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Apple trees for the deer hunter


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16 hours ago, Bonefreak said:

Good stuff!!

Enlighten Division biologists with this fruit tree wisdom ...maybe they will get the hint to do some fruit tree plantings on WMAs!!

They really do have limited field staffing.  It may be possible with volunteer help.  I don't imagine that any pruning and spraying will be possible.

If they decide to tackle any apple tree planting, I would suggest antonovka seedlings or standard size seedling crabapple trees in tree tubes. 

 

 

Edited by tick trawler
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5 minutes ago, bucky said:

I found a couple of wild pear trees while scouting years ago and they were deer magnets, killed a buck the first time I sat there:up:

Those wild apple and pear trees are out there on the WMA's in different places.  Yep, do your scouting in the spring maybe you can spot them in bloom and get the jump on a good spot.

 

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14 hours ago, yoda4x4 said:

I'm looking to buy a single golden delicious apple tree for my yard because I don't have space for more and this is one of the only varieties that doesn't need to cross pollinate. Where would you suggest I buy it from?

David

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 

Stark Bros would be a good choice.  I am going to post a list of nurseries later today along with some more information about starting your apple tree.  Pollination is less of an issue than it is made out to be.  New Jersey has a wide variety of pollinating insects that will get the job done, and enough wild and domesticated apple and crabapple trees around for pollen.

https://www.starkbros.com/

 

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45 minutes ago, tick trawler said:

They really do have limited field staffing.  It may be possible with volunteer help.  I don't imagine that any pruning and spraying will be possible.

If they decide to tackle any apple tree planting, I would suggest antonovka seedlings or standard size seedling crabapple trees in tree tubes. 

 

 

Excellent point about utilizing the Division utilizing their volunteer base!

There is probably no other state agency that has a following of passionate individuals that would be interested to volunteer in such a project such as assisting the Division planting fruit trees on WMAs.

The Division has always had staffing issues but has done very little to develop ways to access their volunteer base to assist with projects 

I tried to volunteer to steward a WMA lake and sink Christmas trees as habitat and after 3 yrs....supposedly a few employees did the project w no assistance from our volunteer fishing clubs....I actually have major doubt they ever even did it because the project was supposed to be promoted on their website and it never was

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Nurseries supplying apple trees to the Northeastern states

https://www.acnursery.com/fruit-trees/apple-trees

https://www.cumminsnursery.com/buy-trees/index.php?type=tree&year=2021&category=Apple

https://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/apple-trees

https://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/list-apples

I will add other nurseries to this list at anyone's suggestion.

 

Spray schedule for apple tree owners:

A basic spray plan for your trees can be put together when we can recognize what insects and diseases we are targeting and when they are active or vulnerable.  You will need to spray insecticides at the very least in order to establish trees and get an acceptable crop.  Organic apple crop production is possible but is far more labor intensive as you will be spraying kaolin clay products repeatedly throughout the growing season and in particular when targeting the petal fall pest complex as would normally be done with one or two sprays of insecticide.

A basic spray schedule should include the spraying of dormant oil.  This spray is organic and will solve many issues the apple tree suffers from.  The best information about how and when to apply this spray to your trees comes from Cornell's Scaffolds pest management fruit journal.  

http://www.scaffolds.entomology.cornell.edu/2020/SCAFFOLDS-3-30-20.pdf

I will not cover the use or application of fungicides here.  They have very important uses in apple production, but an acceptable crop for deer and people can be produced without them particularly if disease resistant trees are selected.  Targeting the petal fall pest complex is the one spraying chore you cannot afford to skip.  This can be done adequately with many different materials.  Imidan is one of the best products that thankfully is still available to us for this job.  We cannot be too cautious in the use of pesticides, something to keep in mind as we endeavor to protect our crop and pollinating insects.  There will be blooming ground cover in the spring.  This is to be mowed prior to spraying for petal fall insects. 

Crop protection after the petal fall sprays may not be necessary, it depends upon conditions in your area.  I am including a link here that will help the home gardener select materials to target insects after petal fall.

https://netreefruit.org/apples

 

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3 hours ago, Bonefreak said:

Excellent point about utilizing the Division utilizing their volunteer base!

There is probably no other state agency that has a following of passionate individuals that would be interested to volunteer in such a project such as assisting the Division planting fruit trees on WMAs.

