The Brushpile
- Thread starter Brushpile
- Start date
I don't know if this is the case, but going cheap with crabapples is usually a HUGE mistake. Cheap crabs usually produce tiny apples that nothing eats, and since they are on their own roots it will take up to 10 years to see apples; I learned the hard way!!! Grafted trees produce earlier and have a named apple variety. Good crabapples produce an apple that is 1"- 2" in diameter.
dogdoc
Well-Known Member
If rodents are a problem it doesn't matter what you mulch with. Your best solution is to use aluminum window screening around the base of the tree. Wrap around the base and attached using a common office stapler. As the tree grows it will pop the staples out and not girdle the tree. All my trees get the window screening now--even the ones that are tubed.
dogdoc
Well-Known Member
Maybe you can cut the crab bush a few inches from the ground and graft with another crab such as a dolgo from your dolgo seedlings you have. I grafted a couple of your dolgo scions last year and they did great.
Have you had rodents tunnel under gravel? The question was about rodents tunneling and eating roots.
Chad Hauenstein
Member
Thanks for the advise everyone. I used mulch on my trees which probably didnt help from what i have read. Our trees are in old fields and near brassica plots which sounds like ideal habitat for voles. This article from psu sayes the same thing you have all recommended. Gravel around the trees or hardware mesh set 4 to 6 inches in the ground.
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tre...ruit-production/wildlife-damage-control/voles
Great thread! Your place looks great! My bucket list of stuff to plant keep growing!
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tre...ruit-production/wildlife-damage-control/voles
Great thread! Your place looks great! My bucket list of stuff to plant keep growing!
Before ordering Google the name of the plant and USDA to see if the tree/shrub grows in your area.
It couldn't be any drier. There have been numerous grass fires, no rain and no rain in the monthly forecast! Glad I didn't order any trees this year!
https://weather.com/weather/monthly/l/USMO0703:1:US
https://weather.com/weather/monthly/l/USMO0703:1:US
The drought is affecting this entire region, to include most of Missouri, plus parts of Kansas and Oklahoma.
Last year my attempts to grow a clover food plot failed again, as they have since 2012. The Dust Bowl lasted 7 years, and this too will end one of these years.
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/RegionalDroughtMonitor.aspx?midwest
Last year my attempts to grow a clover food plot failed again, as they have since 2012. The Dust Bowl lasted 7 years, and this too will end one of these years.
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/RegionalDroughtMonitor.aspx?midwest
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
Man that's hot! I was sweating at 32 degrees today-had to take the sweatshirt off. It must be tough on the plants.
20 is about what it should be here.... instead I'm running the AC!
It may have been hot but sure was nice planting fruit trees saturday morning.Unfortunately spent the next 5 hours fighting a grass fire.Be careful out there as it is dry and theres big grass.I was pulling out of my farm yesterday and saw a pickup sitting on road in road of my gate and guess what it was on fire.I flew up the road a half mile to inlaws and grabbed a fire extinguisher while calling for a fire truck.Got it put out but at least I didn't end up with my NWSG on fire.Everyone should have a water pressurized extinguisher around their farm.I got several farmers to carry them on their swathers and several saved their machines because they had them and also prevented a grass fire
A fire could wipe out years worth of work. Glad you got everything under control!
