I have trees closely planted and the roots are already all tangled up. So, I never dig up trees I just saw them off at ground level, and plant the new tree a few feet away. So far I have not noticed any problems. The one thing I would not do if I can help it is replant in exactly the same spot, the roots right by the trunk seem to have the most issues based on trees I have dug up.
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That is my method also. Works well with unwanted landscape plants. If the plant doesnât pop out I cut a few side roots.
Iâve got a truck with a heavy bumper. But very few of my trees, greenhouse or outside, are accessible to a truck. Thatâs due to fences but mostly tree spacing. Itâs hard to pull trees out of 5-7ft row spacing.
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Just takes a longer chain and some good direction. More than a one man job.
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I replace trees on a regular basis. If there are no disease one knows of and nematodes arenât a problem I donât see a reason to worry too much about left over root- just because it hasnât been a problem for me here in the northeast. We do sometimes have problems with replant disease, but apparently removing all the roots does not remove the problem and at sites Iâm working it hasnât seemed to be an issue anyway.
We often replace dead trees with bare root trees with quite a spread. We do try to eliminate roots in the immediate vicinity of new roots- just out of caution and because it doesnât usually require any special extra work.
These things are often regional. If their are pathogens or other pests in the roots of old trees itâs obvious they need to be removed or at least area should be left fallow until the pest dies outâŠ
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For what itâs worth, it seems I have removed most of the offerings of Gurneyâs/Fields. Yum Yum nectarines grew well and fruited abundantly but were a pc magnet and cracked abominably. Sugar Pearls did absolutely nothing in 6 yearsâdecided I would do better with peaches anyway. I do love Drippin Honey, but its growth has been painfully slow and it is more brittle than the rest of my pears. The verdict is still out on Sundance/Pixie Crunchâslow to bear and the trees resemble a bad hair day. Still, the fruit Iâve had from them have been good/intriguing enough to keep them. Had a bad fireblight outbreak and lost 5 pears. I was glad a couple were goneânever got a good seckel-prone to cracking too. Loved the bosc tho. Wonât replant it because of its susceptibility to FB. Iâll be removing a couple Granny Smith this winter. Theyâve just been unsatisfying and I want earlier fruit. I already have Goldrush and Pink Lady for late apples. Late fruit just seems more susceptible to prolonged issues with insects/disease/elements. When removing, I cut the tree down, leaving a couple feet of trunk and lift/pull them out with my tractor after loosening the roots with a shovel.
If you let the trunk resprout the vigorous shoots that follow can be grafted the following year and three years later you will have a much bigger tree than if you started from scratch.
You could also graft right to the trunk, the grafting water sprouts might get you where you want to be even quicker and itâs a quicker type of graft.
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Lol. Iâm optimistic about Pixie Crunch here. Sold some of these apples off of a lone tree this year. They do seem to have the magic crunch of Honeycrisp without all the baggage.
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Alan, Iâve often considered doing as you suggested and know I would enjoy it immensely. Right now, I simply donât have the time/patience to learn the art of graftingâthough someday I look forward to learning it. I am really spread thin, still working full time and trying to take care of all the different berries and a couple acres of vegetables as well. Iâve also gotten, Lord help me, into flowers and shrubs more. This addiction is maddening. I have less than two years before I retire from this distraction of a job and can focus all my attention on my farm. Iâm also moving away from standards to semi dwarfs simply because theyâre a lot easier to take care of. The ambitions of youth are conceding to the realities of aging.
Olpea, I too like Pixie Crunch. Itâs smaller, and thatâs ok. Its crunch is wonderful, and its sweet finish is offset by just enough initial acid. I have never sold any, but it ranks high when given out as test samples. Iâm hopeful that its production will surely increase.
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It takes me 5 minutes to teach some of my wealthy customers the craft of the splice graft and they get a good percentage of takes the first season. One of my customers owns several high end jewelry stores, works 5 days a week at the mother store is married, a father of several children, and is an avid hunter (he owns two separate hunting preserves in different parts of the country) and yet he learned how to do this simple graft and is hooked grafting crabs on one of his preserves to create better food for his beloved game. He starts grafting several weeks before his trees are even growing if thatâs when he has a window.
However, if you want to reduce vigor of the standard trees youâd need an interstem between the trunk and the scion, of M9 or similar dwarfing material. I donât know if that requires an additional season to let the interstem grow and then graft the next year, or if you can graft both at the same time. It will require another five minutes to find that out, unless someone straightens it out after reading my comment.
