Whats your go to fruit tree???

[yoderjac]

I did get the good ones, but it was totally by accident. I didn't intend to plant any sawtooths but when a guy brought me what was supposed to be a dozen chestnut trees, I could see that they were actually sawtooths, because the leaves were still on them. I was paying him less than a dollar a tree, so I didn't say anything to him and took the trees. That mistake of him bringing the wrong trees ended up being a blessing.

You are probably more observant than I am. Funny, I got a package from the wildlife group a few years back. One was supposed to be a sawtooth. Not what I wanted but it came with the package. When it leafed out, the leaves looked at it and was convinced it was sawtooth looking at the leaves. Three years later, it produced it's first Chestnut!

Thakns,

Jack

 

[Bowsnbucks]

As most of us have learned from others on here, it depends on where in the U.S. your land is located. Some tree varieties work out well for some guys, and not well for others. For our location in the mountains of NC Pa., Goldrush has been a good tree. But because it's susceptible to CAR, other guys have had problems with Goldrush. We have no members of the juniper family for miles around us, so CAR is not a problem for us. Enterprise & Liberty have done very well for us, as has Wolf River, Sundance, Galarina, Prairie Spy, and numerous crab varieties. Crabs just seem to be tougher trees for us - less disease problems, reliable fruiting, weather resilient. My favorite crabs so far have been - Chestnut crab, Winter Wildlife, All-Winter-Hangover, Nova Scotia, Dolgo, Centennial, and Centurion. We have about 75 newer fruit trees planted since Spring 2013, and numerous varieties to cover drop times and disease resistance.

Try to pick several varieties of apples or crabs that give you some that are early, mid, and late season droppers. Disease resistance is a huge factor if you don't want to baby your trees. I can't give much advice on pears - we have 2 Kieffers and 1 Morse hybrid pear - but as soon as any fruit gets near ripe, the bears tear those trees apart. I don't know if they'll survive the destruction, but if they don't - I won't plant any more pears at camp. The high sugar amounts draw too many bears. If you have no bears - pear trees may be a great deer magnet.

 

[Mortenson]

I believe I have one enterprise and its doing well. As far as pears go O am planning on trying to get malus from blue hill next year if I can beat the rush. My next order may be all pear. Can u think of any go to pear types other than keifer and malus?

I also have 2 of the Malus, along with 2 each of Rifle and Winter. Rifle is advertised by him as being a Nov dropper. Other pears I have planted are Ayers, Johantorp, Korean Giant, Yoinashi, and Seckel. Korean Giant grows very well, and is supposed to be an Oct into Nov dropper. I think I added the Yoinashi to mostly help the Korean Giants with pollination. It's growing fast too, but is probably too early of a dropper to benefit Nov hunting.

 

[Mattyq2402]

I know Ive asked this question elsewhere. Do you put all your trees in one plot or are you adding trees to kill plots. I have the ability to place them in several locations or extend my current plot into the woods on a travel corridor with good stand setups for varying winds using a forestry mulcher.

 

[Mattyq2402]

My property is in hills and on the top. The travel patter of deer is in a horshoe shape and thats where I have food and trees. It spans approximately .6 miles of potential food plot and its mostly tractor trail but there are several openings, largest opening is an acre, 400 yards from it is a 1/4 acre, 200 yards from it is 1/2 acre. I have the green light to open up the tractor paths for sunlight for potential fruit. Would you reccomend adding fruit to the kill plot locations?

Also there is 1000 acre clear cut regrowth to my south and my property creates edge with it. Prior to dropping in crick is a potential 1/16th acre opening which has travel trails coming from the regrowth and lining the edge. Would you supplement with food and or trees here? It would serve as easy food to bed and access is good to it. Or just leave it alone? Fear is it may be too close to prooerty line and have neighboring hunter issues???

 

[H20fwler]

I believe I have one enterprise and its doing well. As far as pears go O am planning on trying to get malus from blue hill next year if I can beat the rush. My next order may be all pear. Can u think of any go to pear types other than keifer and malus?

Wildlife Group has some really good later season pears. I’ve had a nice selection of them in the ground for four years, so far only the Gate has fruited yet. I think a lot of their later ones are some variants of Kieffer crossed with something. They sure look Kieffer-ish.
I have a couple each of the;
Gilmer Christmas
Ms Lanene
Becton
Gate

BlueHill also has a few late season wildlife pears I would like to try.

Others I have at least two of are;
Moonglow
Ayers
Bartlett
Seckle
Honeysweet
Olympic
Chapin
Shenandoah
Anjou
Sugarsweet
Buerre Bosc
Red Sensation

I think I have eight or more Kieffers planted and will be planting more.

