How to save money as a new orchardist

General Fruit Growing
#41

they are great dogs. my daughter has one. thinks he’s a lap dog.

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#42

A few years ago, I did chain my pricey German Shepherd to an apple tree at night. That did work somewhat as he did kill a couple young raccoons. The disadvantage was that the chain frustrated him and one morning he nearly bite me and normally he is a very gentle dog. Dogs generally do not like being chained. I fear that he would get ran over on the road if he roamed freely. Also, he would tend to roam and bother neighbors. Enclosing the apple trees in the dog pen is something that I have thought of but would be a big hassle due to the location. Two years ago, or so I did build a temporary net fence with an electric wire on top around the apple trees and that seemed to work okay as far as protecting most of the apples. Due to the storm last year, I simply did not have time for all that. Last year I thought that the varmints would get some of the fruit but not all of the fruit.

#43

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Varmints are going to get the fruits of our labors more and more I’m afraid.

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#44

A thought that I have is designing a dog pen so that the dog can have access to the fenced in orchard at times but can be shut out by the means of a gate. You may not want the dog near the trees when spraying and other work involving the fruit trees. In other words, sort of like having two dog pens connected by a gate.

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#45

We’d just move them to a goat pen here. Or more correctly get drug by the dog to a goat pen.

#46

Cheap black tape has worked great for wrapping the graft union for me. Does anyone know any alternatives to grafting parafilm tape to wrap scions with?

#47

I have been known to use old pallet stretch wrap. Does a great job of holding itself. I avoid black tape as it will create Auxin. Which is how we make some trees grow roots.

#48

My first time many years ago used rubber bands. All failed/dessicated.

First success about 8 or so years ago…I didn’t have any tape. Sliced up the bags I bought soil in and made strips of plastic. Grafts took just fine. But, a couple of them looked like an hourglass the next year after I had neglected to remove the plastic strips (they didn’t stretch any as the graft expanded and tree got taller.) Even so, about 80% lived. This happened in February, temps in the 30’s.

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