And so it begins… My order arrived from Cummins nursery and we have trees in the ground! I am going to use this post as a sort of log that I can continue to update (for anyone who might be interested). I spent a lot of time over the winter months doing as much research as I could, including talking to some of you.
What I planted:
2x Pristine apple on G11
2x Triumph apple on G935
2x Rubyrush apple (not yet planted)
2x Goldrush apple on G214
Support system:
Each tree is supported with a 10’ tall metal t post. They are sunk 36" into the ground and each tree will be tied to the post at multiple points.
Planting notes:
Trees are spaced approximately 3.5’ apart.
They were not fertilized at all at the time of planting.
Each tree got a small top dressing of some very fine compost mulch and I will go back through and put a thick layer of straw down around/in between every tree.
I have a soaker hose at the base of each tree and it was long enough to loop around the row a couple times.
Need to finish putting in my corrugated pipe trunk guards.
I did not head the trees at planting, per recommendations from various sources. I plan to go back through once the rain is out of the area and do some notching above many of the buds (several of the trees are just whips).
We’ll see how it goes! I have never done anything like this and am still fairly new to fruit growing in general. I was enamored with the tall spindle system on a small scale for the ability to grow many varieties in a small space. A couple photos are below. Would love any of your thoughts/criticisms.
It’s looking great, I have a similar t-post setup at the end of my yard. I used 8ft t-posts spaced 3ft apart. Some trees were planted in spring 2024, some last spring, so it’s an ongoing project.
Really cool. Hopefully my tree do as well as yours seem to be doing. Were most of your trees already feathered or were they whips? I was just curious as to how you promoted branching/whether or not you headed the trees. Some of your trees look like they have a good deal of branching.
Looks good. I have two rows of tall spindle I planted in 2018, I went 4’. I like being able to have a lot of varieties as well. It really helped get my tree numbers up so I can seem like a real crazy person.
I went with the wooden posts and wire. Your t posts seems much easier. Good luck !
I think you will want tie the branches down below horizontal the first year if you have feather branched trees. Possibly the second year if you have whips as the develop. It supposedly keeps those branches calm and changes the physiology of the trees. I belive it’s pretty important to the system focusing the growth of the leader and keeping the branches calm.
I planted 76 trees last spring on my trellis. 5 wires tall (10’) 3’ apart. I never headed the leader. A number of my trees made the top wire and a good number got to the 8’ wire.
I was wondering how they would react being a single long leader, with not many branches above 4’. To my surprise there are a lot of flower buds on that long stem coming out this spring. Some of the leaders are 5’ without a branch. I have 38 varieties on the trellis from last year.
It’s a big time saver on maintenance.
I did notch the long leader to try and eliminate blind wood and make some branches. I have 2x more trees on a 220’ trellis than the 1/3 acre of free standing trees I have.
I have another trellis for this spring for 70 trees. I plan on doing some others the way you are doing it this spring in another area. No trellis, just stakes.
It’s a great way to build varieties with out eating up a lot of space.
I have plenty of space, but was intrigued by the system and really like it.
Awesome setup!
Straw and hay are good, they can bring weed seeds. Same with free mulch. However clean and non dyed mulch around the trees is kind of the go to for fruit trees from what ive been told.
Honestly id smother the grass within the red lines below and cover with nice organic mulch.
2" thick layer of mulch around the trees. You could even make an plastic/stone border so it would be easier for mowing. These are just ideas but killing the grass will eliminate competition for the apples roots.
You can even introduce oyster mushroom mycelium to the woodchips and get flushes of golden oysters yearly(wine cap is most aggressive.) You’ll just need to re apply 2" of mulch every other year or so.
These are just my thoughts, everyone does it differently. Take care.
Planning to tie down branches in the next couple of weeks. It looks like the cut back the branches on the trees that had them, so I will do that as they begin to grow.
Appreciate the advice. I have read about chip drop, but I don’t think I would have use for such a large load of wood chips. I have looked around at all of the local stores near me (Lowes, Home Depot, etc) and I can’t seem to find anyone who sells a bagged wood chip type of mulch. Where do you usually get it?
Agree that you should keep the area free of competition. However, make sure to keep the mulch a few inches away from the trunk.
Mulch right up against the trunk has given me issues. Especially for young trees.
My lowes has both the bagged wood chips and “pine bark chunks”. My understanding is that the wood chips are better for breaking down, the pine bark doesn’t break down as quickly. But the pine bark chunks would be good for some weed suppression.
I think you won’t have too hard a time since it looks surrounded by lawn.
@consteel98 i get mulch from a local nursery. Well i did. Now free chips has my entire bed filled with this super invasive weed that produces beans filled with seeds… its awful… but anyways, Amish are the best for organic mulch, composts etc. Try to avoid bark. Mulch is superior. And as someone mentioned dont put mulch against the trees. Seeing how you have plastic tubes around the trunks youll be fine to mulch right around the plastic id assume. (I personally try to keep the mulch 4-6"s away from the trunk, idk what everyone else does. when you water theyll sometimes flost closer but i just brush them back) As long as mulch us not touching the trunk. Putting mulch directly in contact with mulch is no good and will cause problems.
