Planting Apple trees

[Scenttrails]

A couple of more questions. 1. What do you use to tie the cage ends together so you can get in and out if you have to?
2. How close to the tree do you lay the weed barrier? Do you leave some space covered with the pea gravel for watering or can you water right over the weed barrier? Sorry if this has been covered and I missed it.

 

[tooln]

1. Wire or tie wraps
2. I go about 2".
3. I am by no way an expert on trees.

 

[j-bird]

Hold the cage closed with wire or the cut length of your cage like has been mentioned. I put my barrier as close to the truck as possible (remember your truck protection needs to be in the ground). I cover all the weed barrier with gravel to ensure it stays put and to keep critters from getting under it. I simply water over the gravel as the weed barrier I use will allow the water to pass thru it. For watering I will place a 5 gallon bucket with weep holes in the bottom of it inside the cage and leave it there and then fill the bucket up once a week. This allows the water to soak into the soil better then running off once the ground turns hard in the summer heat. I will move the bucket around some as well.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I do the same - bend a couple ends of the concrete mesh to lock it together or use some SOLID - not stranded - copper wire which won't corrode to tie it closed. Don't use ty-raps.
The weed barrier cloth I put right up to the tree trunk. Water will pass right thru it, otherwise it would kill plants from lack of water. This is the method I use : Plant the tree. If it's a whip w/ no limbs, I just cut a slit about 1 1/2" long with a utility knife in the center of my landscape cloth ( 36"and or 48" wide X 40" long, ) and drop it down over the top of the whip. I then pile 3 or 4" of crushed limestone chips ( pea-sized ) all over the landscape cloth so it's entirely covered. I wrap the trunk w/ aluminum window screen and tuck the screen down to ground level and then scrape the stone up to it so the bottom of the screen is 4" below the stone chips. This keeps mice / voles from tunneling under the stone and getting to the trunk. Water seeps thru the stone and landscape cloth to get to the tree roots. The stone goes right up to the screen.

If you need to see how to staple the screen shut, look at the post on screening apple trees.

Edit : go back to page 2 of this Fruit Trees thread and look at the title " voles / mice " from Bowhunternw. The last 2 pages of that thread have pix of screens and how to fabricate and staple them.

J-bird's bucket watering method is a good one. I use that method too. Slow trickle watering.

 

[Scenttrails]

Excellent. Thanks again for all the good information from all of you.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Yes when you cut the wire there is a 2inch length of wire previously attached to the next vertical wire. My advise is only bend 2 or 3 for ease of getting back in especially if you do it alone and when it's cold

 

[Scenttrails]

Yes when you cut the wire there is a 2inch length of wire previously attached to the next vertical wire. My advise is only bend 2 or 3 for ease of getting back in especially if you do it alone and when it's cold

Got it. Thanks.

 

[aerospacefarmer]

Well we do same thing but I use welded wire and I thing each square is 2 inches by 4 inches