Update: Thinner was sprayed a double strength to knock the blossoms off. This stressed the trees for a couple days but they snapped right back. All the trees are now tied to the conduit and some branches pulled horizontal. The average growth so far is 4-6" shoots, but some are approaching 10". I saw some ants 3 days ago and sure enough some leaves were curling on the new growth and APHIDS were present. Surprisingly enough, the normal insecticide, Imidan doesn't really work on aphids. So they are getting Imadacloprid today if the rain stops. Potent stuff, 3 oz per tree acre. I got about 6 yards of tree chips from a company chipping trees for nothing, they are now spread at the base between trees. I am looking into drip irrigation right now, pretty interesting and surprisingly not expensive. __________________
What are the problems with the Honey Crisp? I fall into the backyard gardener category, am getting ready to plant one to replace the one I lost over the winter. Tips?
The one good thing Honeycrisp have going for it is the fact it is relatively scab resistant. The down side is it has a natural calcium deficiency that if not addresses will result in a condition called "bitter pit". There are a few other issues regarding balance of nitrogen and fruit load also that would be difficult for the backyard gardener. FWIW, my trees get sprayed every 14 days. This year is tough due to the frost took about 90% of the fruit off. The plus is they don't need thinning but you have to keep spraying even though the crop will be very minimal. So the expense is still there with no way to break even in the fall. When they get sprayed, they get Captan and sometimes Ralleye for fungus, Imidan and now Imidacloporid for insects, calcium and boron supplements and Li-700 which acidifies, and buffers the solution and is an non ionic surfactant. Beetle Kill, what are you using for a pollinator? I have different varieties but will also add 10 Indain Summer crab apples to pollinize next year.
Thanks for the info., I'll have to keep an eye on this one it seems. Golden Delicious for a pollinator, I have two that are doing great.
Drip irrigation is coming tomorrow and I hope to install next week. I already ran a strand of high tensile wire for the mainline to be suspended from. I'll try and get some pics next week. Almost half the trees are to the 3rd wire, (7') and a few are within a foot of the 4th wire which is 9'.
We use drip in our small garden, and we like it. Our well does not produce enough water to waste, and the drip is very efficient. It should work well in that orchard.
The emitters are pressure compensating and since I have a fairly substantial hill that is important. Surprisingly cheaper than I would have originally imagined.
You could but it would be extremely labor intensive. Each tree had 50-60 blossoms and there are 251 trees. Considerable care would have had to been used to make sure no damage was done to the fruiting spur which was quite small. I sprayed them and it took 10 min. and all blossoms were neutralized with the exception of one which I let grow just for laughs. Fruit load is controlled by careful use of thinning agents, it's just the way it is done.
Firewood Bandit, Thanks for the update on the orchard and sharing your knowledge. I am amazed at how much goes into the production of apples.
Thanks for the kind words, Marty. This is a serious hobby for me. I can't imagine the risk the real orchards take on every year. For example this year the frost wiped out 90 - 95% of my crop on the 4 year old trees which were going to have the first serious harvest. (M7 & M111 bear much slower than the Bud #9 the trellised trees are on). If that was your sole income think about that, one night and the whole year of income wiped out with temps that were 4 degrees too cold. And even though there is no crop, you still have to keep up on spraying even though not so much.
Well got the irrigation in yesterday and it works GREAT! The last time I watered by hand it took 5 hours and I thought to myself, NEVER AGAIN. The emitters are pressure compensating that take into account the rise in elevation going up the hill. The emitters will not start till the pressure hits 7PSI and are rated at 1.1 gallons per hour. I tested with an ice cream pail and feel they deliver a little more than that. Each row is a zone and the two bottom rows have 94 trees. Even though this is a well with 50PSI at the faucet and a flow of 5 GPM the flow and pressure drops to about 2 GPM and 20 PSI 600' from the faucet and uphill about 30'. Next year I will add fertilizer injection to the system. Pretty unreal growth for going on 10 weeks in the ground now. This clip was installed a little over a week ago, it was at the end of the branch, note the growth in that amount of time. This tree is a 3/8" whip that had no branches when planted. The 3rd wire is 7' off the ground so it has grown about 30". The top wire is 9' and we are getting close on these feathered stock.
I just finished the trellis ends for next year. This new posts system will stop the "no man's land" that was created with the angled brace post recommended by the nursery. This should be quite a bit stronger too. The high tensile wire puts a lot of stress on the end post once tensioned. Next year after planting the 260 new trees all that will have to be done is put in 4 smaller 12' in line posts and then string wire which goes pretty easy. These ends posts were very heavy, aprox 125# each. There is a lot to do in the Spring and this saves me about 20 hours getting it done now.
The larger stock planted this hear will be allowed to have 5-10 apples/tree next year. The other trees will be 5 years old and should product 1 - 1.5 bushels/ tree next year barring frost. This year the frost got them all.
Late frost even did my pears in. First year ever I have not had asian and bradford pears . No peaches, no apples, no pears. Just a hobby for me though. 15 trees.
So Stark bros has decided to take forever to get my order out, should be here tomorrow, any advice firewood bandit for getting these bare root 5/8" trees to make it through the winter?
Hmmm...... I didn't know bare root stock was shipped in the fall for fruit trees. Everything I get has been shipped in the Spring. Barring the ground freezing it shouldn't be an issue. The most important thing is getting the graft at the correct height. In my trees that is the graft being 4-5" above the ground. If you plant them too deep, the tree will revert to the top of the tree rather than the dwarfing root stock that determines eventual size and vigor. Make sure the ground is very firmly packed around the tree and you should be fine. What I was always told for bare root trees is "dig a $10 hole for a $5 tree". In other words, make the whole a lot bigger than it needs to be because loosening up the soil and repacking makes it easier for the roots to grow rather than having compacted soil the roots have to struggle with. What have you got coming?
This post was better than a NOVA special -I learned a boatload about apple growing Something I've had in the back of my mind for years but have never really jumped all in on. Planted 7-8 unknowns from apple cores last year just screwing around knowing they could be terrible tasting but benefit the wildlife. I need to see if any of them have even made it through this drought