The Division has always had staffing issues but has done very little to develop ways to access their volunteer base to assist with projects 

I tried to volunteer to steward a WMA lake and sink Christmas trees as habitat and after 3 yrs....supposedly a few employees did the project w no assistance from our volunteer fishing clubs....I actually have major doubt they ever even did it because the project was supposed to be promoted on their website and it never was

I think it comes down to an insurance issue with volunteers.......I know when I did electro shocking you had to join ???  ( I forgot the name )  to be able to volunteer....

ESTATESALESBYOLGA.COM    ALWAYS BUYING ANTIQUE AND VINTAGE ITEMS  CALL 908 868 8236 MIKE

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4 hours ago, tick trawler said:

If you are ordering from one of the mail-order nurseries, your stock will arrive in a 3 or 4 foot shipping box, pruned to fit inside the box.  Some nurseries offer different sizes of stock at different price points.  Any stock from a reputable nursery will be good.  Standard trees will usually take 8 to 10 years to produce sizable crops, but this duration varies and depends upon the variety of apple you have selected. 

 

 

And there are 1000's of varieties of apple trees and I am not exaggerating........

ESTATESALESBYOLGA.COM    ALWAYS BUYING ANTIQUE AND VINTAGE ITEMS  CALL 908 868 8236 MIKE

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33 minutes ago, MRMCR said:

I think it comes down to an insurance issue with volunteers.......I know when I did electro shocking you had to join ???  ( I forgot the name )  to be able to volunteer....

Always comes down to CYA and insurance issues....it’s 2021 and no one has figured out a way to have volunteers perform stewardship of the WMAs yet it’s a constant complaint they have low staffing levels 

probably they made you have insurance through the NJ Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs....which provides $1 million dollar policy while fishing and hunting for their annual $40 dues

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20210117_112017.thumb.jpg.27d78e40198b777cda696ef1c9c15e39.jpg

Here is one of my apple trees.  I started it from seed about 25 years ago.  There were other seedlings I started from seed that were its relatives.  They were lost to vole damage in my Mom's garden.  This is the only survivor of the dozen or so I started from seed that I found to be sprouting inside of a granny smith apple that was store bought.  This tree produces a very tasty apple similar to golden delicious.  I would guess it is about 20 feet tall.  It is growing on its own roots.  One of the great things about this tree is that when it has a crop it will drop a couple apples each day for almost a month until it dumps the whole crop on the ground.  I use many of the apples for my own consumption.

20210117_112052.thumb.jpg.334b13834e10727530731959adb59cc2.jpg

The main subject of the photo here is a cider apple variety known as "Yarlington Mill".  It is surrounded by four used fenceposts and some discarded livestock fence to protect from deer damage.  It is difficult to see in this photo but there is a tube of hardware cloth hidden in the weeds that is protecting the trunk from vole damage.  I have not pressed cider from it yet but I found the apples to be palatable.  In the background the large tree is an Enterprise apple that I grafted onto Antonovka seedling rootstock over 10 years ago.  The smallest one in the background is "Harry Masters Jersey" cider apple and the furthest one in the photo is another Yarlington Mill tree.

 

 

Edited by tick trawler
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20210117_111245.thumb.jpg.f3c202c9c35c7efb7e3c30b88bcc3af7.jpg

Here I have on display the tools that I use for grafting.  Believe it or not you really only need a good knife, pruning shear, and a roll of electrical tape to graft apple trees over to the variety you want.  Some of the other items pictured here: 

small hammer, used for pounding the knife in to split larger stock for cleft grafting

small pry bar used to pry heavier stock apart in order to insert a scion

bypass pruning shear for cutting scions

various knives

electrical tape for joining the scion to the rootstock and sealing them together

parafilm (the white tape like stuff) is used to wrap the scion to help prevent it from drying out

green tomato tape to secure scion to a sturdy stake if necessary

trowbridge grafting wax for sealing the wounds on larger tree grafts

hand saw for cutting large stock

grafting tool - the large pair of pliars looking thing is a grafting tool that makes a V cut in both the scion and the rootstock, making the chore of grafting a breeze if the scion and rootstock sizes are matched up well.  Just wrap it tightly with electrical tape when you have joined the pieces together carefully and the job is done.  This tool was less than 30 dollars last time I checked.

 

It wouldn't be expensive to establish a dozen or more standard trees doing the grafting yourself.  Apple trees are one of the easiest trees to successfully graft.  There are many videos on youtube showing us how to do it.

