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Thread: Growing apple trees, grafting scions

  1. #11
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    The only way to be sure of your root stock is to buy it or at least get it from a tree your sure of what it started as. It been so long ago that I lost track of what the popular rootstocks are now. I done this in the 70s and left the nursery field for 30+ years then went back to it after I retired about 5 years ago as a retail associate, so I'm out of the loop now.

  2. #12
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    Does anyone know of some good books on the topic of growing apple trees?

    We put in a "wildlife package" this past spring. It was a dozen or so trees (Liberty, Gold Rush, and Honey Crisp) We though it would be easy HA! I think every deer in a 5 mile radius found the trees and cleaned off all the buds So I fabricated some cages from concrete mesh and encapsulated the trees to protect them from the deer. About August I see the leaves on the saplings turning brownish red color. BLIGHT!! Ugh!!! Much easier planting Zucchini

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnpma View Post
    Does anyone know of some good books on the topic of growing apple trees?

    We put in a "wildlife package" this past spring. It was a dozen or so trees (Liberty, Gold Rush, and Honey Crisp) We though it would be easy HA! I think every deer in a 5 mile radius found the trees and cleaned off all the buds So I fabricated some cages from concrete mesh and encapsulated the trees to protect them from the deer. About August I see the leaves on the saplings turning brownish red color. BLIGHT!! Ugh!!! Much easier planting Zucchini
    Yup..then there's apple borer and/or crown rot which you are almost certain to get if you're not careful and diligent with spraying routines. If you do manage to get trees to grow and be healthy and mature and productive, you'll then have black bears to worry about. I have been planting, grafting, caging, pruning, protecting apples on my land for about 15 years now. It's a TON of work and I think to do it with any success involves chemicals and pesticides that I am not too fond of. For my purposes as a means to attract deer...apples are just way too much effort and expensive.
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  4. #14
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    Buying Root Stock is the best way to go according to the books i have read. Root stock does not cost a bunch but about $1.50-2.00 each for 100. One of my favorite books on apple tree growing is ( The Apple Grower ) by Michael Phillips who happens to live in NH. The Brown/Red leaves that were mentioned might not be a problem if those leave were on Honey Crisp trees. Honey Crisp leaves for the first 5 years with change colors very early and show all sorts of signs of poor health. This is very common and they will change this habit in time. I have seen this on my Honey Crisp trees but my 5 year old trees do not do this anymore. I had 3 year old Honey Crisp trees that browned early this last summer. Your situation could be different and maybe there is something wrong and the trees need to be sprayed more. I spray all my trees every 10 days in the summer. It does not cost a lot of money to do this but the cost will increase as the trees grow bigger. There are many very successful organic apple grower out there but I have no interest in that. The author of the book i mentioned is all organic and I guess he does great. I am trying to get as many blemish free apples as I can and i have been told spraying every 10 days will give you the best chance. Deer can be a very big problem in a apple orchard. I have tried several sprays and nothing seemed to work very well until I was introduced to a deer repellent called Plantskydd. NO deer will touch your trees if you spray it with this product. I have 8 deer in my orchard everyday for the last month and there is no tree damage at all. They bed down in my orchard but will not touch the trees. They will give the trees a sniff and then move on to the next. They are waiting for the spray to wear off ( Three Months in winter )or for me to forget to spray on time. In the summer I spray every three months but each month I will spray just the new growth because the deer will come nibble on that if I don't. In Early April I spray all the trees again because the deer love the swollen buds. I spend about $200 per year on deer repellent and about $300 on Chemicals/Pesticides. One other variety i have that i forgot to mention in Wine Crisp. Out of all my varieties my favorites are Honey Crisp, Snow Sweet and Freedom. These three apples taste great.

    Spud

  5. #15
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    WOW Spud great info! Thank you very much!! What pesticides do you use? I have hung Irish spring soap to keep deer away but they even get use to that. This year we are adding Christmas trees too so this is going to get really interesting

  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnpma View Post
    WOW Spud great info! Thank you very much!! What pesticides do you use? I have hung Irish spring soap to keep deer away but they even get use to that. This year we are adding Christmas trees too so this is going to get really interesting
    The three main chemicals i use on my trees are Imidan-(Insecticide) Captan-(Fungicide) and Carbaryl used for fruit thinning and the control of Japanese beetles.

    Spud

  7. #17
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    Johnpma, i have heard the first year for apple trees can be difficult until they develop better roots, perhaps next year it will be better.

    What fertilizer if any should you use on rootsocks, some of mine did not really grow at all like 6" (that was do to a poor root sytem when I uprooted and transplanted them)
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  8. #18
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    The fertilizer I use for my apple trees is 10-10-10

    Spud

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by barnbc76 View Post
    Johnpma, i have heard the first year for apple trees can be difficult until they develop better roots, perhaps next year it will be better.

    What fertilizer if any should you use on rootsocks, some of mine did not really grow at all like 6" (that was do to a poor root sytem when I uprooted and transplanted them)
    When I spoke to the nursery where I purchased the small saplings they told me no fertilizer in year one.....not sure why. I'll be out back tomorrow and plan on taking a closer look at what they look like.
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  10. #20
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    If your looking for good root development then use Gypsum on your apple trees. I fertilize my 1 year old trees with 10-10-10 and they double in size every year. I measure my calipers every year just above the screen ( 26 inches ). My trees grow 2 inches every year. The books say to stop fertilizing in early July but I continue until September 1st in most cases. If your getting more then 16 inches of new growth on your branches then stop fertilizing for the rest of the year.

    Spud

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