 

[sandbur]

As most of us have learned from others on here, it depends on where in the U.S. your land is located. Some tree varieties work out well for some guys, and not well for others. For our location in the mountains of NC Pa., Goldrush has been a good tree. But because it's susceptible to CAR, other guys have had problems with Goldrush. We have no members of the juniper family for miles around us, so CAR is not a problem for us. Enterprise & Liberty have done very well for us, as has Wolf River, Sundance, Galarina, Prairie Spy, and numerous crab varieties. Crabs just seem to be tougher trees for us - less disease problems, reliable fruiting, weather resilient. My favorite crabs so far have been - Chestnut crab, Winter Wildlife, All-Winter-Hangover, Nova Scotia, Dolgo, Centennial, and Centurion. We have about 75 newer fruit trees planted since Spring 2013, and numerous varieties to cover drop times and disease resistance.

Try to pick several varieties of apples or crabs that give you some that are early, mid, and late season droppers. Disease resistance is a huge factor if you don't want to baby your trees. I can't give much advice on pears - we have 2 Kieffers and 1 Morse hybrid pear - but as soon as any fruit gets near ripe, the bears tear those trees apart. I don't know if they'll survive the destruction, but if they don't - I won't plant any more pears at camp. The high sugar amounts draw too many bears. If you have no bears - pear trees may be a great deer magnet.

How tall is your Centennial and what rootstock is it on?

I like centennial and it would be a good choice for a late August/ early Sept draw but on B118 it is just too short of a tree. I like it on my home orchard, easy to pick without a ladder. Similar to Kerr on B 118 for shorter trees.

My as is B118 rootstocks are much taller but no fruit yet. Hazen, centennial, and 2 Kerr on B118 have fruited. All are short trees and I know Hazen tends to be a semi dwarf from what I hear.

These experiences make me tend to stay away from B118 for wildlife.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Sandbur -
Our Centennial is on Antonovka rootstock. It's one of our oldest "newer" trees - planted in 2013 - but it's only about 10 or 11 feet tall so far. Centennial may be one of those varieties that's a non-vigorous grower. Our tree isn't in the best of locations either, so that may play a role too. I probably should add some lime where it's at to see if that helps. The fruit tastes great from the few I've tasted from it.

As far as our experience with B-118 trees goes, B-118 has grown well for us with a number of tree varieties on it. The only thing I see as a negative is that SOME trees seem to lean slightly. But not all do, so I can't close the book on B-118 as causing trees to lean.

Most of our 2013-planted trees are in the 14 to 17 ft. tall range now and well branched. Some of the biggest and nicest looking trees are Chestnut crabs on Antonovka roots. From my experience with Antonovka, I really like them for wildlife trees. The first 2 years after planting, they appear "stalled" but from year 3 onward they grow really well. We need big trees because of the bears. I wish I'd have been able to get all our varieties on Antonovka, but some nurseries like Cummins and ACN don't graft trees to it. Cummins and ACN have varieties that SLN didn't carry - but SLN had Antonovka-grafted trees, though less DR varieties that I wanted.

I have to say the the advice I got from Penn State was very accurate when Dr. Marini told me MM-111 or EMLA-111 would be good for our clayish soil at camp. Our MM-111 trees are anchored tight , grow well, and are straight growers. MM-111 will only get to about 20 to 22 feet tall so they say, but I have no complaints so far.

I have no Dolgo-rooted trees ......... yet. I have some of Ryan's trees coming for next spring, so it'll be new ground for me.

 

[sandbur]

Sandbur -
Our Centennial is on Antonovka rootstock. It's one of our oldest "newer" trees - planted in 2013 - but it's only about 10 or 11 feet tall so far. Centennial may be one of those varieties that's a non-vigorous grower. Our tree isn't in the best of locations either, so that may play a role too. I probably should add some lime where it's at to see if that helps. The fruit tastes great from the few I've tasted from it.

As far as our experience with B-118 trees goes, B-118 has grown well for us with a number of tree varieties on it. The only thing I see as a negative is that SOME trees seem to lean slightly. But not all do, so I can't close the book on B-118 as causing trees to lean.

Most of our 2013-planted trees are in the 14 to 17 ft. tall range now and well branched. Some of the biggest and nicest looking trees are Chestnut crabs on Antonovka roots. From my experience with Antonovka, I really like them for wildlife trees. The first 2 years after planting, they appear "stalled" but from year 3 onward they grow really well. We need big trees because of the bears. I wish I'd have been able to get all our varieties on Antonovka, but some nurseries like Cummins and ACN don't graft trees to it. Cummins and ACN have varieties that SLN didn't carry - but SLN had Antonovka-grafted trees, though less DR varieties that I wanted.

