Planted a Few More Apple Trees

[MM Ryan]

Hey Guys;

I was posting on the other site as MichiganMan. CrazyEd thankfully reached out to me about this site which was much apprecited. Anyways, I am glad to join this site and start sharing info and pictures.

I planted a few apple trees from Cummins Nursery the past couple weeks. These are trees I have added to our deer orchard. I ordered a Northern Spy and GoldRush, both on B118. I also planted a Liberty on B118 that I received from Cummins last year, but nursed over the summer in a 7-Gallon Root Trapper bag.

Here is the Northern Spy on B118.

Before:

After:

I pruned the tree back, used aluminum window screen to protect the trunk, and closed the 6 ft. welded wire cages.

A few days later I added some pea stones for mulching and also securing the window screen.

Northen Spy is listed as a very vigorous large growing tree. It also blooms very late in the season, is very hardy, and fruit rippens in November. This variety is said to take VERY long to bear fruit. Potentially 10-15 years! Also Northern Spy may tend to biannual bear.

Some of the descriptions are very good, some not so much. I wanted to try the Northern Spy because I like the vigorous tendencies, late blooming, and hardiness charactistics. Also, the bigger the tree the better. I am not thrilled about the bearing of fruit wait time. Hopefully in the meantime, I will have several other apples dropping from my other trees. I am 31 as of today and hopefully have time to wait for fruit on this tree and enjoy watching it grow.

 

[MM Ryan]

Here is the transplanted Liberty on B118 from Cummins. I received this last year as a tiny whip so I decided to nurse it over the summer and plant this Spring. The tree feathered out very nice and grew about 3 feet in the Root Trapper bag.

Before:

Here is the tree after pruning, staking, protecting, and mulching.

 

[buckvelvet]

Very nice!

 

[MM Ryan]

Random pic of a larger tree. Sorry about the quality.

Freedom on B118

 

[MM Ryan]

Badger, the Freedom has not yet put out any apples. I am hoping I have some fruit from it in the next year or so. Early on, I made some pruning mistakes I think set the tree back. With some help from the other forum and research, my pruning and training has been getting better. I use wire to tie down branches, and clothes pins to help form the correct angles. Picked up that tip from Maya and WesternNY!

I really appreciate the nice words and also the tip about the Prairie Spy, thanks!

 

[UP Powers]

is there a reason that b118 is the latest rave?? I see everyone using it. side track thread here... but awesome work . love the looks of that dirt!!!

 

[CrazyEd]

b118 can fruit sooner than MM.111. b118 definitely does better in sandy soil than mm111 as well.

 

[chummer]

Your set up looks great. I almost pulled the trigger on northern spy this year. I love the late bloom and drop. Maybe next year.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

MM Ryan - Badger recommended Prairie Spy to try. I had St. Lawrence Nursery's owner tell me the same thing. He said it's a " less fussy tree " to grow - so I got one from him to plant. It's in the ground now! Best of luck.

 

[MM Ryan]

Maybe I should have tried the Prairie Spy or even a Nova Spy instead! There is always next year and actually I am placing an order soon for next spring. I will keep that in mind.

 

[MM Ryan]

Here are the two trees from Cummins out of the box. The Nothern Spy shown above and a GoldRush on B118.

 

[MM Ryan]

Here is the GoldRush in a 7 Gallon Root Trapper bag. I prunned it back about 10" after putting it in the bag. I will plant this tree next Spring.

 

[2ndHand]

MM Ryan, Nice job with the planting, you have some good looking soil there...;)

 

[2ndHand]

This year I started using the typical ground staple to secure the window screen to the ground. One end through the window screen and one end out, pushed down into the soil. We'll see how it holds up but I'm guessing it won't be going anywhere. The one thing I don't like about the gravel pushed right up to the trunk is that it holds moisture and I was always worried about that extra moisture rotting the trunk. Maybe that's not even a problem but I figured why risk it any longer. Trees look great! Try Prairie Spy sometime. More precocious than Northern Spy.

Badgerfowl, I like your idea on securing the window screen with a ground staple, I'm going give it a try this year. Thanks for the tip!...:)

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Nova spy is an awesome apple and hangs pretty late as well. One of my favorite eating apples and the deer love them too