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Apple/Pear Trees

IMO..... above- grafted by far the best. Emla-111 rootstock or bud 118.
If u want full size tree and thinking of cuttings- imo- grow a tree from a FULL SIZE tree seed. Not a grafted tree seed. Long story. If full size is your goal- find a tree u like that's very old that u know was not grafted- plant lots of those seeds and grow them up in rootmakers. It's a long process until production or large tree but it is cheap. Time is the issue.
Personally - I still grow some trees from seed. Crabapples especially. I graft some of my own on Emla-111 or I buy grafted trees. My nursery is grafted trees that I'm growing & Babying to 5-6 years old with a system that grows amazing trees. Pull em out at 5-6 (almost there) and plant em. Maybe sell extras. Because of how I grow em- they will essentially equal buying a grafted tree and waiting 10 years in Wild to duplicate what will have with my 5-6 year old trees. Saves a decade and I don't have lots more decades to wait around. Time is worth something to me. But- every year I'll still put in more seedlings and grafted trees. Probably never stop.
 
Skip--are you referring to wild apple trees? If someone is (not an apple tree expert-like myself) and just wants apple trees that grow and produce....You can order common wild apple plugs from the U of Idaho nursery. The plugs are super easy to plant. I order 25 every year.

$2.50 each and I can almost guarantee survival. Tube them (wide tube) and/or cage them....apples in 6-10 years. Big wide trees in 10.
 
Thanks for the replies! I have seven trees that I planted this fall, grown from seed from a really old Granny Smith that puts out a ton of fruit every year, that I will try to graft onto in the Spring. (Not sure if it was grafted originally). I'm no expert but I'm having fun! Then I'm going to start messing with crabapples for extra pollinators.
 
what kind 0f apple trees would you recommend to plant in my backyard (10 acre lot, butts up to a tree line and crop field, numerous deer travel through) for the deer and for the family to eat as well.
 
Hodge said:
what kind 0f apple trees would you recommend to plant in my backyard (10 acre lot, butts up to a tree line and crop field, numerous deer travel through) for the deer and for the family to eat as well.
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That's simply a question of 3 things: preference of what you like to eat, disease resistance categories that are important to you (easy to find charts, simple) & when you want them to drop. If it's just about "eating them" for you, way more just on "what you like" as long as it's not highly susceptible to disease in your area.
For hunting, I suppose if I could ONLY PICK ONE TREE and have pollinators, plenty to plant as well - I'd maybe lean towards Arksansas Black. Not saying it's the best eating apple on earth (I like em, really well) but for hunting, disease & drop date, be my #1 choice I'd say (sterile so plant many and with lots of pollinators & I like having lot of other varieties there too). I have all of these and plenty more I'm not thinking of, some have ups and downs to them for sure. Here's my list off top of my head.....
Pink Lady
Goldrush
Arkansas Black
Empire
Enterprise
RedFree
Freedom
Liberty
Querina
Granny Smith & Honeycrisp (more on the EATING side on these)
Nova Spy
King david
Winnecrisp
3-4 Varieties of Crabapple, like Dolgo for example.
Kieffer Pear
Seckel Pear
Shendandoah Pear
Asian pears like Olympic & few others
Bartlett
Magness

Few varieties of chestnut & Persimmon as well.
Do not need all those and some of those varieties I have 10x the amount VS another kind. #1 in favor and amount I planted is pry Arkansas Black.
 
Sligh 1 has a lot of good recommendations. I would add that while disease resistance is definitely a plus, if your willing to spray you can spread the variety list a bit further. Actually from Sligh1 's list you are going to need to spray for cedar apple rust if you have cedars around on Honey Crisp and Goldrush. While Pink lady is my personal favorite you will find it a tough tree to grow in zones 5 and colder. It matures very late by northern apple standards and is also very susceptible to scab. I have to spray my personal trees routinely and we are in a drier climate than you. Bartlett pear is a fire blight magnet as well, without spraying you will eventually have a severe strike and probably lose the tree. Sunrise and Potomac are a couple more fire blight resistant pear varieties. Magness is pollen sterile so make sure you have 2 other pear varieties where you have it planted.
 
Turkey Creek said:
Sligh 1 has a lot of good recommendations. I would add that while disease resistance is definitely a plus, if your willing to spray you can spread the variety list a bit further. Actually from Sligh1 's list you are going to need to spray for cedar apple rust if you have cedars around on Honey Crisp and Goldrush. While Pink lady is my personal favorite you will find it a tough tree to grow in zones 5 and colder. It matures very late by northern apple standards and is also very susceptible to scab. I have to spray my personal trees routinely and we are in a drier climate than you. Bartlett pear is a fire blight magnet as well, without spraying you will eventually have a severe strike and probably lose the tree. Sunrise and Potomac are a couple more fire blight resistant pear varieties. Magness is pollen sterile so make sure you have 2 other pear varieties where you have it planted.
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Yep- apple rust does impact several of my trees. BUT..... spraying fungicides early (2 sprayings needed) of something like Rally 40WSP will basically make cedar rust "almost" a non issue. There's too many attributes to goldrush, for example, that I do like - so i just address the cedar rust with rally 40WSP and the other disease categories are also pretty impressive for resistance. Every variety has its ups and downs. All of them!!! BUT.... pick ur top 5 that go with your goals and growing situation & pick the most disease resistant among about 4 categories of disease- u will be pretty happy & safe over all.
Things to deal with for disease: rust, blight, mold & scab. Then u have rabbits, deer and mice to contend with. Weeds, drought, etc. Then there is insect issues. It's not as hard as it sounds and some solid educucatuon about your varieties can pretty quickly get u up to speed. Stay on your trees & they most likely will do great. Nothing is perfect and always plant several varieties- plan on losing a tree here and there.
Pick a "solid variety" and just educate urself and take care of them periodically and u will have great trees.

