I set out a row of apples i grafted onto MM111 root stocks last year and a baby sat in pots over the growing season. I had planed on a row of 15, but when i went to plant I only had 13. Then I remembered I gave 2 away. That just means I have room for two more Not really much to see right now. I’ll use the old nasty hay rounds to the left as mulch.
I cant profess to doing all this by myself. I did have help from my neighbors childern. The little boy was amazed by my tin snips, I used to cut hardware cloth and fashion into trunk guards. He called them my “outdoor scissors” The first tree we planted I asked him if he would touch the top and say grow. He did and I told him I believed one day he would eat an apple from this baby tree. He said “I love apples!”. A couple trees later his mom called him and his sister in for lunch.
That looks good. I was thinking about doing T-posts and cages like that. But most of mine will remain in pots for a few years. I just put another 15 fresh grafts in water to heal. Making 25 holding there. And another 18 on hold in dirt. Lots of potting ahead, A lot more grafts too.
I have had deer squish the wire cages if they aren’t fairly taut. You may do better with three posts. It’s nice that you are keeping a photo record of your progress. The view will change rapidly.
I have tried larger cages like that and found weeding and mowing was a total pain. I changed to a single metal T post and 5’ of 36" galvanized 1/2" hardware cloth. Gives about a 1’ diameter tube. Let tree grow up above 5’ before allowing lateral branches.
At ground level I lay down either cardboard (only lasts 2 years) or landscape fabric 2-3’ all around the tree and then cover with 2-3" of mulch.
This has been working fantastic and makes it very easy to mow between rows with a quick weedwacker cleanup of edging.
I find apples to be fascinating but boring at the same time. I have never been wowed by an apple but I have never been disappointed in an apple either. They are fascinating as a tree and storage point though. You can have an insanely easy tree to take care of that seems indestructible or you can get a cultivar and rootstock prone to everything. My Zestar! and Super Red Fuji have been growing for years without any issue. My Cox Orange Pippin has survived a year without any issues but I have heard mixed opinions on its durability. Meanwhile my Pink Lady was gone within a year. Storage wise it is also interesting. It is one of those fruit that will store so long you won’t have a problem depending on cultivar. The only fruit I know that compares to this is pears and I am unaware of any pear lasting a year down in the bunker. People talk about rice and water as a storage food for in case something goes wrong but no one talks about apples. To edit they also seem to produce a heavy crop compared to many other fruit. Stark Bros will list most standard fruit trees under 3 bushes but will list apple trees as 20 or 25 bushels per tree so if every tree takes off you will be living large on apples. If I understand correctly M111 is pretty much standard or dang near standard rootstock.
There are a lot of old Heritage apples that seemingly store forever. I like finding ones that are very comparable but are from differing regions.
Like next year I’m getting Milden from New England. And it’s Southern virtual twin Umphress. Neither related. Both large, multipurpose. Yellow fleshed. Stripey , pretty and flatish. Juicy, crisp. With a tangy , sweet , melting bite.
Sounds like a good pair to blend for juice/cider.
They guys at Fedco recommended Milden as overlooked. And the very range limited Umphress by Southern Cultured Orchards.
This year I added kinder crisp. It is supposed to be like honey crisp but sweeter and disease resistant with the only caveat being it is smaller. I have Zetstar! too which is supposed to be pretty hardy too. The guys up there in Minnesota do a good job of making some really nice apple cultivars if interested in new ones. I picked Cox Orange Pippin for my vintage apple just because I hear pretty much nothing compares to it. It is on M111 so it will likely be years before I see fruit though.
Thank You! You just helped identify 2 missing apples, i need to complete this row. I’ll order a scion from fedco next year and graft onto 2 MM111 rootstocks that i’ll air layer this year. I have a old MM111 host tree that air layers pretty easily.
Tank and I mulched in the newly planted apple row with old nasty hay rounds. Tank really did help, he would scratch at the hay to loosen it up for me. We did a pretty thick layer of mulch. Didn’t find any snakes in the old hay rounds, just one mouse and lots of night crawlers
This pretty much wraps up this row. My wife mows, she doesn’t complain about the cages and she does a great job with the zero turn.
Glad to have a new row of apples in. Next year i’ll finsh out the row of cherries and add a row of peaches and pears (this year’s bench grafts) I’m going tobkeep going until i run out of room to plant
Our guineas are the main contributors to bending the cages. They like to perch on the top wire. Not a biggie though just bend the stays straight again and good as new. Plus guineas are great insect control.
Hopefully your hey does not have the same problem as we had. We bought unseeded straw on Etsy for growing mushrooms and it turned out the unseeded straw actually was seeded. We had a million plants sprouting up.
Not really much to see right now. I’ll use the old nasty hay rounds to the left as mulch.
