Thanks for taking the time to explain this. I really appreciate it! It has given me a jump start to planning my orchard. I'm hoping to get my trees ordered and in the ground by the end of next week.

Ol' dad

Good for you! You may expect to get 20-30% more growth next year over spring planting.

So I ended up having to wait until spring to buy my trees. Going to put them in the ground this saturday. They are about 1-in diameter in the base maybe 6 to 7 ft tall. Any dos or don'ts when I plant them?

My plan was to take one 20 inch excavator bucket worth of dirt out. Set the root wad in and fill in with bottom ground top soil. Lay down a 30 inch diameter of landscaping cloth around the base and put mulch on top. Was thinking I would cut 2 ft sections of black perforated drain pipe to wrap around the base and keep rabbits from girdling. What is the best way to stake them? With a single t post or 3 guidelines to shorter stakes?

Ol dad

do you guys like square holes or round?

Just make sure that you plant the tree to the same depth it was in the nursery. Make sure there are no air pockets around the roots. Everything you outlined in the above post seems OK to me. I don't add support to the tree. Never saw a reason with a tree that has a 1" diameter girth.

Like in the pics of my peaches, you will want to cut that 6' tree down to about half of that.

I assume that size tree is potted or balled/burlapped? Pruning back is strictly a function of balancing for root loss when the tree is dug. I wouldn't cut a 7' tall tree down to 3-4' tall, that is excessive in almost all cases.

I don't cut back the top of any trees anymore, everything you said should work fine, are they bear root? no need to stake them, might have to fence, to keep deer off,

Thanks for the info. This is some of what i have. It looks like the main trunk was already cut down on most of them.



Ol dad

Fruit trees don’t do well if you spray weeds around them much I’ve killed about every fruit tree had or planted.

Really interesting advice here. I have around forty fruit trees mostly apples in North-central WI. Have pear and a couple of plums recently started. I plant bare-root trees that are around 9 feet tall when I get them from a local nursery. I plant standard or full-size trees, my primary purpose was wildlife habitat but it has become way more than that, as I prune and spray for personal use. I have not cut my main lead or top trees. I prune down to one lead and the balanced scaffold limbs I want around the tree. I have not had to stake or tie off a tree. As stated good hole, good rich dirt, I use our own compost from our cattle. My trees as stated are like your planting out in the wild areas, so getting them large, tall, and mature to keep wildlife off them. I like them tall, and the deer keep the lower limbs trimmed up once it they are large enough to take fencing down. It is a lot of work but very rewarding. PS My wife hunts the main orchard fro archery season and shoots a dandy buck almost every year.

I get dwarf trees, apples, plums I would have to spray every two weeks all summer to stop the apple maggot flies,
I found the pear and reliance peach do well so far with no spraying

Try to choose 3-4 good scaffold branches and cut everything else off. Head back your scaffold braces too. You will not harm a fruit tree pruning way back, you will encourage good fresh strong growth.

I bought 30 apple trees from NEyotetrapers business about 3 years ago. One died but it was a victim of the neighbors overspray. I’m very happy with that since we have been in a stout since planting them. Chris gave me good advice and a choice of root stock. One is more suited to sandy soil and the other for clay type. Living on the river we went with the sandy root stock. Here’s his website:

www.turkeycreektrees.com

The only time not to prune is late summer/fall that'll promote young tender growth just in time for first frost/freeze. But that applies to all growing plants.

One other note: If your fruit trees have been in a pot for too long the roots tend to curl around the bottom of the pot. Try to get them spread out as best possible and scarify (scratch) the sides of rootball. They can also be nipped back a little if necessary. You don't want roots wrapped around roots.

I have all of my stuff in 5' Plantra staked tree tubes. Most all the hard and soft mast trees are peeking out of the top since getting them in almost a year ago. Fruit trees were 2-3' tall when planted. Would the recomendation be to prune the way described once eveything comes out of the tube or prune the central leader now as some of them are 2-3' out of the tube. Nothing has really formed a crown yet.

Too late to be of any help for Dad, but might be of interest to others following in his wake. I used to know a guy (now passed) who was a retired college professor whose hobby was apple trees. Had about 50 or 60 varieties on a vacant lot in town. Wrote a book on all things apple trees. Was never published, so only available in manuscript form. What a shame as it offered some of best information going. I only found out about him as U of MO extension specialist suggested I call him, as he knew more about it than they did.

But point to all his work, and his recommendation for home growers. Basically select 6 to 10 varieties.....that matured at 2 to 3 week intervals. That allows you to start mid summer and harvest applies all the way to first frost and beyond. Plant dwarf stock, as even most dwarf trees will produce 3 to 5 bushels of apples........more than most folks can eat or store. Who eats 30 to 50 bushels of apples each year? Dwarf trees can be planted 6 to 10 feet apart, so even a couple 50 foot rows is all the space needed. Dwarf trees come into production sooner and can be managed from the ground. Pruning, spraying and harvesting.

The criteria he used to select those to plant were combination of maturity, flavor and texture, keeping ability, disease resistance and suited to climate. Honeycrisp is an excellent eating apple, but as per John, once temps exceed 100*F, the trees stress out and drop all the fruit. So don't bother planting Honeycrisp in central MO. Another thing he was adamant about was not allowing trees to set fruit when they are too young. Understandable as you want to see what you have. But it will stunt the tree for life if you do.

The other thing is the root stock. A dwarf is a dwarf is a dwarf? Nope. There are maybe half a dozen or more and each has it's own attributes. Good luck finding out what root stock most container trees at the box stores are grafted to. Good to buy from a place as mentioned above so you know.

In the south, fruit trees are the devil. I maintenance watering and consistent spray.

Storage apples aren't really a thing down south as we can't do proper root cellars. Jellies, canned, butter, dried are how they got stored. Some did cider as well.

One source on the web that discusses apples for hot climates that I've found is kuffel creek.


https://www.kuffelcreekapplenursery.com/

Heat and humidity is fungus and bug heaven. Throw in warm winters throwing off chill hours or early bloom late frost and fruit trees are a challenge.