apple trees

   / apple trees #1  

rodsauder

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Hi, New to the site. I have just purchased a small acreage property. I would like to plant some apple trees. I am 1 hour east of Toronto and the soil is sandy ,with gravel. I have a running stream close by and have a 1000 gal water tank that I was planning on filling from stream to help with irrigation ( gravity ) I am asking for any input.. What is recommended for type,( macintosh,spy etc? ) I have no experience but finally have enough land to plant some trees. I am also interested in possibly pear,plum or whatever other suggestions I get. When is the best time to plant seedlings etc. Thanks .
 
   / apple trees #3  
Hi, New to the site. I have just purchased a small acreage property. I would like to plant some apple trees. I am 1 hour east of Toronto and the soil is sandy ,with gravel. I have a running stream close by and have a 1000 gal water tank that I was planning on filling from stream to help with irrigation ( gravity ) I am asking for any input.. What is recommended for type,( macintosh,spy etc? ) I have no experience but finally have enough land to plant some trees. I am also interested in possibly pear,plum or whatever other suggestions I get. When is the best time to plant seedlings etc. Thanks .

Not a pro by anymeans...and not anywhere near your area, but what are you calling "seedlings?" I would find a local nursery and buy some grafted trees that are already a few years old to plant.

Also, we planted ours this past year in the winter when plants were dormant. They were container grown and could have been planted whenever, but winter time requires a little less maintenance as there are no leaves on the trees at this point so watering is not as necessary.
 
   / apple trees #4  
Keep scrolling down on that site to the recommended variety tab. You will need a "hardy variety" based on your climate zone. You will most likely need 2 different varieties that are compatible to allow for cross pollination. And then another thing is animal control (deer love those tender trees).

I grew plums and pears in southern Wisconsin years ago in sandy soil and found that once established they did quite well but there again 2 different varieties were required.

You'll need to learn about pruning...Ortho used to sell a good book that explained it well but I'm sure the Internet has some very good resources.

And then do some research on spraying once you start getting fruit (probably 3-4 years out).
 
   / apple trees #5  
Miller Nurseries I have bought from them, enterprise and gold rush. If you are buying a lot (orchard size) look at lawyer nursery.

You will need to prevent deer/rabbit etc damage.
Tree tubes will work, 5' ones if no deer fencing, Tubex would be the ones I go with. Or if its fenced in against the deer then hardware cloth to prevent the rabbits from girdling the trees.
I would avoid benchgrafts as they are not fully healed from grafting and need more care.
Spring planting is recommended to give them more time in the ground before winter.
An easy trick to laying out the trees in a grid pattern is (if it is grass) spray roundup in strips 15' in one direction 15' in the other and plant where they intersect.
There are a lot of different trees you can go with, I would have an overlapping harvest date to make processing them easier. If everything comes into harvest the same time it will be a time drain.
youtube is a great source for pruning videos, the ones from the university of maine are ones I have used.
 
   / apple trees #6  
Miller Nurseries I have bought from them, enterprise and gold rush. If you are buying a lot (orchard size) look at lawyer nursery.

You will need to prevent deer/rabbit etc damage.
Tree tubes will work, 5' ones if no deer fencing, Tubex would be the ones I go with. Or if its fenced in against the deer then hardware cloth to prevent the rabbits from girdling the trees.
I would avoid benchgrafts as they are not fully healed from grafting and need more care.
Spring planting is recommended to give them more time in the ground before winter.
An easy trick to laying out the trees in a grid pattern is (if it is grass) spray roundup in strips 15' in one direction 15' in the other and plant where they intersect.
There are a lot of different trees you can go with, I would have an overlapping harvest date to make processing them easier. If everything comes into harvest the same time it will be a time drain.
youtube is a great source for pruning videos, the ones from the university of maine are ones I have used.