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Start with pears - theyâre easiest
Even I have managed to graft pears successfully
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Iâve only tried it a couple times, but it worked on both attempts. Magness interstem between a quince rootstock and non compatible pear.
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I have double grafted several apples and pears. With careful alignment you can get a high success rate. I believe that wrapping both sections with parafilm also improves the take rate. Just remember that the the bottom scion will grow ahead of the top one.
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I agree wrapping parafilm around a small portion of the rootstock and all of the scion drastically improves take rate. I donât normally do that for pears because itâs typically unnecessary.
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scott which trees are you killing off this year?
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I havenât thought too far into my elimination lists yet, thats what I do to give me some orchard work in mid-winter. But, I am probably going to remove more European plums which are in a bad spot sun-wise. I have not had time to net my currants for several years so am just going to pull them all up. I have gotten a lot more picky on apple varieties and plan on removing several of them. I donât put much work in to spraying and want ones that make great fruit in spite of that. I also more and more prefer later apples, summer apples really need to be awesome for me to keep them. Right now I have lots of apples in good shape hanging on GoldRush, Abbondanza, Rambour dâhIver, Keener Seedling, Pomme Gris, and Hoopleâs Antique Gold. I want more guys like that which are still hanging nice loads now, and fewer early or rotting or unproductive apples.
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Caveat: Only so much room in my back yard.
I had English Morello sour cherry. It was wonderful, except the very last to ripen of all cherries. Tackling the maggots was difficult. We dug it out and gave it to an orchard where it would be sprayed for maggots (I donât spray.)
We then got North Star, which is already producing a crop in its second year in our ground. No disease problems with these sour cherries and good crops. North Star ripens about 11 days before Montmorency.
I found just two maggots while pitting.
Others removed in this yard over the past 8 years:
Ashmeadâs Kernel: loads of blind wood and a handful of fruit each year, at best.
Kingston Black/M7: wrong choices on my part.
Queen Cox: incapable of handling the arid conditions of far eastern Washington state.
A seedling apple: huge fruit on 1/3 the tree every other year, each third in rotation (biennial divided by three!) No matter how I thin, it sets less than 10 fruit in off years. Looks as though the tree will become a big standard on its own roots, too. Gotta get it down before spring! Will cut at ground level and wrap the stump with bare copper wire to kill it via cupric poisoning.
DâArcy Spice: really bummed about this one, as it drops all fruit at the first sign of a heat wave. Iâll have to travel far to taste it someday. God willing, will top work this to Court Pendu Rose for another small vigor apple (onto Bud118.) I also now need a late pollen source to set seed on MĂ©daille dâOr.
Lord Lambourne: love this apple, but fruit splits in the sun and drains all strength from the tree⊠Will seek a home for it on the soggy side of Washington; plenty of friends and family that way.
Liberty: nice apple, odd tree, must rigorously thin and is a coddling moth magnet (hard to cover each fruitlet early enough.) Sold it to make room for something with more interest and possibilities. (Wynoochee Early will go in its place and I hope it handles the heat and dry of summer here.)
Good finds so far:
North Star cherry, Winekist (redflesh early August; beautiful & tart, w/12 Brix) Sturmer Pippin (late and long keeping; tasty!) Bardsey (Welsh, September ripe w/lemon scent, juicy and balanced sweet/tart).
Waiting for 6 more to yield debut fruit (in no order): Wynoochee, Hunt Russet. Edelborsdorfer, Rambour Franc, MĂ©daille dâOr, & CPR which hasnât yet been grafted. Itâs a long term project.
My thoughts exactly- the luscious fruits during summer and pomes in fall and winter- as long as you live where you can grow luscious fruit successfully.
Nutting,
You have several interesting varieties. i donât know any of them would well on the eastcoast. I still would like to hear your reviews on those new varieties.
I am limited on space, too. Yesterday, I finally removed Vandalay and Danube cherry trees. After 6 years, cherries in my yard do not live up to my expectation. Sweet cherries are the only fruit I grow that the home grown do not taste nearly as good as the store bought, To me, they are too much trouble for what they are worth.
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Here we grow sweet cherries for the commercial market, I bought White Gold because one of itâs parents is Emperor Frances which is grow here a lot. Stella is the other parent.
Carmine Jewel tart cherry was my winning cherry, the flavor is outstanding. Not fresh but as a jam, or syrup, or in pies, outstanding. Not perfect though, the small pit is a problem to remove, so processing is very time consuming.