Reviving old orchard trees

[TreeDaddy]

We're well-stocked, so you can keep your bears 4W!! Nice of you to think of the rest of us though ...........

I think having bears changes the whole picture of what the goals are for apple trees. You guys that don't have bears can thank your lucky stars - life's easier then. In our case, we need the biggest, woodiest, heavy-framed trees we can grow. That's one of the reasons we planted more than we need for deer attraction - we're trying to outgrow what the bears can totally destroy. If we can get a number of trees to a size that can SURVIVE a bear climbing in them, we'll be doing alright. Our oldest apple trees are over 50 / 60 years old - big and very woody. If bears climb up in them, they can't kill those trees. And in order to get to the most apples, they have to try climbing out the higher, thinner limbs. I watched a bear fall about 25 ft. to the ground doing that. Huge thump and the bear ran off in high gear!! I'll take that.

Clearly, you have yet to experience the joy of feral hogs

bill

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Clearly, you have yet to experience the joy of feral hogs

bill

I wouldn’t trade bears for hogs. But it would be nice to be able to freely shoot and control them as needed.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Clearly, you have yet to experience the joy of feral hogs

I don't want to either!!! Bears are enough to deal with.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I wouldn’t trade bears for hogs. But it would be nice to be able to freely shoot and control them as needed

Pa. has at least added bears during part of our fall archery season. That's when they're on the move the most. We can use less bears for sure - they aren't just in the mountains anymore. Bears have moved into the suburbs in many places.

Our oldest apple trees have scars from bear claws when bears were climbing for apples. Those old trees have been "revived" a number of times from bear damage.

 

[TreeDaddy]

The "pruning" threads have been most helpful in the initial foray in my 3 y/o 40 tree fruit orchard

Habitat work becomes gratifying as you start to develop a "feel" for what you are doing

.......Lessons learned from a lotta trial and error in my case

bill

 

[Bowsnbucks]

The "pruning" threads have been most helpful in the initial foray in my 3 y/o 40 tree fruit orchard

Habitat work becomes gratifying as you start to develop a "feel" for what you are doing

.......Lessons learned from a lotta trial and error in my case

The guys on here have saved me / us a ton of headache at camp. I started reading on this forum back in 2008 or 2009 I think. I began posting questions around 2010? I believe. We started planting apple trees in spring 2013 and because of things learned on here, we've had pretty good success. Some of the guys that posted back then aren't on here anymore - or at least haven't posted in quite a while. Appleman, Crazy Ed, Aerospacefarmer, Greyphase, S. Smith, and others I'm - not recalling their names - have all added much great info. That's why this forum is so good - shared info by hands-on guys.