One more thing about straw! You have to make sure it’s not been grown and treated with herbicides like Grazon. A lot of straw is now sprayed and the chemical remains active and can kill plants and trees. They have special “garden straw” or you can get some from a local person you can ask.
I learned this one the hard way (I’ve killed berries more ways than I can count).
I know lots of people like to do things naturally and so don’t want to add fertilizer. However, if you’re adding fertilizer and just using the mulch for weed suppression, bark vs. wood shavings doesn’t matter. Also, wood takes long enough to decompose that you probably want to fertilize this year (after the trees have been planted a few weeks) and next year. Once the trees are older you might want to use wood chips because then you might not need to fertilize at all. Just the wood chips breaking down will provide some nutrients.
I suspect I am naive here, but is this a regional and/or climate requirement? I see it repeated a lot (especially on Reddit), but I don’t yet understand the reasoning for it. I kept the graft union above coverings, but mulch or chips are heavily piled on to protect from dry summers.
When planting new dormant nursery trees in the spring I’ll first dig, then mix and fold in a shovel full of black compost, plant, mound with chips or mulch, and finally spray with copper.
Nice setup. The t-post and wire system is the way to go for tall spindle, keeps things manageable without spending a fortune on a proper trellis. Curious what made you go with G11 for the Pristine, it can be a bit vigorous for spindle depending on your soil. Should be interesting to see how they compare against the G935s.
I would only do it if I was in southern CA or similarly dry climate with no voles.
Also, I went 3 years with zero mulch issues then had sudden issues with young trees last year. And I was trying to keep the mulch off the trunk, but it kept creeping back… and I got busy.
too much mulch can suffocate tree roots. It’s a known issue in places where there’s enough rain and people just pile the mulch on.
If you have humid summers =rot type things (bacteria, fungal)
voles= bite young trunks can girdle and the mulch gives them cover - they tunnel. (happened to my neighbor)
borers = got my peach trees. Right under the mulch and I didn’t notice b/c mulch. I’m sure there are pests for apples, just don’t know what they are. Sure you could still get borers without the mulch but I think it’d be much harder to not notice if I had bare dirt by the trunk.
@benthegirl decay and mycelium breaking down the mulch is a good thing though from what i understand, its natual like the forest floor, a dense layer of natural mulch full of mycelium and life. 2" of mulch enoculated with winecap or oyster mycelium is a good thing from what ive always been told. I do it myself. I actually finally took soil samples today for the first time and had them sent off. Im interested to see how the soil is. I used the probe and the first 10 inches all looked super rich and loamy, full of worm castings as well. Rittman series silt loam soil so we’ll see.
@BogovichEventually, we want our woodchips to break down (fungi do this) to release their stored nutrients. We wouldn’t want forever woodchips that refused to break down. But if you’re using them for weed suppression or water retention then you might not want them breaking down right now.
Also, woodchips aren’t going to give us anything this year or next . In fact, this year they’re going to be nitrogen stealers.
Tall spindle relies on quick growth that renews. There’s no permanent scaffolds. You tie the shoots down and anytime a shoot gets thick you remove it. You rely on renewal and regrowth. Tall spindle is known to be a very difficult method because you’re balancing growth and production.
You don’t want excessive vegetation which leads to no fruit and possible fireblight, but you need those renewal shoots and fruiting. If you’re growing for commercial reasons, you need your trees to get to that top wire in 2 years to make a profit. That makes it even harder.
Something like tall spindle but more espalier-like is much more forgiving - 39th parallel has some posts about his trees which look great. Also applenut had a bunch of diagonal espalier apples that were in a small space and they looked terrific.
Also, while your soil is all loamy and full of organics sometimes that isn’t going to help and can be detrimental. Additionally, soil tests discard organics (or you should discard organics before you send it off). Keep your rich loamy soil for your veggie garden and plant your fruit trees in cruddy but well-drained soil.
@benthegirl fruit trees boom in my soil Its rich, loamy and drains welll. Full of life and loaded worms and microbes. I add my own homemade amendments, lactic acid bacteria serum etc. It has a 2" mulch layer that is full of wine cap mushroom mycelium(which also help suppress nematodes)
Dont even get me started on my compost. Grade A++ lollll
The test is to see if there are any nutrient deficiencies, I thought it did give you a percentage of organic matter within the soil though. I got the test that reads everything included boron and few others. Hopefully its all good. I did it for the blackberries ill be planting along the fence this season. I really want those to do well.
I appreciate the advice on spindle training, i was just watching a video on it. Im debating whether i want to do it to my galarina on g.214 startimg year 2. Or if i should keep 4 lower scaffolding branches and do renewal cuts on the rest of the tree, keeping it a central leader
Its rich, loamy and drains welll. Full of life and loaded worms and microbes. I add my own homemade amendments, lactic acid bacteria serum etc. It has a 2" mulch layer that is full of wine cap mushroom mycelium(which also help suppress nematodes)