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| Apple trees | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 7 2015, 02:20 PM (539 Views) | |
Muskoka Whitetails
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Jan 7 2015, 02:20 PM Post #1 |
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I want to plant a small orchard of apple trees. I know absolutely nothing about buying, planting or growing them. I know some people have done it on this site and some have had good luck and others have not. I find I learn best from mistakes but I'm hoping to get it right with out making to many this time. I thought I would buy them from Pineneedle farms only because I don't know any other options. Any help would really help. Or am I just waisting my time as I am north of Huntstville so cold is an issue and lots of bears in the area. |
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Cervus_stalker
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Jan 7 2015, 03:03 PM Post #2 |
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You will want to plant in a well drained area. If you can't find a spot where the water table is deeper than 4 ft., then you'll want to raise the ground by carefully excavating in one area and piling in the spot you want to plant the trees. Yes, apple trees can grow in poorly drained soils, but they certainly won't produce well there. Plant at least several apple cultivars and consider planting some crabapples as well. This helps with successful fruit set, as you need cross pollination for this. No need to fertilize if you plant your trees in rows with some nitrogen fixing trees (e.g., caragana, black locust, sea buckthorn, buffaloberry). Plant in alternating sequence (apple, nitrogen fixer, apple, etc.). Adding pears in the mix wouldn't be a bad option either. If you want to go cheaper on the planting, you can always dig up some smaller apple trees from the area and plant them where you want the trees to be. You can later graft desired cultivars on to them, and you'll save yourself the cost of trees. Stay away from popular apple varieties, like mac, golden delicious etc... these apples need a lot of energy input (fertilizer, fungicide and insecticide treatment) to produce, and the deer won't favour them over many of the other quality apple cultivars out there. Look online for info on grafting and 'heritage' varieties - this will be a good start. Good luck! |
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| SherpaJ | Jan 7 2015, 03:26 PM Post #3 |
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Regular
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I've got many apple trees planted around here in the north bay area. You're definitely not going to have issues because of your geography, they'll just grow slower (and live longer). One thing to remember is that the seed only determines that its an apple tree, it doesn't determine what kind of apples will be produced. If you want a certain type of apples, the tree should be "grafted" with young, productive branches from the desired type of apple tree while the tree is 1-5 years old. Grafting fruit trees is discussed ad nauseam online. Alternately, if you let the tree be, when the tree finally buds, (4-14 years in my experience), the pollinators will determine the type of apple. More specifically, the apple blossom pollen which they carry, will determine the the apple type. So if all the apple trees you find in your area are of the same type, then your trees will most likely be the same. I had a fence line with a bunch of ~10 year old apple trees growing but last year while brush-hogging, I got a little too close with the tractors tires and I guess I ripped most of the roots from the trunk. Now they're all dead. BIG mistake. Lesson learned. Edited by SherpaJ, Jan 7 2015, 03:27 PM.
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| cutty | Jan 7 2015, 04:59 PM Post #4 |
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New member
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Try Silvercreek Nursery in Wellesley Ontario |
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| trophy | Jan 7 2015, 05:41 PM Post #5 |
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Regular
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biggest thing is to properly protect them from wildlife until they are older. Fence or they WILL get browsed or rubbed. Also need rabbit protection. |
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| Friggs | Jan 7 2015, 07:07 PM Post #6 |
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Muskoka, Not certain if you've seen this post, it has loads of info. on apple trees, check it out. http://s4.zetaboards.com/The_Hunting_Forum/topic/1108048/1/ x2 for Silvercreek Nurseries, talk to Ken the owner. I've bought most of my trees from him. http://www.silvercreeknursery.ca/ Friggs |
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Mattones
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Jan 7 2015, 09:37 PM Post #7 |
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MOOSEHEAD
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I believe MRMEAT is on this forum. Contact him he runs a orchard. Any questions I would say he is ur man. He has helped me with my two trees
Edited by Mattones, Jan 7 2015, 09:39 PM.
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