Hello,
I have been here for a while now. I want to request for some advice about growing apple trees in damp soils as i get conflicting information from local resources & experts.
I live in Kashmir region in India. Apple is grown all around here. However the soils in our area are mosty damp with water just underneath (with in 10 inches).
I havd planted some apple trees in a sufficiently dry patch (m111).
I want some suggestions about tree varities siitable for the damp area( water just underneath within 10 inches) with very poor drainage. Some varities available here are: M6, M7,M9, M111.
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Have you thought about growing them in raised beds of sorts?
You can maybe build something like this so that they can drain a little bit?
This is what I’m using because i can’t carry heavy stuff. I basically will be growing all my trees a little bit above ground like so. My soil is extremely wet as well and also doesn’t drain well. I’m hoping if i do this, it won’t kill the top roots at least so the tree won’t drown.
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I will work on that… should 1 go with M111 or any other variety. There is no scope for regular watering as well.
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It depends a bit on wether the water table changes a lot over the seasons.
Apple roots don’t survive indefinitely in waterlogged ground. They die off after a couple of months and root rots can occur. But this happens more in temperate climates where the water table rises in winter and falls in summer.
I have a very high water table over the winter, and the lack of oxygen can kill the small roots in the deeper layers. When the water table beneath the ground drops fast in summer, the tree cannot grow roots fast enough to reach the water in summer and has drought stress.
But if the water table is more or less stable the trees will just establish a very shallow root system that can always reach the water and you should be able to use most of the rootstocks.
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This is my exact situation.
Summers: Mild to warm with temperatures generally ranging between 20°C to 35°C.
Winters:Cold with significant snowfall, temperatures often dropping below freezing.
Rainfall: Moderate rainfall throughout the year, with heavier precipitation during the monsoon season.
During winters snow and rainwater fills the land.
Above all the land has less drainage. The raised beds do work but to some extent.
By the way which variety is more tolerant to water?
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This will be my second time ever trying to grow apples and i don’t know much about them overall honestly. What i do know is that my area sounds a little bit like yours and the only way I’ll be able to grow anything if it continues like this over the years, will be in raised beds.
I think as long as we give it a chance in the first few years and help the tree out, it can adapt. But before it can adapt to our environment, we need to help it a little bit.
Don’t forget to water in the summertime. Especially with raised beds.
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Only the rootstock matters for soil considerations. M111 is tolerate of wetter soils and is also very drought tolerant.
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if there are other growers around you with similar conditions, why not find out what rootstock they are using? In the us, people use pacific crab rootstock for wetsoils.
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Apple seeds might be allowed to ship if they’re not already available over there? Much more likely than a live plant, anyway.
Mark rootstock was originally hyped as a stock for wet sites. I noticed that now no mention is even made of the stocks ability to do well in wet sites. This is most likely do to all the orchards that failed when there was a dry spell. I know from experience the stock wont recover from being dried out.
I’ve planted apple trees where the water table is very high. I actually hit water when digging the holes to plant some of them (in summer time). The result is that the trees are only able to grow their roots very close to the surface and are prone to falling over.
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