Apple/Pear Trees

[SoDakarcher]

Pear Trees in the cold

Thought I would tap into the wealth of knowledge this sight provides by so many. Will be adding pear trees to an orchard of 10 apple trees. I will be ordering 5 Luscious Pear, 5 Summercrisp Pear and a dozen Harbin Pear. These seem to get the best reviews for central South Dakota and colder climates. Any thought or advice on these selections before the order goes in would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[dbltree]

Thought I would tap into the wealth of knowledge this sight provides by so many. Will be adding pear trees to an orchard of 10 apple trees. I will be ordering 5 Luscious Pear, 5 Summercrisp Pear and a dozen Harbin Pear. These seem to get the best reviews for central South Dakota and colder climates. Any thought or advice on these selections before the order goes in would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

If they are adapted to your climate they should do fine :way:

 

[dbltree]

A wildlife biologists from Georgia called recently and asked if he could stop by for a visit and said "oh by the way...would you mind trying some apple trees?"...guessin' you already know my response! He mentioned that these trees were grown by David Osborn from Georgia...if you get Quality Whitetails magazine you have read his fruit tree articles, and he did mention that these trees were "special". I wasn't really prepared for the huge trees that were all he could do to drag from his truck into the loader of the tractor...

They are grown in root pruning bags

so unlike small bareroot trees they have amazing root systems

Grown on M111 rootstock appropriate for our heavy clay soils here in SE Iowa

Nothing at all like the "whips" I often plant from bare root stock

He dropped off 4 trees...2 Liberty

Liberty Apple
‘Liberty’ often is described as the most disease resistant of the human-food apples for humid climates. Although it is cold-hardy, it has also been grown successfully in southern California. It typically is recommended for USDA Zones 4 to 8. It was an experimental cross made in 1955 by The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. Its name was selected to denote freedom from disease. The tree is a productive annual bearer of dark red 2 ¾ - 3” fruits that are very good to eat. Fruit ripens from September to November depending on location, and hangs past maturity. Bloom Period = B (mid-season). Some reports indicate ‘Liberty’ is self-fertile, but we suggest planting it with another pollen compatible variety like Grimes Golden, Sundance, William’s Pride, or Yates. It is practically immune to apple scab; resistant to cedar apple rust, and resistant to fire blight.

and two Sundance

Sundance Apple
Sundance’s original name was Co-op 29. It was an experimental cross made in 1964 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and transferred to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana for testing. It is the collaborative product of the PRI (Purdue University, Rutgers University, and The University of Illinois) disease resistant apple breeding program. Sundance is a patented and trade-marked apple licensed exclusively to Gardens Alive, Inc. and marketed through Gurneys Seed and Nursery Company and Henry Fields Seed and Nursery Company. Wildlife Growers is fortunate to be able to make this excellent tasting disease-resistant apple available to our customers. It typically is recommended for USDA Zones 5 to 8, but, cold tolerance beyond Zone 5 has not been adequately tested. It received its name because of its yellow color with occasional orange-red blush. The tree is a productive bearer that has slightly heavier crops in alternate years (slightly biennial). The fruit measures about 3”, ripens in late-September through late-October depending on location; and hangs on the tree for up to a month without loss of quality. Bloom Period = C (late mid-season). It is self-infertile and should be planted with another pollen compatible variety like Enterprise, Gold Rush, Grimes Golden, Liberty, or William’s Pride. It is practically immune to apple scab; very resistant to fire blight, and resistant to cedar apple rust.

Like all of my trees they will be put to the test planted next to hundreds of red cedar trees

and in heavy clay soils (well drained)

It's a bit of a job cutting the bags off so one needs a very sharp knife and perhaps a pruning shear.

I planted two in my yard orchard...

partly because my yard also doubles as a whitetail observatory...

and two in my centralized feeding area where last years drought killed some of my trees from Century Farms (my fault and no reflection on Dave)

Not exactly prime soil or in a spot where they can be "babied"

I have more bare root trees coming from Adams County Nursery in a few weeks so I'm looking forward to comparing the performance and growth of the Osborn trees to those already established and new plantings. These trees are not $15 trees although I as of yet do not know what the 2013 pricing will be? For those in a hurry to see the "fruits of their labors"...these trees might be worth keeping an eye on....so stay tuned...

 

[AIRASSAULT]

If we keep getting this warm weather and get another cold snap, I'm thinking its going to be a bad year for the apple trees.. what are your thoughts? Would it potentially kill a young apple tree if they leaf out and get a hard frost? I have 10 trees I planted two falls ago that are getting green already

 

[goatman]

Paul I'm going to name you Lucky. Not really you deserve them. They look very nice.

 

[dbltree]

A freeze is not likely to kill the trees but could nix any chance of fruit this year...

