Post season scouting/ spring planting prep

[Hollywood]

                  Things looking great  Tom          What are the white things around the trees

The long skinny things are 10' conduit sunk 3.5 feet for support. Near the ground is window screen mesh for protecting the trunk from mice. Running water is about one of the coolest things in the world where you haven't had any!   

[Green Mountian Hunter]

                 Thank you Tom ; My little buggers are doing very very well have grown about 5"  some are leaved out
                  and some are still budded  but are ready to pop  ;  Hope my green thumb is as good as yours     

[reeleyz]

Good idea on getting the water ready HW. Luckily the forecast looks good for the next few days. We need a good dose of rain.

I got my trees planted and put down weed matts and caged them. The directions say don't fertilize them at planting. When did you fertilize your dunstans last year?

[Hollywood]

A couple weeks after they went in. Just once as you don't want them in growth mode in fall when it's time for them to shut down for winter. Just got home from camp. I was sitting and taking it easy waiting for Dad to get there and had this big doe walk through hitting the new ground cover already.  Should be better pickings for her and her buddies soon. Had a beautiful gobbler walk through behind her. My buddy and his daughter are trying again tomorrow- I told him to get in Dad's hut if it's nasty. The bird that came through would've been about a 12 yard shot. I'm excited for her to shoot her first bird ... sure hope they connect!

[Green Mountian Hunter]

        Her and her buddies sure love what you have been doing in the area ; They taking notice   

[reeleyz]

I guess we don't have to worry about watering those trees for a while. 

Did you leave the bamboo sticks with the trees or not? They say to remove them but I have left them in for now.

[Hollywood]

About half the trees I got I don't think would have survived the first moderate wind without some support, I left them in too. I had one I lopped off because it was too top heavy and another I should have but didn't. The one I pruned has bushed out and is doing great- the other is getting pruned this winter, it will never make it through any kind of wind on its own the way it is. Heading up now to see how badly the hail & wind beat things up yesterday afternoon. My place was about smack dab in the middle of the worst of the cells that blew through.

[Hollywood]

Things got roughed up a bit... but no real bad damage. Had to get the chainsaw out just to get up though- a few trees down. One took out one of the Dunstan chestnut trees I planted last year. One good bottom branch is intact so I'm going to try to train it into the central leader, it's worth a shot. A lot of game was out- saw a mother grouse with her brood on one of the trails on the way up. They were on the side about 5 feet from me- she flew up about 8' and right back down, followed by all her tiny puff ball chicks. I couldn't believe they got air bound, they are about the size of sparrows. Saw deer, turkeys...everything was out.

[Green Mountian Hunter]

Hope that one will come back to life for you Tom ; Mine are doing great so far 

[Hollywood]

[reeleyz]

At least we don't have to water those new tress!

[buckblaster]

Plenty of water thats for sure. Put my order in for 32 apple trees, 5 pear, 60 blueberrys and an undecided amount of raspberries. Going with cortland, honeycrisp and mcintosh for the apples. A few crabs will be planted eventually.

[Green Mountian Hunter]

Plenty of water thats for sure. Put my order in for 32 apple trees, 5 pear, 60 blueberrys and an undecided amount of raspberries. Going with cortland, honeycrisp and mcintosh for the apples. A few crabs will be planted eventually.

Got to make sure you have the right pollinator trees to go with what you want ; Mac's like Liberty's , Hollywood  can really help you out on that ....
Trees are like Women you never now what they are thinking 

[Hollywood]

Plenty of water thats for sure. Put my order in for 32 apple trees, 5 pear, 60 blueberrys and an undecided amount of raspberries. Going with cortland, honeycrisp and mcintosh for the apples. A few crabs will be planted eventually.

Sounds awesome- hope to see some pics!

GMH... I know enough to ask people that know what they're doing for help but that's about all. The apple trees are doing awesome in the new orchard,.. but only because I'm following the direction of my friend that has an orchard and the advice I got from the nursery where I bought them. Best advise was to lop them off- right in half- right after planting. They said because you lose about half the roots when they are harvested you don't want half the roots trying to support the whole tree. It was hard to go around and cut them all in half... but the way the new growth is exploding from them now- I'm glad I listened. If I tried this just doing what I thought was right- it wouldn't be pretty!

[buckblaster]

Mcintosh will cross pollinate with crabapples and native apple trees. I asked the owner of the nursery about the mcintosh and he said most apple trees will pollinate with wild apples. Theres a lot to it thats for sure.Definetly don't want to be afraid to ask. When I go back im going to see if he'll show me how he prunes his.. Even with the blueberrys, they're the same way.Certain ones only pollinate with this type and on and on. I'll get some pictures when I get it going. Working on the soil now