Ordered my first fruit trees

Someday isle

5 year old buck +
I ordered my first fruit trees today. I had picked up some sawtooth oak acorns and was going to try my hand at those this year but that project kind of came apart. I had stored them in my garage refrigerator and it got so cold this winter that most of them actually froze and cracked. It’s okay though. I have primarily oak and hickory trees in my woods anyway so I really don’t need the acorns. I decided to go ahead and order some fruit trees. I ordered the 10 tree pear package from the Wildlife group along with weed mats, stakes and tree tubes. They were sold out of their crab apple packages so I ordered those form Willis nursery. I ordered 2 Dolgo, 2 transcendent and 2 Eliza crabs from them. I have two existing food plot areas that I’ll plant some of the trees in. If I get my new spot cleared by the time they come in I’ll split the planting’s into three areas. That will give me at least 5 fruit trees in each of my three hunting plots (provided they all survive). I’ll also be converting my interior food plot trails to clover trails and my perimeter trails will all become access trails in an effort to centralize my feeding areas. I’ll document all of my planting adventures on my land tour when the time comes.

Both Willis and The Wildlife Group will be shipping to me on March 13th with an expected delivery date of the 16th. I hope to have them planted, staked, tubed and caged over St Patrick’s Day weekend. I’ll update my progress. For what it’s worth I ordered by phone and they were both more than helpful. The lady from Willis even took the time to share proper recommended planting procedures, depth of hole etc... they both made a great impression on me.
 
I've had bad luck with tubes on apple trees. Lost several when mice overwintered in them and girdled the tree. I've had no such troubles when I switched to window screen for protection again mice, rabbits, & voles.
And Jack's right, it can become an addiction. :)
 
Agree with greyphase on the tubes...on fruit trees I just screen stake and cage. Good luck with the new trees...it's an AWESOME addiction to have!
 
X - 3 on the tube problems. Voles girdling trees. Screen and cage = :emoji_thumbsup:

This forum is the MAIN reason for my addiction. Lurked for a couple years before contributing anything. Addict - turned pusher ??? !!! :emoji_astonished:
Welcome to " Club Habitat Addict ".
 
I've actually had great luck with tree tubes on apples. I use the 5 foot tubes. I figure I don't want lower scafold branches than that anyways. I plant- tube -stake- tag and lastly put 2 shovels of manure around each tube. I think the manure or mulch is key to keeping mice from taking up residency in the tube.
I dislike cages as they take to long, a mess to trim around, and mostly since I've seen enough camera pics of bucks with tree cage on there antlers.
 
I have used both methods and haven't had any issues.
 
The biggest thing with a cage is it helps for training. Hard to train without a cage to wire limbs down to.
 
I got ten Pear trees planted today. If you want to follow the process I posted it, along with some pictures, on my land tour today. Things went really well. Lots of good information on this site about fruit trees. I feel like I was pretty thorough but also feel like I am only pretending I know what I’m doing -but learning is fun. I’m sure they won’t all survive but hopefully something good happens.
 
The biggest thing with a cage is it helps for training. Hard to train without a cage to wire limbs down to.
But eventually the low branches get in the way of the cage. I just removed about 100 lower branches in my pruning this year and many were about an inch diameter. I feel the trees will prosper more now. More to come
 
But eventually the low branches get in the way of the cage. I just removed about 100 lower branches in my pruning this year and many were about an inch diameter. I feel the trees will prosper more now. More to come

The low branches can be well above the cage. The cage just provides a convenient anchor point for tying down a branch.
 
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Well here’s what it looks like now that they’re in. I still have my aluminum tags to hang on the cages. We’ve been really fortunate to have a little rain since planting with more in the forecast.
 
Just be mindful of the trees getting enough sun or they may take forever to bear fruit. I see where you cut s lot of trees but shade happens fast if not on a southern exposure and if those bigger trees are too close based on position of sun
 
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