 

[dbltree]

May 1st, 2012

Last fall a group of us pooled an order with Adams County Nursery which allowed us to buy several hundred fruit trees at a discounted rate. We ordered the largest stock and by ordering nearly a year in advance were able to get the varieties we wanted. These days with so much interest in planting fruit trees for whitetails, many varieties sell out quickly making it important to order well in advance. ACN worked with us as people changed their order several times by adding more trees and with a 25% down payment our order was secure until being shipped this spring.

I am not an expert in the area of fruit trees, especially when it comes to maintaining them with pruning and spraying but that said I have had great survivability, having planted fruit trees for 5 years now and the trees have fared well despite the fact I often lack the time to properly care for them.

We have heavy clay soils here in SE Iowa so while we choose well drained areas (where water does not lay) it is helpful to amend the soil at planting and we do so by adding a bag of top soil at planting. We mix the top soil with the clay as we fill in over the tree roots and this would be helpful in sandy soils as well.

We then staple aluminum window screen around the tree to protect against rodents and moths as well.

and staple the name tag right to the screen

There are lot's of options for fencing including fencing individual trees where we use several lite duty posts and 40" rabbit wire elevated to protect against browsing and rubbing.

Our plantings are usually within or around a feeding area that provides year around food sources so browsing is not usually a serious problem but flipping the wire bottom side up will help to keep deer from reaching thru.

I like the individual fencing option because it is easier to mow and maintain the area around the trees but it does make pruning, tying and spraying a bit of a hassle, so where possible fencing the whole orchard is another option.

In this case we used 16' cattle panels wired to 7' T posts so that we can run an electric poly wire around the top powered by a solar fencer.

The panels and posts can be easily removed when trees are large enough to no longer need protection and by removing the end panels we can drive thru to keep the area mowed and accommodate spraying with a tractor mounted sprayer.

The ACN trees are quickly spring to life and I added nearly 40 more apple and pear trees to my orchards for less then 9 bucks a tree!

The early spring here caused trees, especially pear trees to blossom in March!

and then we got a hard freeze down to 23 degrees

So even fruit trees are not a sure bet

Some varieties of course did not blossom early

So diversity is always a plus when planting food sources of any kind

The nice thing about fruit trees is that almost anyone on any budget can plant one or two a year and when planted around a feeding area that provides year around food sources they become yet another tool in helping adapt deer to always coming to one place, day in and day out. Whitetails are creatures of habit and if all of there needs are met in one place, they quickly form a habit of making a daily trek to that spot and fruit trees only sweeten the pot....

 

[dbltree]

Update on the root trapper grown trees from David Osborn....the Liberty's started setting fruit barely 60 days after being planted!

I need to pinch these off this year but still for those interested in getting a jump on fruit production (versus waiting 4-6 years) buying larger trees is a nice option to have.

I really like Liberty's because of the outstanding disease and pest resistance especially to cedar-apple rust and the fact they hold fruit so late in the season.

The Sundance has not flowered yet and this pic reminds me I need to get the limbs tied down with cotton string to encourage a stronger crotch angle.

They are still working on 2013 pricing and make no mistake these trees are not going to be cheap so not for everyone, but everyone has different budgets and interests so there is no one size fit's all when it comes to habitat....

 

[medicsnoke]

Here is a pear tree I planted last fall, It is approx 6 ft tall with mostly upright growth. Should I prune the lead sprout to promote horizontal growth? Ive read about this but usually it states to do this in younger trees. My apple trees look the same only around 4 ft in height, so how about them?

 

[dbltree]

You want to encourage once central leader...here is a pic showing correct and incorrect pruning....

and a link to pruning year 1-4

Pruning apple trees

as they get older pruning might look more like this

 

[bryan]

I need to pinch these off this year but still for those interested in getting a jump on fruit production (versus waiting 4-6 years) buying larger trees is a nice option to have.

Why do you need to pinch those off this year? To promote faster tree growth? Or is there another reason?

 

[dbltree]

Why do you need to pinch those off this year? To promote faster tree growth?

yes...we don't want the young tree diverting energy to producing apples yet so best to pinch at least most of them off this time around.

 

[bryan]

Sounds good will have to do that this year. Just planted some honeycrisp this spring that were flowering when i planted them...

 

[dbltree]

May 27th 2012

We fenced an orchard recently using a combination of 16' cattle panels ($19 a piece) 7' T posts ($5.45 ea) and a poly wire around the top charged with a solar powered fencer. My experience with electric fencing is that deer eventually figure out they can go under the fence, their hair insulating them from the charge but this system makes that impossible...

The wire around the top makes jumping unlikely...

and a solar powered fence means it can be constructed anywhere

A gate handle and simply unwiring a panel allow for easy entry to maintain trees

I use the following herbicide mix on all of the fruit trees...