I have to say the the advice I got from Penn State was very accurate when Dr. Marini told me MM-111 or EMLA-111 would be good for our clayish soil at camp. Our MM-111 trees are anchored tight , grow well, and are straight growers. MM-111 will only get to about 20 to 22 feet tall so they say, but I have no complaints so far.

I have no Dolgo-rooted trees ......... yet. I have some of Ryan's trees coming for next spring, so it'll be new ground for me.

My centennial and Hazen on B118 are also leaning. I have a ten foot conduit on the hazen for support. I wonder if both trees tend to be dwarfs.

I do not have the same variety on both dolgo and Anty to make a comparison, but it appears that dolgo is slightly shorter. Of course I am in a prairie type environment with more wind to bend the leaders.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[White Oak]

My Sawtooths don't even think about starting to drop until Mid to Late October and they drop through Mid November, which is perfect timing for when I hunt.

The historic late freeze also destroyed my chestnut crop, but the chestnuts were not able to rebound like the Sawtooths. No one loves chestnuts as much as I do, but they were not able to bounce back after the freeze like the Sawtooths.

I stand by: The best fruit or mast is the one that will be there regardless of what nature pours out.

PS: 11 miles away at my home a few trees were set back by the freeze, but I ended up with good crops of all fruit on most trees.

I have a sawtooth oak next to the driveway that has been dropping for at least two. ,maybe 3 weeks now .

 

[Native Hunter]

I have a sawtooth oak next to the driveway that has been dropping for at least two. ,maybe 3 weeks now .

Yes, the early dropping strains will do that.

 

[White Oak]

Yes, the early dropping strains will do that.

I hear you , I got mine as seedlings from the state, if I had know they mostly drop in Sept I wouldn't of planted them...although they do attract deer to the property now....so maybe the Deer will stick around.

 

[crowskee]

I hear you , I got mine as seedlings from the state, if I had know they mostly drop in Sept I wouldn't of planted them...although they do attract deer to the property now....so maybe the Deer will stick around.

How long did it take your sawtooths from Va state nursery to produce? I planted some from Va state this spring.

 

[White Oak]

How long did it take your sawtooths from Va state nursery to produce? I planted some from Va state this spring.

If you look online most sources say 5 or 6 years.....I didn't keep any records but I think mine took longer I'd say about 8 years. Then at about 10 years started getting heavy crops. Keep them watered if possible...I planted two near the house and kept them watered and they are thicker and taller then the ones at my hunting location

 

[DrDirtNap]

Sawtooth Oak.

A historic late freeze in my area this year destroyed all fruit at my farm. This includes all pears, apples, and even tough native fruit like persimmons. No one remembers anything like it. It even completely killed the leaves on the sawtooths; however, they somehow managed to come back and are making acorns.

The best fruit or mast is the one that will be there regardless of what nature pours out.

Yes sir...hands down in my neck
of the woods that’s the first tree you need to plant for deer...sawtooth oaks. Nothing grows faster or produces more consistently.
For me next on the list are persimmons. Even though I have an abundance of native persimmon trees I have found that by planting some named varieties I’ve been able extend the drop time and add some diversity and variety to my orchard that the deer like.
Next for me are then chestnuts. My deer walk by everything else when the chestnuts are falling.
Next on my list are pears. Tough trees on calleryna rootstock. Tough to beat a good keiffer pear.
After that I’d go to crabapples (Lemondrop, Buckman, No. 5) and then apples which I’m still spending money on and experimenting with and trying to find the perfect tree/rootstock combination for my environment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Native Hunter]

Yes sir...hands down in my neck
of the woods that’s the first tree you need to plant for deer...sawtooth oaks. Nothing grows faster or produces more consistently.
For me next on the list are persimmons. Even though I have an abundance of native persimmon trees I have found that by planting some named varieties I’ve been able extend the drop time and add some diversity and variety to my orchard that the deer like.
Next for me are then chestnuts. My deer walk by everything else when the chestnuts are falling.
Next on my list are pears. Tough trees on calleryna rootstock. Tough to beat a good keiffer pear.
After that I’d go to crabapples (Lemondrop, Buckman, No. 5) and then apples which I’m still spending money on and experimenting with and trying to find the perfect tree/rootstock combination for my environment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A friend of mine said it best: “It’s not because they are more attractive to deer than anything else....It’s because they are there.....”