I have been using the 10 foot conduit Alan mention in the Home Depot electrical department for my dwarf trees, I think its around $9 a piece, I put one of those plastic end caps on the top of the conduit to keep water from getting inside to cut down on rust.
I’m looking at Lowes online and see “common” conduit but nothing that says or looks heavy duty. Will go to their store and ask about it. No Home Depot nearby.
Why not just use a T post? That’s always worked for me. I’ve used the conduit in sizes 3/4 to 1.5 inches to support several fruit tree shelters. Can’t see the advantages for conduit to support a tree. T posts don’t need the cap. My conduits have held water long after rains because the soil inside gets very compacted.
Great idea, thanks.
For a single post, conduit is what commercial growers seem to prefer- are they cheaper than Tposts?
At a commercial orchard where I prune the the conduit posts are still strong after 15 years with no cover from rain, failure was not an issue- all posts were still straight. The problem is when I nick them with my expensive pruning saw blade. Instant dullness and the loss of a $32 blade.
Seems to me that covering the top would not stop them from rusting- more than adequate moisture would come up from the ground and a cap would merely trap it.
I use t posts to support just about everything in my garden.
The heavy duty 7’ ones cost $8 at home depot
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I have been using T-posts but now I am finding them to be too short.
My skinny bud9s are getting much taller than the post and bending over.
I have been strapping additionally tall posts to the Strong T-post.
Hambone,
What’s wrong with G.30? Brittle graft unions? Otherwise it seems like a great option-- one I am seriously considering.
You can buy 8 or 10 foot T-posts from an orchard supply store. A nice thing about T posts is that they can be pulled up because they have notches.
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Hi Matt- G 30 - in some situations - likes to tip over when it gets six to eight years old. Some people manage to grow it freestanding but I would not bet on it. Cummins, originator of Geneva series, says to install a permanent stout wooden post eight or ten feet tall, and sink it two to three feet. T posts also work according to Cummins.
I have strong webbing and earth anchors holding up my G 30’s that I tried to grow without the post. They started to keel over like clockwork when they hit about six years old.
I am intrigued by a strategy someone on this site put out: M111 roots with G11? interstem. That sounds like a winner to me.
Ham, I see you are on the Eastern Shore. Are you sitting on sandy soils? That might contribute to the situation. I am on rocky clay.
Anyone else having problems with mature Geneva.30 rootstocks tipping over?
Now I know what you mean by T posts, standard fencing posts. Much more expensive than conduit but I can see the advantages if you are only doing a few trees.
My soil is pretty good here in Talbot County- I’d call it silt loam to clay loam, Sassafras and Mattapeake soil types. To the East like Caroline County is very sandy, light.
Matt- here’s a good thread to read, note the person who reported on several thousand trees keeling over on G 30: Geneva 30 Rootstock
Wow. Thanks for the advice.
I kinda wanted G.30’s weeping habit for a particular spot. Maybe I’ll use G.935’s spreading habit instead…
M7 always anchored well here. Over half my original M9/M111 trees leaned over, almost to the point of lying on the ground, like applenut’s photo earlier in the thread.
I haven’t had tipping problems with mature G30, but with immature. I grafted some vigorous varieties on to G30 rootstock that had been in the ground over a year. They all will tip without some support. Part of that is the vigorous growth-over 12feet from chip buds and cleft grafts in one season. The top growth did lead to trees fruiting in their second year.
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Lucky, I believe you are patient and don’t push your trees. It is more vigorously growing trees that are most likely to tip on M7. This may be presumptuous of me based on the crab apple wood you sent me- looked to indicate slow growing trees.
I have seen M7 grow fine in heavy and wet soils and I think they can eventually anchor in it. I used to have a nursery in such a soil that had standing water in early spring and very high clay content. It was a commercial orchard whose owner made a deal with me to use extra space for nursery trees when he replaced a row (every other tree a nursery tree to be removed for sale when it started to crowd the permanent tree).
Many of his trees were on M7 that he staked with conduit but they continued to stand straight long after they were too big to be supported by the conduit. This was a site up on a hill and well exposed to wind.
I install 8 foot T posts but then get ugly rubbing wounds where branches grow into the T post that Cummins says to install six to 12 inches from trunk. These are strategic branches I don’t want to lose. What can I put between the metal post and branch to protect the bark from rubbing damage?
I use cotton rope, strips from an old towel, or similar that’s non abrasive. Wrap that around the branch or trunk, then put several twists in the rope, now tie it around the T post. This holds the tree in place but puts something between tree and post for a cushion.
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Thanks!