I have noticed this with many trees. My cherry trees also put out a major flush early summer and then stay that way for the rest of the year. I think my green gages did the same thing as the plums, apples and cherries. It looks amazing at first because growth is massive but after that growth it sits there. At first I had thought my trees just reached their max size in one season but they grew again start of next season. It is the reason some of my cherries are so small despite it being 3 or 4 years.
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The Golden Delicous in my pic was my first one that i did not dig a hole. This one was about 2 feet above the ground in a mound. In one years time it is level with the ground as if gravity and the roots pulled it down?
This was a cheapie from Degroot sold at tractor supply and seems as if it will bear fruit this year.
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Sounds like quite a pack. My Bassett hound won’t kill anything. She sits out in the yard with her friends the bunnies. I wish she would at least scare them because the bunnies have chewed on bark on my peach trees. They leave a nice pile of bunny poo so I know whom committed the fruit tree crime.
The only thing she gets excited for is my clean socks. Ha.
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I have a yorkie poo that i did not want at first. She was dying when i got her. A friend of mine had already paid a high vet bill and was not going to pay another. I hand fed her for weeks chewing up beef and chicken for her… and my heeler guarded her and protected her as if she were a child of mine.
Little by little they played and eventually the yorkie poo thought she was a heeler. She would run into the woods and had no idea that she wasnt a big dog. My heeler would let her win fights and they played for hours together.
She now bosses the shepherds and she goes where i go. She could never catch or kill anything but she wants to.
Smart and loyal as a yorkie and fierce as a poodle… i love her with all of my heart. One of the best dogs i have ever owned as far as companionship is concerned.
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People report the soil settling all the time. They plant a tree or bush right below and roots start to come out over time. I know at least with my potted plants there is some that my soil is very compact and some the soil is super fluffy. In my experience if I was the soil on the fluffy side will wash away until roots take over that area.
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Your orchard looks happy and healthy. I have to do a similar type of planting bed at my place. Pebbly clay base that I dig down into to open up the typically compacted soil. I remove the top layer of grass, flip it upside down for the berm and plant the fruit trees in an amended, composty soil that is hilled up. As this settles, I add additional soil and also expand the hill size to grow undertree fruit guilds of supportive and protective plants.
Sometimes “wrong” is right! Keep up the good work…
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While this saves a lot of time digging, simply planting in a mound could cause problems, no? For example, the mound washes away in a storm/wind, exposing the roots, they dry out and die. Your Golden Delicious planted this way last year looks normal. Are you saying the roots sort of “suck down into the earth” after a year and the tree is normal from then on?
Well this is only 1 phase of my ‘wrong’ orchard. Since you mentioned it…upcoming i will show you 6 or so trees that i did dig holes but i amended them 100 percent. These are on the top of a creek bank in which I used an excavator to dig out the creek, so that soil is creek rock and silt mostly. I dug holes with my sharpshooter shovel and post hole digger and filled in the holes with my home made soil. (top soil from my barn project, mixed with horse, pig, rabbit, cow and chicken manures, along with biochar, woodchips, shredded leaves, worm castings and wood ashes). So these will be planted in very poor conditions in amended holes. These are trees that i had doubles of… and dont really care if they live or die. Some peaches, nectarines, apricots etc.
Also in later months i will no longer do any kind of drip lines or mulching around the base of the trees. I will instead focus on the health and nutrition of the walkways and aisles…
I just put in a long row of black raspberries that i also did no till and no digging. I piled leaves deeply in preparation last Fall and i pulled them back this spring to find the soil soft and moist and workable with my hands. The most worms i have seen yet all fat and thriving. They have been tilling for many months.
As i noted earlier i have a row of raspberries in this orchard. Reds and Yellows along with Boysen and Blackberries in that same row… the blacks will be planted about 10 feet away… which the old tales are not to do.
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Im not coming to any conclusions…just showing pics before and during and after.
Not saying that the roots suck down into the earth just saying that there is gravity going on. I know that the roots were above the ground a year ago and now they are below the ground.
I will expand on the ‘mounds’.
A wheelbarrow or two of my mix… i step it all in tight and compact. I then insert my sharpshooter and then make a pocket for the roots. I then step that in tight. I then top dress with woodchips and manure heavily. I also only do this right before it rains.
This soil that im using is so full of organics that it almost acts like clay, it holds moisure for a very long time.
This is more work than digging a hole…but less work with me not having to water or fertilize or wait for the roots to penetrate who knows what surrounding my hole… so far it seems to give the roots a boost and the trees seem to be happy. Perhaps im wrong.
Thank the universe for tractors with post hole diggers! We’ve used this method to open up our clay base for all but one of our fruit trees. It’s a back saver!
Our mound planted trees are stable - no wind lean or falling over, to date. But we enlarge the mounds, not only for lateral root growth, but to provide area for guild plantings to attract pollinators.
Now planting the wisteria was another story…pick axe and hard labor, digging out old surface asphalt, rock fill and the underlying clay, because the location was inaccessible for the tractor. Nope! not doing that again.
Adding more info to my wrong orchard. I ordered almost all of these trees in the Fall. Shipped to me starting around March.
I will probably keep my blueberries that i purchased this spring in pots and plant them in the Fall.
So even though i received all of my trees in the Spring and purchased some locally…
SPRING is NOT the BEST TIME to PLANT Trees and Shrubs!
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My community has their gardens plowed and tilled now in preparation for growing corn.
I am growing crimson clover instead. Planted this in november in preparation to grow corn. And early bee forage.
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Spring planting will allow the plants to grow over the season while fall planting the plant will focus on root growth first in my experience. It depends on what you want to prioritize. The spring growth will allow the tree to produce earlier while the fall may allow a heavier crop later. In the end they turn out the same in the long run.
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A field of crimson clover is a sight to behold. It’s so beautiful in addition to the other benefits.
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I have been watching aphids on my newest Clark’s crabapple. Its my only tree hit by aphids right now.
Instead of spraying and asking for help i just watched. Last week i saw some ladybugs and this week….
Ladybug larvae. These lil guys are voracious and this means i will have more ladybugs.
Probably wouldnt have gotten this enjoyment if I sprayed.
Thanks @clarkinks for helping me add more ladybugs to my orchard.
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Wow, what a great pic. It’s like you paid them to pose.
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My guess would be those are the green apple aphids.There are three types of aphids. There is the green apple aphids, rosy apple aphids, and woolly apple aphids. Aphids are attracted to sap which means that apple has more of what those aphids want.
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