Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Letemgrow, I can not speak for Ryan at www.BlueHillsWildLifeNursery.com but because he gets some of his scions from my Turning Point Tree it is easy for me to understand why it seems he is always sold out. On the surface it seems like apple trees are everywhere so how is he running out of trees all the time; however the proprietary trees he sells are not found all over the place and in many cases there is only one or two of each tree growing anywhere in the world. In the case of the Turning Point Tree it is among the top five or so wildlife apple trees out of three thousand plus different apple trees that are growing here. A two to three inch scion with two buds is needed to graft each tree that eventually gets sold. On a single tree only so many scions can be cut. Thus when he posts his trees as in stock and only has a few hundred each from some of his newer trees like Turning Point as that is all the scions that could be taken from it last year, they get sold out very quickly. Contrasting that with a tree like a Honey Gold or a Cortland which does not meet the criteria of being a great wildlife tree (not disease resistant enough) but where there are thousands and thousands of them full grown in orchards, the number of possible scions is almost infinite relative to demand. Since we as habitat managers do not for the most part spray our trees, they need to be naturally disease resistant which most orchard trees are not so their unending supply is meaningless to us. For the most part the trees we really want are generally few in number as well as in species.
I have seen that Ryan is saving more of his proprietary trees this year so that he can cut more scions in future years and thus annually create greater quantities of his proprietary apple trees. Follow his website and watch for his annual announcements of when trees from this winter will go up for sale. Prepare your order ahead of time and get it in on the day/night he starts accepting sales for 2022 spring delivery. His trees are unique and special, they meet our needs as deer hunters and are worth the extra effort to plan ahead and order them on his first sales day of the year.
And the same goes for the other few hunter/orchard growers that are growing trees specifically to meet the needs of us deer hunters. For now if you want their special trees follow their websites and order as soon as their trees become available for sale. Trees that fit our needs are few in species and numbers. (edited for typos as usual)
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