& yes- because of blight & some other headaches on disease- i would suggest about 5 varieties of apple I listed and Skip the others. Same with pear. For example- i agree- id leave out Bartlett. I do like sunrise as well. I put Bartlett in there only cause wife likes em. But yep- 3-4 varieties of pears, 5-6 apple varieties and 2 crabapple varieties - for example - and u'll have a heck of a orchard!!!

Starting, real world.... several ark black, enterprise, freedom, liberty & couple others. Pear: kieffer, sunrise, Olympic, seckel, etc. crabapple: dolgo and pick another 1 or 2 that fits the bill in ur plan. Done! Or rather- a dang good start. Great disease resistance, staggering drop/ripen dates, good eating, great for hunting, crabapple great for pollination & also puts out great fruit, etc, etc.
 
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Arkansas
Turkey Creek said:
Sligh 1 has a lot of good recommendations. I would add that while disease resistance is definitely a plus, if your willing to spray you can spread the variety list a bit further. Actually from Sligh1 's list you are going to need to spray for cedar apple rust if you have cedars around on Honey Crisp and Goldrush. While Pink lady is my personal favorite you will find it a tough tree to grow in zones 5 and colder. It matures very late by northern apple standards and is also very susceptible to scab. I have to spray my personal trees routinely and we are in a drier climate than you. Bartlett pear is a fire blight magnet as well, without spraying you will eventually have a severe strike and probably lose the tree. Sunrise and Potomac are a couple more fire blight resistant pear varieties. Magness is pollen sterile so make sure you have 2 other pear varieties where you have it planted.
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Arkansas Black looks like the ticket from reading up on thanks fur sharing the info , I am going to order 10 from Stark brothers in a few months.. Late drop
 
Make sure and check the rootstock when ordering from Stark Brothers I believe you have to call and ask. You might be hard pressed to find any Arkansas black for this year they seem to go fast.
 
Any of you guys have experience with Crab apples and Pears from Mossy Oak native Nurseries ?
 
How many pollinator trees do I need to add can I plant 10 of the same trees and add say 2 pollinator apple trees or what do you guys thinks best.. I was to plant 20 trees split them up in 5's ?
 
Jbohn said:
How many pollinator trees do I need to add can I plant 10 of the same trees and add say 2 pollinator apple trees or what do you guys thinks best.. I was to plant 20 trees split them up in 5's ?
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Be fine. 20 trees, could do 5 Ark black, 5 pears, 5 of something like Enterprise, Liberty, Freedom, whatever & then 5 crabapples and you'd be in nice shape.
 
Seen you can get 1/ 2 rebar 10ft. for 4 bucks , seems like this is a cheaper options than t post. I planned on cutting the rebar to 5 ft. Thoughts, any one tried this ? Using this to secure fence baskets . Purchased the 5 ft. fence.
 
Even cheaper, you can also get 10' long 1/2" metal electrical conduit for about $2 and cut it into 5' lengths. Not as sturdy as rebar but works well for a light plastic "fence".
 
Jbohn said:
Seen you can get 1/ 2 rebar 10ft. for 4 bucks , seems like this is a cheaper options than t post. I planned on cutting the rebar to 5 ft. Thoughts, any one tried this ? Using this to secure fence baskets . Purchased the 5 ft. fence.
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Only thing I can think of against it???..... It could pull out of the ground or flex/push over much easier because its a thin rod in the ground. T-posts when you pound in past the flat panel of steel at bottom ("T"), it really secures them in. My solution to not buying T-posts..... All my farms I've booted all the cows out so I have a gazillion T-posts from all my interior fencing, like most farms do. Go steal your own t-posts. But anyways, ya, you probably can make that work. Do a few posts per cage. Looks like HD has a cheaper option too, hmmm. Free is the best (Stealing from your farm) but post back how it works.
 
HorseDoctor said:
Even cheaper, you can also get 10' long 1/2" metal electrical conduit for about $2 and cut it into 5' lengths. Not as sturdy as rebar but works well for a light plastic "fence".
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I used it almost exclusively for 5 years, very few problems out here in the wide open plains. I do like adding a t-post across from split in the concrete reinforcement wire. That way it is locked into place when I open it up to get inside to weed, add mulch, prune, etcc.
 
I cut 3x3 squares from 20yr landscaping cloth. Should have been larger. Without fencing no problem just mow up close. Still I think it holds some moisture back.
 
I've done it. Cheap stuff rotted away. Good thick stuff worked well. Some critters crawl under but it's not a problem like I've had, say like using corregated tubing around trunk (mice homes). If I had all the time in world, I think I'd put a good quality fabric down and cover it with lime stones. Again, screen stapled around trunk protected really well. I've got 3,000 apples, pears, crab apples, chestnuts and persimmons I'll be transferring out of my nursery in next 1-2 years as 5-6 year old trees so I really gotta have this dialed in & make sense. I'm nervous how much work it's gonna be too!!! Got another 3000-4000 that are extra I'll pry sell so at least reduce work load some. Keeping up on a high fenced nursery with no deer and easy mowing, spraying & weed control is busy enough- oh man I think I'm in for a massive project. All good though. :).
 
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