Spring chores

[4wanderingeyes]

The last couple weeks have been pretty decent as far as weather goes. I have all of my apple trees pruned, at least the lower 8 feet of them. Not sure if I will bother with the tops any more, they are just to high now, since they are all on standard root stocks. I have started to do some hinge cutting, but with 1-2 feet of snow still in the woods, I havent gone crazy on that yet. I have a couple big brush piles I wanted to burn up this weekend, but with some rain in the for cast for tomorrow, it will probably be to wet. It is looking like mother nature is going to cool things off a bit for the 10 day, which is ok with me, I dont need the apple trees waking up yet, they still need a good 4-6 weeks before they can blossom. I am hoping for a large apple crop this year.

 

[homerj1]

I dont need the apple trees waking up yet, they still need a good 4-6 weeks before they can blossom. I am hoping for a large apple crop this year.

Where in WI are your apple trees? In northern WI I'd think it's more like 6-8 weeks minimum. Last frost date mid May on average?

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Yes, NW Wisconsin. You are correct, I would like to see mid to late may, but a couple of my earlier blooming trees bloom around May 1st, depending on the year.

 

[sandbur]

I have finished pruning the home orchard and have 8-10 deer crabs to prune outback. I did a few today and also ‘released’ some scion I had tacked on a flowering crab a few years ago. Mantet, Dakota winter, and one more I cannot remember, but it is labeled.

Outback is mostly seedlings, chestnut crabs, and some dolgo rootstock.

Plus about two of Morse’s bunches crabs. The rest have died off.


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[4wanderingeyes]

This spring I am laying low as for food plots. I planted winter rye in all of my plots last fall, so I will let that grow until around 4th of July, and plant radish and turnips. I am hoping this early summer will give me a chance to sit in a boat, rather then working on habitat, or the house.

 

[chickenlittle]

I got most of my pruning done last weekend before it warmed up. I knocked off when my hand started getting sore. I have some black walnuts I'd like to drop near where I'd like to plant some pears. Have a few trees to move out of the nursery bed when it thaws out. Then I need to do some other orchard maintenance. Straighten a few trees. Add weedmats where I never got around to it and some tree label tags. Plus a few rootstocks that need grafted or regrafted once we're past the last frost.

I also have persimmon and paw paw seed to start. That might be a project with the kids this weekend to get the grow area in the basement set up.

 

[PatinPA]

I have so much to do this spring.

About 60 trees to plant/cage.
two new food plots, one will be fairly easy in the existing camp yard, the other needs to be cleared in the woods
build a permanent blind, build a platform for a pop up blind.
clear some new trails to steer the deer my way a bit more and block some of the trails they're currently using.
put a new roof on a shed that is falling in.
create a water hole out of the old spring house.
I think that's it. Hopefully not working into september like last year.

I wanted to let my rye grow into the summer but the deer ate it to the ground. Will it come back from that?

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Rye is pretty tough, if you can still see green, it should be ok.

My list does have other things I want to do. I am moving into a new house, that I built myself, and there is always things I am doing in that. The trees around my food plots are growing into the food plots, so those will need to be dealt with. I would like to build a new bow stand, but I dont need one. But I am putting my boat, and fishing towards the top of the list this year. Much needed.

 

[Kooch]

This is new this Spring. It's amazing what a good operator can do with a D6 and some solid ground.

 

[sandbur]

I got most of my pruning done last weekend before it warmed up. I knocked off when my hand started getting sore. I have some black walnuts I'd like to drop near where I'd like to plant some pears. Have a few trees to move out of the nursery bed when it thaws out. Then I need to do some other orchard maintenance. Straighten a few trees. Add weedmats where I never got around to it and some tree label tags. Plus a few rootstocks that need grafted or regrafted once we're past the last frost.

I also have persimmon and paw paw seed to start. That might be a project with the kids this weekend to get the grow area in the basement set up.

I have been training my left hand to prune. Carpal tunnels act up in the right hand.


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[Kooch]

I have been training my left hand to prune. Carpal tunnels act up in the right hand.


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I'm told using your left hand you can almost pretend it's somebody else. You know, pruning.

 

[H20fwler]

The last couple weeks have been pretty decent as far as weather goes. I have all of my apple trees pruned, at least the lower 8 feet of them. Not sure if I will bother with the tops any more, they are just to high now, since they are all on standard root stocks. I have started to do some hinge cutting, but with 1-2 feet of snow still in the woods, I havent gone crazy on that yet. I have a couple big brush piles I wanted to burn up this weekend, but with some rain in the for cast for tomorrow, it will probably be to wet. It is looking like mother nature is going to cool things off a bit for the 10 day, which is ok with me, I dont need the apple trees waking up yet, they still need a good 4-6 weeks before they can blossom. I am hoping for a large apple crop this year.

I do very similar with pruning my fruit trees, I cut off anything below 4’-5’ prune as far up as I can reach and don’t worry about tall stuff unless it’s crossing or rubbing.
My oldest trees are only around seven years now some are over 15’ tall and can’t be pruned without dragging a ladder around.
All are wildlife trees so there is a limit to how much time I’m going to spend pruning.