Apple Orchard Project

[765489]

I've completed the planting of the orchard. ( trees planted the week after Christmas )

Will post my lessons learned and a couple of steps I had to do. I hope this video plays.

[765489]

The planting was a hard slog due to the week of rain we had at the end of December. Some of the holes immediately filled up with water which made filling them in and firming them in difficult. I was concerned about how much the rootstock would move in such conditions so I put a shovel of sand over each completed tree. That way if they rock the sand would wash down and cover the opening.

A spoon of Mycorrhizal Fungi was placed on the roots of each tree before the clay was filled in.

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[765489]

The next phase was to tie them to the posts. I ran out of proper rubber tree ties and in most cases the tree tie was too short. I temporarily secured them with cable ties and replaced the cable ties with the below green tie wrap which will not be as abrasive as the cable ties against the trees trunk.

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[765489]

The cutting of the wire guards was painfully slow. Took me two full days to do this. I was going to do it with an angle grinder as the wire is slightly stiffer than chicken wire, but it was basically too dangerous and awkward due to the springy nature of the wire.

So my old trusty red pliers was used. Wire guards were secured with two cable ties.

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[765489]

The height of the tree guards are roughly 20 inches. So the last thing I had to do was some formative pruning. This involved pruning of laterals growing below the 20 inch mark. I don't want tree branches too close to the ground as when there are fruit on them they will just end up laying on the ground with the weight.

Also pruned back anything damaged during transit and laterals growing towards the sky and not outwards.

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[765489]

Lastly was putting on the identification tags for each row. I got the name of the apple variety, year and type of rootstock. Need this as my memory can be bad with these sort of things and even if I put them into some sort of excel file I'd probably misplace it on my hard drive.

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[765489]

My attention now has to turn to pests. Understanding the enemies life cycles, and researching solutions that actually work and don't involve wiping out the local beneficial predators and pollinators.

[CelticRambler]

Great job ... but ... but ... but the size of those poles!

Are they just for stabilising the growing tree, or are you planning to use them to support horizontally trained branches in due course?

[490808]

My attention now has to turn to pests. Understanding the enemies life cycles, and researching solutions that actually work and don't involve wiping out the local beneficial predators and pollinators.

See if you can find a beekeeper that will leave a hive (or two or more) down there. I know our local beekeeper is always looking for new places to put hives.

[765489]

Great job ... but ... but ... but the size of those poles!

Are they just for stabilising the growing tree, or are you planning to use them to support horizontally trained branches in due course?

The poles are still running through my mind CR. One of the lessons learnt. I initially had a batch of 100 x 6 foot by 100mms. I ordered a second batch which were 5 x 80mm diameter. If I'm going to put in anymore I'd go with 5 x 75mm. Only reason I got the 6 x 100mm is that they were cheap and cheerful.

The fruit tree man said to get the agricultural stakes from a local Co op which is what I done. He said they only need to be supported for 3 years due to the rootstock chosen. Apparently you have to be careful when staking them, as if they are fully supported the trees have a tendency to redirect the growth to the top half of the tree and not the trunk. So from that I take it that when supporting the tree I should leave a slight bit of give so the tree is encouraged to support itself and put more emphasis on strengthening of the trunk during its early years. I've had this rolling around in my brain for the last few days, its the only logical solution I can think of re "weening" The trees off the stakes !

The branches will be self supporting if at all possible. I've went with a extensive rather than intensive orchard model. So say you have an orchard with a M9 rootstock. Means you can plant them very close together, but they will only support one main branch with a load of laterals coming out of it that are usually supported with wire. The m26 rootstock that I have are planted further apart as it will have 6 or 7 main branches with laterals coming off each of them with fruit.

[765489]

See if you can find a beekeeper that will leave a hive (or two or more) down there. I know our local beekeeper is always looking for new places to put hives.

I will look into that CO. At the moment I have very good local populations of both bumblebees and solitary. I leave good banks around the field for over wintering and have been sowing phacelia in it for the last few years. There are honeybees visiting from somewhere locally as I notice them on the phacelia every year.

[490808]

Ideally all you should be doing with those tree ties is stopping the root ball from moving. I don't see any reason that they can't be placed much lower down than currently. However you might like to leave them were they are until growth starts next year then move them down a bit. The only issue is you don't want the trees to be rubbing off the wire so you may be more comfortable with the tree ties where they are.

RE: Hives, one advantage if you provide space for bee hives normally is the occasional free pot of local honey.

[765489]

Ideally all you should be doing with those tree ties is stopping the root ball from moving. I don't see any reason that they can't be placed much lower down than currently. However you might like to leave them were they are until growth starts next year then move them down a bit. The only issue is you don't want the trees to be rubbing off the wire so you may be more comfortable with the tree ties where they are.

RE: Hives, one advantage if you provide space for bee hives normally is the occasional free pot of local honey.

The local beekeeper here was given permission by a local farmer to put in 3 or 4 hives not too long ago and he didn't even give my neighbour 1 pot of honey as a thank you. Very bad form.