To do this you will need to first order rootstock and plant the rootstocks at least 25 feet apart, preferably 30 feet. After a year or two your seedlings will be ready for grafting.  The grafting is done in the early spring around the time of bud swell on apple.  Gathering scionwood from the apple tree you want to grow is easy once you are able to locate a tree and have permission to harvest scions.  Select pencil sized pieces about 6 inches long.   For rootstock, I recommend Antonovka for our purposes.  It is very hardy and forgiving of neglect and produces a standard tree that may live over a hundred years.

20210117_121048.thumb.jpg.79e3c655c249bb5aff2dfe66418afb3c.jpg

These cut up pieces of used carpet are what I use to keep the weeds down on young trees.   It is installed around the tree in the spring and is removed in August or September so the voles don't take up residence under it.  This one tip alone will save you a lot of frustration when attempting to establish apple trees.

I hope that the information I have published here on NJ Woods and Water will help you establish your own orchard.  This concludes my postings about how to start and maintain a productive orchard.

 

 

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, tcook8296 said:

For me the average from bare root to fruit was about 5 years. Crab apples  I would say 3 to 4 years. Not a sizable amount ' but just a few apples. Im still waiting for a good crop. 

I planted a peach tree too, my 5 year old tree had quite a few at 4 and last season it had a good amount on it. 

Raccoons can clean off a tree in one night

when I left for Rhode Island in mid July on a week long fishing trip, I had a Gala and Golden Delicious that were never more full of apples.  It's as if the squirrels knew there were zero acorns last fall ( they knew they live in the trees), and they ate every last apple. I came home to not a single apple in the trees.   When I was home week prior, I was providing some "negative reinforcement" with the pellet rifle but damn they got them all.  At least 500 apples probably more

Edited by JHbowhunter

Nothing spooks deer more than my stank… 

16 3/4” Live Fluke Release Club

I shot a big 10pt once….

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16 hours ago, tick trawler said:

20210117_111245.thumb.jpg.f3c202c9c35c7efb7e3c30b88bcc3af7.jpg

Here I have on display the tools that I use for grafting.  Believe it or not you really only need a good knife, pruning shear, and a roll of electrical tape to graft apple trees over to the variety you want.  Some of the other items pictured here: 

small hammer, used for pounding the knife in to split larger stock for cleft grafting

small pry bar used to pry heavier stock apart in order to insert a scion

bypass pruning shear for cutting scions

various knives

electrical tape for joining the scion to the rootstock and sealing them together

parafilm (the white tape like stuff) is used to wrap the scion to help prevent it from drying out

green tomato tape to secure scion to a sturdy stake if necessary

trowbridge grafting wax for sealing the wounds on larger tree grafts

hand saw for cutting large stock

grafting tool - the large pair of pliars looking thing is a grafting tool that makes a V cut in both the scion and the rootstock, making the chore of grafting a breeze if the scion and rootstock sizes are matched up well.  Just wrap it tightly with electrical tape when you have joined the pieces together carefully and the job is done.  This tool was less than 30 dollars last time I checked.

 

It wouldn't be expensive to establish a dozen or more standard trees doing the grafting yourself.  Apple trees are one of the easiest trees to successfully graft.  There are many videos on youtube showing us how to do it.

To do this you will need to first order rootstock and plant the rootstocks at least 25 feet apart, preferably 30 feet. After a year or two your seedlings will be ready for grafting.  The grafting is done in the early spring around the time of bud swell on apple.  Gathering scionwood from the apple tree you want to grow is easy once you are able to locate a tree and have permission to harvest scions.  Select pencil sized pieces about 6 inches long.   For rootstock, I recommend Antonovka for our purposes.  It is very hardy and forgiving of neglect and produces a standard tree that may live over a hundred years.

20210117_121048.thumb.jpg.79e3c655c249bb5aff2dfe66418afb3c.jpg

These cut up pieces of used carpet are what I use to keep the weeds down on young trees.   It is installed around the tree in the spring and is removed in August or September so the voles don't take up residence under it.  This one tip alone will save you a lot of frustration when attempting to establish apple trees.

I hope that the information I have published here on NJ Woods and Water will help you establish your own orchard.  This concludes my postings about how to start and maintain a productive orchard.

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent posts very informative..............

ESTATESALESBYOLGA.COM    ALWAYS BUYING ANTIQUE AND VINTAGE ITEMS  CALL 908 868 8236 MIKE

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Great post and very useful information TT!   

I did exactly this.  I planted a variety of apple trees that would produce fruit from late summer through mid winter.  Unfortunately I'm at ground zero for NJ's bear population and they have destroyed all of my trees  but 3.  And now we have a fungus that causes the remaining trees to drop their leaves mid summer.  :shakehead: 

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