yoderjac
Well-Known Member
I have quite a bit of experience with a variety of wildlife trees over the year. My philosophy has been to provide a permaculture deer food source. This requires high volumes of trees. Because of the volume of trees I wanted, I grew many of them from seeds and nuts in rootmakers over the years. I've also done grafting of persimmons and apples with success. Also because of the volume, I started with trees that produce and require near-zero care after planting. Therefore apples were last on my list. They would be only disease resistant varieties and get no pruning or fertilization or anything as part of my QDM program. Of course, they produce very little with this approach which what I expected for many years. With a full QDM program, there simply is not enough time to provide care to this high volume of trees. I started with bark grafting existing male persimmons over to female which, by far, has been my biggest bang for the buck. We have planted pears. They were sold as Kieffer, but I doubt that is what they actually are. They were planted by my partners. We only have a few. They produce heavily but the pears are all eaten by the time our season starts. I grew hundreds of chestnuts from seeds from Dunstan trees. I've also propagated Allegheny Chinquapins as they grow natively on our land.
Well, I'm pretty much retired now. A few years back I planted a handful of trees at our retirement property. They are primarily for wildlife, but there are few enough of them (and we live there), to actually take care of them properly. So, while I have lots of experience growing and planting trees, I have almost none with tree care.
At the retirement property we have a few apples, pawpaws, and jujube trees and hope to plant a few chestnuts and ACs later this spring. I watched a few videos on pruning apples. Mine, were in bad shape, never being pruned. There were many lower branches and multiple branches coming from the root system. I'm not even sure which were actually my M111 root stock and which were the grafted variety. I pruned them heavily, to hopefully get them in the right direction. They are probably well over 5 years old, but still very small because of no care. They are caged.
I'd like to fertilize them. I have a bunch of 10-10-10 available. My hope is to spray gly (when the wind stops) to kill vegetation within about 6' of them, throw down the fertilizer, and cover it with mulch in the next week.
How much 10-10-10 per inch diameter of the tree would you use? They have never been fertilized before. Because they are heavily pruned, I'd like to encourage vegetative growth at this point to make sure they recover. I'm not worried about fruit yet.
I also have a few pawpaw trees. They were rootmaker trees grown from seed and are probably close to 10 years old but have never produced fruit. They were probably 2' - 3' when they were planted but are only 4' - 7' now. They have never been pruned or fertilized.
Should I prune them. I'd like to remove lower branches, a few each year, so that I can eventually mow around them. Most are caged but one is not. Deer don't seem to bother it at all. How about fertilizer?
I also have a couple tigertooth jujube trees. They are not grafted, grown on their own roots. I purchased some bare root trees and planted them at the farm years ago. Jujubes tend to propagate from the root system. I dug up some suckers with enough roots and grew them in rootmakers and eventually planted them at the retirement property. They took off like gang busters. They have not produced fruit yet, but should soon.
Any thoughts on pruning or fertilization amounts? I do want to start pruning lower branches soon so I can eventually mow under them down the road. They were the most recent tree I planted but they are by far the tallest. I'd say they are about 15' tall right now.
Any thoughts or guidance would be helpful
Thanks,
Jack
Well, I'm pretty much retired now. A few years back I planted a handful of trees at our retirement property. They are primarily for wildlife, but there are few enough of them (and we live there), to actually take care of them properly. So, while I have lots of experience growing and planting trees, I have almost none with tree care.
At the retirement property we have a few apples, pawpaws, and jujube trees and hope to plant a few chestnuts and ACs later this spring. I watched a few videos on pruning apples. Mine, were in bad shape, never being pruned. There were many lower branches and multiple branches coming from the root system. I'm not even sure which were actually my M111 root stock and which were the grafted variety. I pruned them heavily, to hopefully get them in the right direction. They are probably well over 5 years old, but still very small because of no care. They are caged.
I'd like to fertilize them. I have a bunch of 10-10-10 available. My hope is to spray gly (when the wind stops) to kill vegetation within about 6' of them, throw down the fertilizer, and cover it with mulch in the next week.
How much 10-10-10 per inch diameter of the tree would you use? They have never been fertilized before. Because they are heavily pruned, I'd like to encourage vegetative growth at this point to make sure they recover. I'm not worried about fruit yet.
I also have a few pawpaw trees. They were rootmaker trees grown from seed and are probably close to 10 years old but have never produced fruit. They were probably 2' - 3' when they were planted but are only 4' - 7' now. They have never been pruned or fertilized.
Should I prune them. I'd like to remove lower branches, a few each year, so that I can eventually mow around them. Most are caged but one is not. Deer don't seem to bother it at all. How about fertilizer?
I also have a couple tigertooth jujube trees. They are not grafted, grown on their own roots. I purchased some bare root trees and planted them at the farm years ago. Jujubes tend to propagate from the root system. I dug up some suckers with enough roots and grew them in rootmakers and eventually planted them at the retirement property. They took off like gang busters. They have not produced fruit yet, but should soon.
Any thoughts on pruning or fertilization amounts? I do want to start pruning lower branches soon so I can eventually mow under them down the road. They were the most recent tree I planted but they are by far the tallest. I'd say they are about 15' tall right now.
Any thoughts or guidance would be helpful
Thanks,
Jack