He's now black listed in the area the tight fecker

[490808]

Hopefully a stupid question but isn't that wire a bit wide for rabbits? If you've ever done or seen any ferreting you'll know that rabbits can get through tiny gaps.

[765489]

Hopefully a stupid question but isn't that wire a bit wide for rabbits? If you've ever done or seen any ferreting you'll know that rabbits can get through tiny gaps.

It's two inches wide CO. So far no damage.

[490808]

Two inches is way to big for rabbits. For cages for full grown rabbits you can get away with one inch but 2 inches but afaik most people use 1 inch square as a max. You may be lucky in that the wire will make it uncomfortable for them to have a go at the base of the trunks.

Sorry just looking at your avatar - you should know this

[765489]

I've used 2 inch chicken wire on previous trees planted and never had any bothers.

But will keep an eye on this.

[490808]

I've used 2 inch chicken wire on previous trees planted and never had any bothers.

But will keep an eye on this.

You probably don't have hungry rabbits.

[765489]

You probably don't have hungry rabbits.

Let's hope so or there will be a phone call made to a man with a rifle.

[765489]

A few good videos on pruning (Might be useful to others) The first one (The music is annoyingly loud at the into but this guy seems to know his stuff). I will be going with his leader based system, which basically is shaping the tree in a pyramid form. Four strong main laterals or "scaffolds" located every 2 foot. With each set of 4 laterals getting shorter as each set progresses up the tree. This will ensure good light penetration on all sets of laterals or "whirls". Also explains what notching is which is to trick a bud into producing a lateral where one is not. So for the 4 laterals on each whirl, they need to be evenly around the tree if possible, so the notching is important in this system.

The second video I find very informative too. Goes more into explaining the different type of pruning cuts and when to use and when not to use. I'm hoping the two combined will give me a good comprehensive understanding on pruning. I bought a book which I've looked through but find these videos a bit better in explaining things when you can see things in action.

I got myself a good hand pruner which is a Felcro 2, made by a Swiss company which everything on it is replaceable with spare parts. Also a budding / grafting knife which is razor sharp for the notching so nice clean cuts can be performed.

So far the rabbits have stayed away but am keeping an eye on the trees every couple of days for damage. Between what CO said above in a previous post about the 2 inch mesh and now my father commenting on the same thing during the week if there's any sign of damage I'll be replacing the mesh with a smaller diameter. Anyway I was going to start all this today on my own but the weather is going to be crap so I wrap up and go for a long walk instead

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[765489]

I done the first pruning job on all varieties of trees today except one called DelJonca. This tree has the most peculiar laterals coming out of it and all laterals are almost upright to the leader. I'll probably have to go back to the supplier on this one for advice.

Two or three of the varieties I could do 4 scaffolding limbs and cut for the next whirl as described in the previous videos but most were cut back to 30 inches to encourage the first set of whirls as the laterals were coming out from the leader under the tree guard wire and the rabbits would cut them anyway when they protrude the wire.

One of the handiest things I discovered today was the little black plastic budding tool that's on the grafting knife. It made the job of taking out the two buds under the heading off cut of the leader a sinch to take out. For the first 10 or so trees I was using the tip of the pruner and then copped on that there is a tool at the end of the knife for that.

Apart from the finding out how to deal with the DelJonca conundrum the next thing I'm going to do is do some spacing / shaping on some laterals. Some are 90 degrees that need to be brought up to about 70 degrees. Others are at about 40 - 50 degrees that need to be brought down to 60 - 70 degrees angle. Im going to leave this one to early summer as they'll be more flexible i think. There is not too many but a few I had no choice in.

For this I'm going to use a combination of wooden clothes pegs, coffee stirrers, string and small bits of wood.

Anyway have to say even with the intermittent rain showers I found the whole thing a very relaxing and enjoyable experience. Should have done this twenty years ago.

[765489]

Well not much of an update on the orchard. All the trees are still alive which is a good sign. All in various stage of flowering. I'll be removing these before they hit the fruit set stage so as all the tree's energy is put into growing lateral branches. Will continue this for another 3 to four years. Been also setting some laterals to roughly 70 degree angle from the leader. Not too many to do, a few here and there.

I might cut the grass between the rows as hay later in the summer and give it to my neighbour for his cattle. There's still a high percentage of red clover in it but expect this to reduce as the grass takes hold.

That's it... no stress in this little project

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[Del.Monte]

No palisade fencing?

[765489]

No palisade fencing?

We'll leave that to the boys in Irish Rail Del

[765489]

The fruitlets are well established now on all the trees and all the trees so far are still alive. I have a concern for a couple of them that were planted in bare ground as this time of the year large deep cracks form in heavy clay soil I have here. This can expose the roots to air and cause them to dry out. The shovel of sand I put around them at planting time seems to be helping this problem as the sand particles are wash down the cracks, hopefully sealing them.

Anyway I will have to now go around each tree and snip off this year's fruitlets so the energy if the tree goes into the forming of the tree rather than the production of fruit. Also take out any laterals that are popping out below the wire guard.

The grass is 4 to 5 foot in places. If I get some good weather I'm getting out the scythe and cut it for hay.

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