1 quart simazine, 1 quart prowl, 1 quart crop oil and 8-10 ounces of clethodim in 3 gal BP sprayer or per 5 gal water in ATV sprayer

and I spray it post emergence (if necessary) knowing it will safely smoke any common grasses and broadleaf weeds

I have doubled the rates with no ill effects to any trees of any kind or size...

no license needed for these herbicides and if not available new you can be ordered from

Keystone Pest Solutions

Simazine comes in liquid or dry form and may be sold under names like Princep 4l, Sim-Trol and many others, Prowl 3EC is sold under Pendulum and clethodim as Arrow, Select and others.

Our trees from Adams County Nursery are all doing well....all 200+ of them from reports I am getting back

there are many great nurseries to order from but ACN does have great stock and if you can order with friends to get a quantity order discounts can be fantastic!

Adams County Nursery

In my area...a little rain any time now would be most welcome...

 

[spltbrow]

How far apart did you space your apple trees? I planted some last spring at about 10' apart. I am now worried that I should have spaced them further apart.

I just signed a purchase agreement on a farm down in lee county so I was thinking about transplanting every other tree down to that farm.

If so when is a good time to transplant them? I was thinking about renting a spade for my skid loader and spading them out so I don't stress them. Or do I just leave them and not worry about it and just buy some more trees for my new farm? This is second year on these trees but they were on the larger side when I planted them.

I caged all my trees individually and will not do that gain either. I think cost may have been about the same ( maybe a little more) to just run a fence around the whole with some t post instead of each individual tree. A lot of the branches that are growing are blowing into the side of the cages and damaging them. The deer are also eating the branches that grow through the cages. Next time I will fence the whole orchard in like you are doing here.

Thanks

 

[dbltree]

How far apart did you space your apple trees?

It depends on the rootstock used but m111 should be 14-18' so we go 16' but I would think the cost of moving would far exceed the cost of just buying some new trees for your lease.

Just because yours are not optimum spaced doesn't mean they will be a failure or anything...

 

[dbltree]

Clothespins on fruit trees

I have so many habitat projects going at once it's hard for me to keep up with my fruit trees and for "deer food" somethings may not be as important as when growing fruit commercially, still like all my habitat I prefer to do things correctly if at all possible. I use cotton string to tie limbs down to create a good crotch angle but a friend of mine sent me an article about using clothespins on 1 st and second leaf trees...

Apple Training - Clothespins for Good Crotch Angles
Win Cowgill, Agricultural Agent and Jon Clements, Extension
Fruit Specialist, UMASS

After ‘stripping’, the use of clothespins to develop wide (90
degree) and strong branch angles is the next most important
young apple tree training technique you can accomplish. NOW is the
ideal time to attach clothespins, when young shoots are 3-6 inches long
and flexible.

Clip spring-type clothespins to the tree trunk to force acute branch
angles into a more perpendicular, (90 degree) angle from the trunk (see
picture). Take care not to tear or rip the shoots from the trunk when affixing
the clothespins. Clothespin all shoots with narrow crotch angles
that may form permanent scaffold branches – usually 4-8 clothespins
per tree are required. This is assuming you have already stripped (removed)
the top 3-4 shoots competing with the leader.

After a few weeks, and when the 90 degree branch angle is established,
the clothespins may be removed and reattached out onto the
shoot tip to help hold it down and keep it growing in a more horizontal
position. See our web page at:

Recycle those Cothespins!

so I picked up some clothespins and got busy!

Inexpensive way to help insure a good crotch angle that can carry the weight of the fruit that will someday beckon whitetails from afar...

 

[bryan]

Sounds pretty interesting, going to give it a shot this next week.... Seeing how we dont get any rain here in WI and I have to water the trees with five gallon buckets 2 times a week...

 

[dbltree]

August 8th, 2012

The 2012 drought has really tested our Adams County Nursery fruit trees...some where around 200 trees spread across at least 5 counties in SE Iowa, some of which have received little more then a trace in over two months, yet for the most part are doing well.

I use one bag of composted manure in each hole and I believe it has been a major factor in holding water and allowing the trees to survive but I don't have a test tree to compare too.

While the trees appear fine, I finally decided to water some of them rather then take a chance on losing some and poured 5+ gallons of water on each tree...down giant cracks around the perimeter

The clothespins seem to be staying in place thus far...

I've never lost a tree once it survives the first season so hoping we can get them thru this very challenging season...

 

[QTW]

Paul- how have your trees from david osborn faired through the drought?

We had a neighbor water ours throughout summer and they have done well. I rarely if ever water trees (not enough time in the day and i don't think I have ever lost a tree to drought).

Thanks in advance and glad to see we got a good rain over the weekend.

Stephen