Started the future mini orchard finaly

[Navasot]

Got a plum, peach, fig, and apple in the ground and wired off from the pigs... still have 5 trees to go for now... we are just doing a test run to see which handle the iron the best... my bet is on the fig and peach.... anyone else do fruit trees?



How do I get the pictures to post big?

 

[PJSprog]

We are down to three peach trees and one pear tree now. Peaches have always done very well in Illinois. Not sure about Texas, but good luck.

As for pictures, use the "Go Advanced" button, switch off the blue editor setting button, double left click on the inserted thumbnail picture, and select your picture size. Voila.

 

[Navasot]

Sweet thank you! Peaches usually do well around me cuz of all the sand but were im at is a creek bottom and there is ALOT of ironer

 

[rustyshakelford]

Are y'all from navasota?

Brett

 

[ericm979]

Did you put them in gopher cages? We planted a bunch of special apple trees for hard cider a while back and didn't know about the gopher cages. Gophers killed all but one of them. I was watering one tree and the ground opened up and all the water drained down. Grabbed the tree and it came out of the ground in my hand. All the roots had been eaten.

 

[oosik]

Over the 35 years I've been here there have been apples, peaches, cots, cherries and pears. The apples and pears have done well. The others - not so much. We get late hard frosts that raise havoc with the early bloomers.

Then there are the gophers. Its so discouraging to see a newly planted tree start to lean - go out and give it a tug and have it pop out of the ground. The gophers have eaten the roots off, right up to the trunk.

Honestly - until just this moment, I've never heard of gopher cages!! After we saw what the gophers had done, we replanted and used a different method. We would dig the hole extra large and line the hole - wall to wall - with a 2" layer of broken glass. This procedure worked fairly well and about 50% of the new plantings survived the gophers.

Gopher cages ??? Do you make them yourself - out of what type of material?? I'm going to set some new dwarf apples this spring if I can develop a method of repelling the @#$+ gophers. Just thinking about gophers & the damage they do makes my blood boil.

ericm979 - I'm all ears on your gopher cages. Give us your info & details.

 

[jack707]

No gopher here but the deer, rabbits killed my apple trees.

 

[Spindifferent]

I wish I had the iron in the soil that you probably have with the red color in the photo. Typically, it is the lack of available iron in the soil that can be an issue for the stone fruit. Chances are that you have plenty of available iron and your trees will be happy with that. A&M has lots of great info about fruit trees here in Texas. Womack Nursery is what I use for my trees. They are an excellent family-owned nursery.

Fruit & Nut Resources
Pecan Trees | Peach Trees | Fruit Trees | Texas Pecans |Womack Nursery

Enjoy the trees!

 

[ericm979]

Oosik, gopher cage is my term. The normal term for them is root guards. They're available at the usual garden supply stores. You can make them out of chicken wire but the holes are a bit large. Root guards usually have slightly smaller holes to keep out small gophers. They'll rust away after some years but hopefully by then the tree has built enough of a root system that the gophers can't kill it.

I have had pretty good results on gophers in our large lawn using cinch traps. If I am dilligent, setting traps and checking them morning and evening, I can wipe out all the gophers in the lawn. Then it'll be a while before new gophers move in.

 

[oosik]

Thank you, eric. I'm definitely going to make them for my new plantings this spring. I know where I probably can get some heavy wire 1" mesh. I've cleaned out the gophers in my yard before with traps but then I get lazy and in a few years they are back. I'll have to set up a "trap line" this spring also. From what I read here I guess its lucky that the gophers are my only problems.

The skunks, raccoon & deer wait until the trees have fruit, at least.

 

[CADplans]

This seems to help trees,,,
the rocks retain moisture, the little animals do not like the rocks,,
the big animals do not like the fence.

We added a LOT more rocks after taking this pic.
it is a convenient place to get rid of some rocks when you pick a few out of the garden.

That area is sloped,, I did level the area under the landscape fabric.
I leveled the area so rain would prefer to soak in rather than run-off.

 

[PJSprog]

I was noting yesterday that our peach and pear trees were starting to bud already. Woke up this morning to an inch of snow covering everything. :grumpy:

 

[Navasot]

Did you put them in gopher cages? We planted a bunch of special apple trees for hard cider a while back and didn't know about the gopher cages. Gophers killed all but one of them. I was watering one tree and the ground opened up and all the water drained down. Grabbed the tree and it came out of the ground in my hand. All the roots had been eaten.

No its to keep the deer and hogs away from them.. im right in the middle of two giant ironer creeks and there is to much rocks for them to dig through on the hills..

 

[Navasot]

I wish I had the iron in the soil that you probably have with the red color in the photo. Typically, it is the lack of available iron in the soil that can be an issue for the stone fruit. Chances are that you have plenty of available iron and your trees will be happy with that. A&M has lots of great info about fruit trees here in Texas. Womack Nursery is what I use for my trees. They are an excellent family-owned nursery.

Fruit & Nut Resources
Pecan Trees | Peach Trees | Fruit Trees | Texas Pecans |Womack Nursery

Enjoy the trees!

Yes its very thick on the hills and mixed with blackland in the flat spots... anything on a slope or next to a runoff like whats 2yrds behind me in the pic and its solid iron

 

[rgr33]

I have used 1 inch chicken wire for many years to protect young trees from gophers. Just line the hole and plant the tree, by the time the wire rusts, the tree is big enough to live through any further gopher damage. I have a small orchard, 34 trees, nuts, apples peaches, plums, pears, and cherries. Love it when the neighborhood kids come over and eat their way through the ripe fruit, too much for us to eat anyway, often donate fruit to the local food bank.

 

[Navasot]

Have you ever tried a golpher machine behind a tractor? or are the trees close with to many roots to be affective?