall seeing that some models have a telescoping front leg.