For some reason I get about 10 different seed catalogs now. Critical is that "zone map". Make sure whatever you pick is suitable for your zone (that controls the guarantee I think). We live in a cold zone and my choices in the new house are rather limited. From the description of his/her location, there might be more alternatives (they don't get the cold winds from the Canadian prairies there...we do). Speaking of which, my turkey season opened yesterday...I know all about tracking snow for deer but never used it for hunting turkey. Alarm off at 4:30, quick check showed 2 inches of snow and 28F. Back in bed at 4:32. Today was worse yet! Hoping maybe Saturday I'll get out.
 
   / apple trees #7  
For some reason I get about 10 different seed catalogs now. Critical is that "zone map". Make sure whatever you pick is suitable for your zone (that controls the guarantee I think). We live in a cold zone and my choices in the new house are rather limited. From the description of his/her location, there might be more alternatives (they don't get the cold winds from the Canadian prairies there...we do). Speaking of which, my turkey season opened yesterday...I know all about tracking snow for deer but never used it for hunting turkey. Alarm off at 4:30, quick check showed 2 inches of snow and 28F. Back in bed at 4:32. Today was worse yet! Hoping maybe Saturday I'll get out.

Here in Oklahoma, we have Oklahoma State University, they do a log of agricultural research and to make a long story short, they are a wealth of information on things agriculture. For instance, they recommend Gayla apples for my area. Now to my point; there should be some government agency or university in your area that could advise you with some authority and assurance on such questions.
 
   / apple trees #8  
As 2LaneCruzer suggested, check out your local sources. NC has a great Extension service that has all kinds of information that is helpful. The type of Apples you want IS going to be very dependent on your area. For instance, my place has gazillions of Eastern Red Cedars which hosts Cedar Rust. Cedar Rust is not good for apple trees but there are apple varieties that are resistant to the rust. I noticed one cedar tree erupted in the rust last week.

We just had some land cleared so we can plant apple trees among other things. Apple trees are all grafted onto root stock. If you plant an apple seed you will get a tree that has never been seen before. Every Gala apple you eat was grown from a grafted tree. You need to pick an apple variety and its ROOT STOCK, that will work for your local conditions. What works for me in NC will very unlikely to work up way up Nawth were you are located. There are apple varieties and root stocks that have been developed to work in geographic regions so get what works for your area. You also need to decide what size of tree do you want. There are dwarf, semi dwarf and standard sizes. We will most likely plant dwarf and maybe semi dwarf trees. The smaller the tree the easier to harvest the apples and the quicker they have fruit. The cost is that the trees won't live as long. The size of the tree/root stock also determines how many trees can be grown in a given area. Y

I did a quick google and the NC Extension office had this page on tree sizes, Understanding Apple Tree Size: Dwarf, Semi-Dwarf and Standard - eXtension

You will have to pay attention to pollinators as well. Some trees will pollinate other trees and some wont. You have to make sure you have the proper mix of trees. Crab apples seem to pollinate most/all? varieties. Apple fruits have certain characteristics such as a good eating apple aka desert apple, cooking, cider making, storage lifetime, texture, and oh yeah, taste. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Figure out what you want to do with the apples and get the correct variety.

Also, I would try real hard to find heritage apples that are local to your area. They will likely do better in your local climate compared to an apple variety from other areas. You can't get heritage apples at the store but I can buy Gala's and Red Delicious apples all year round. You might not have access to heritage apples but look around. A guy in NC wrote a book about Southern Heritage apples that were/are disappearing. He was able to find and save at least some of these apples. Once they are gone, they are gone. Hopefully someone in you part of the world has access to heritage apples. There is an apple tree grower here in NC that has some of the heritage apples which is what we will try to grow.

Later,
Dan
 
   / apple trees #10  
Just wanted to mention that there are a lot more choices then the used to be. You can now get dwarf and semi dwarf apple trees. Easier to pick and more apples. There is even something called a columnar apple that can be grown with no branches.

How to choose apple trees
 
 
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