Choosing tree's

[jlane35]

How do you choose which trees to order each year?

Are you picking the tree with the longest fruit bearing time first? Or the quickest first?

 

[John Barnes]

Whichever ones my wife says she can cook pies and crisps out of! LOL

I don't figure the deer will be too picky, so I grow what the woman likes, honeycrisp, granny smith, zestar, gala, red delicious....

 

[Native Hunter]

I strictly go with what is disease resistant and won't have to be looked after like a baby. There are many good fruit trees that have high DR and are also excellent eating. If I never tasted another "fad chasing, grocery store type, hippie apple," I would be thrilled.

Plant trees that support life instead of requiring life support.

We like a wide range of drop times for the wildlife, but lean toward having more late droppers than early dropper.

Now that we have lots of trees established, I've started taking a few chances and experimenting with things just for the fun of it. I will plant a few things now that I wouldn't have planted 3 years ago. Several of the trees planted this year are proven at other places but I don't know how they will do here. But, if they don't work out, we have the bases covered with earlier planting.

Good luck................

 

[dogghr]

I'm a poor example. Just buy whatever I find on sale. My apples are kinda like orphans, once in the ground, they are on their own for the most part especially after first year or two. I'm probably one of the few that prune fruit trees with a chainsaw. Anyways, I once read a study that laid various apples on the ground of diff colors. The deer uniformly like the red ones first.

 

[Seabee]

Since I know nothing about trees, I buy what a few people on this site recommend. I would prefer my trees to drop late Oct or early Nov. If an apple tree dies, I replace it with a pear tree.

 

[dogdoc]

I try to choose DR trees now but I have a mix of early and late droppers.

 

[j-bird]

Don't do what I did and simply buy what was available to you at a big box store. It's not that they are bad trees, they just come with issues that I really don't want. Looking forward to the next trees.....I look for disease resistance, care needs and the drop times. I also only plant semi dwarf trees or larger. These will grow out of the reach of the deer and start to produce fruit fairly quickly as well. Knowing what I know now my next trees will be crabapples ( with the larger fruit varieties) because of their minimal care needs or those with greater disease resistance. Lots smarter folks hear on apples than me. So ask them which ones do best in your area. Also consider pears as I hear they are "easy" to grow as well and the deer like them also.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I strictly go with what is disease resistant and won't have to be looked after like a baby. There are many good fruit trees that have high DR and are also excellent eating. If I never tasted another "fad chasing, grocery store type, hippie apple," I would be thrilled.

Plant trees that support life instead of requiring life support!

Good luck................

The commercial orchards in some areas are already in the process of ripping out thousands of Honey Crisp apple trees to make room for the next latest and greatest apple. They figure the average life span of a grocery store variety apple remaining popular in this day and age is less than 3 years. The apple breeders do an excellent job of advertising and pumping up their latest release to capitalize on making the most money. ( which I have no problem with, I love capitalism). The problem I have is that many of the latest varieties taste poor and are high maintenance. My wife bought "apples" a couple of weeks ago thinking she was getting my favorite Pink Lady apples. I swear honest to goodness this variety tasted literally like DIRT! And yes I washed them before eating them. They were so bad I ended up tossing about 6 of them because I just couldnt stand to eat them.

 

[jlane35]

Thanks for the replies,

Has anyone planted Cherry trees for your own consumption and wildlife?

 

[Satguy]

Thanks for the replies,

Has anyone planted Cherry trees for your own consumption and wildlife?

Just planted my first cherry tree this spring. Time will tell. When I was a kid I remember that the blue jays would eat all the cherries before we could get to them. We would save those banquet banana pie plates and wire several of those througout the branches and they kept them out of it for the most part.

 

[CuivreDog]

I have a few 4th leaf cherries that will be producing for the 1st time this year.

There are not a lot of cherries for the number of blooms that were on the trees so I suspect the birds/squirrels will be the benefactors this year.

 

[Turkey Creek]

For strictly wildlife purposed I am considering planting some Mahaleb root stock (cherry). What I have noticed from some failed grafts on that root stock is that it tends to hold its leaves late into fall (good for screening possibly) produces blossoms in the 2nd year many times (not sure if it would be self fertile though) and tends to grow vigorously.

 

[Native Hunter]

I dug up some different old cherry sprouts from old home places and put in my wildlife planting. I have no idea what the varieties are or even if they are named varieties. I just know that country people didn't keep anything that didn't produce. They have done well, and I like to enjoy a few cherries when doing tree maintenance, but the birds get more than I do.

I'm also experimenting with some dwarfing bush cherries. Just put them in the ground this spring. If they make fruit, they will be easy to protect from birds with nets, because they only get 6 feet tall.

 

[Neahawg]

Disease resistant low maintenance trees are the way to go. If you have the room try and span your drop times from June/July all the way through December.

Don't be afraid to mix a few pears in as long as they are also disease resistant.