I am glad you are having such good luck with keeping them small. Do you remember what rootstock your apple trees are on?
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i donāt know the rootstocks
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Okay, no problem. I need to get some of mine back under control. Iāve been too nice to them and let them get kind of feral with too much growth and branching. Plus they are getting too tall to spray and get the fruit from that high up.
How tall do you keep them?
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all the bare root trees are just a few feet tall, i will have to take some pics and post here, most of them are too young too fruit but itās in the first few years you have to be aggressive with the pruning, the first chop to a whip is the hardest to make, after that itās just making the tree into a rounded symmetrical shape, removing crossing branches and letting light into the canopy.
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So true. I always HATE to do that. It is so small to begin with then you are making it even smaller. I know it needs to be done butā¦
āThe first cut is the deepestā type moment, lol.
Nice looking trees. Thank you for posting those nice photos. Great job with them!! Kudos to you!!!
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is this because of a competition for space, roots and foliage, or is it nutrient competition? both?
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I would say both. When vigor was low I surrounded trees with wood chips and fertilized them with a good tree fertilizer. I like using Anderson products as they last nine months and seem to work well. Products with a 3-1-2 ratio are best to use. I got mine from am Leonard. The wood chips kill the grass. Makes it super easy to maintain. I use chip drop for wood chips.
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Nice, but deer would shred that stuff in the Rustbelt. They stand up on their hind legs and pull branches down.
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I got this book, still have to study it up. I have some monster fruit trees that need to come back to earth. Now I mark my notes about any trees that are known to grow high to remind me to prune them to keep manageable. I lost an Illinois Everbearing mulberry that way. Let it go and it rocketed to the sky. I had to cut it down. I hope to plant an Illinois Everbearing again in '26 and try to keep it 15 feet or so.
I would love to try planting multiple trees in 1 hole. But I wonder how it would do for disease. All 6 varieties of my plums got black knot and had to be removed. And they were spaced nicely for air circulation. Planting plums in 1 hole would make disease worse I would think. Same with my sickly apples.
Asian pears are pretty disease resistant, but I donāt need more of them. Tons of production from a few trees. Way more than I can use, than the deer eat and I can ever give away.
The 1-hole method may work good for pawpawās or figs in ground. Persimmons may be another one to try. Or Euro pears. I used to have more Euro pears but got rid of most of them. Fast and huge growing trees. I kept a Maxine pear. Asian pears have sex with it, I guess. Or maybe someone in the neighborhood has a Euro pear. Whatever, it produces every year pretty much.
Will the 1 hole method only work with bare root, or can you put (2) 5-gallon potted trees in 1 hole? I buy big trees, not twigsā¦at least that is my goal.
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Here they would have to get past my dogs. Trained even to go after robins but not sparrows. Smartest dogs I ever had.
Deer are not an issue here. In other places I use swine or bovine dried blood. When deer smell that they donāt come back. Father and
Son dad-thirteen and Son- five years of age.
Son on the left.
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Prefer to keep my trees a bit larger than midget size. They take less care that way - develop a better root system and need less watering. I also think fruit quality would be better without too much soil moisture variation
I think 10 feet tall is a good compromise size for most fruit trees
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I would agree with Drew, itās probably both. But I think itās more root competition than foliage competition. We plant peach trees 18ā apart in the row and trees are typically so vigorous they have no problem growing into one another, even though there is a lot of shade at the growing interface. Every time we prune we have to cut them back laterally to prevent that. Ultimately, if there is too much shade, the tree will abort the foliage in the shady part, however that takes a considerable amount of shade.
Itās the root competition that seems to mostly slow vigor in close plantings, at least with peaches. The roots compete with nutrients and water.
This is my observation based upon peach trees competing with sod, as well. In the case of sod competition, peach trees in many cases receive full sunlight, yet have reduced vigor (in some cases stagnant vigor, depending on the amount of care/fertilization they receive).
I think water plays a role too. Peach trees scavenge water pretty well, as long as there isnāt competition among the roots.
One of our rows is half peaches, half tomatoes. The first half is tomatoes and the second half peaches. On that particular row, over the years Iāve noticed the tomato plants closest to the peach tree will die (we donāt water our tomatoes or peaches). At first tomatoes could be grown close to the neighboring peach tree. But as the peach tree grew, tomatoes closest died, and ones slightly further away grew poorly. This phenomena extends past the tree canopy, so I know the issue isnāt sunlight. Tomatoes in the row shade each other more than the tomatoes are shaded by the close peach tree. So shade isnāt playing the primary role.
Lastly, peach roots are allelopathic, especially as the tree grows larger and more roots die (roots die and regrow below the ground, just like the foliage canopy does above the ground). Water and allelopathy are probably the main reasons why closer tomatoes to the peach tree die, but probably more allelopathy, imo.
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You are lucky to have them. You could not use them here. Dogs barking day and night. Neighbors would call the police. Iād love to be in the country with a dog.
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Why Plant Two (2) Fruit Trees In The Same Hole!? | 5-Year Update (Before & After)
Here is a video on it.
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Well Iām in the middle of suburbia. Luckily barking is minimized as I tell them to stop. Keeping the squirrels out has yielded the most return. Although the squirrels still try. They do take about 2 to 5 percent of harvest. Whereas rabbits smell canine urine and stay away. Also keeping robins out is useful. Whatās cool is the dogs monitor the yard from inside too. They love having a job to do.
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Yes, me, too. I donāt mind using a fairly light weight 6ā orchard ladder at all. The 12ā ladder I have is.too hard for my arthritic neck and back to move around.
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You might want to try Flavor Rich for a later ripening variety. It is the most successful pluot for meā¦ but just based on its first two seasons of cropping. Iāve tried lots. Some get bad bacterial spot, which this season I started treating with a spring spray of copperā¦ just one. It worked well and brought me fruit from a couple of varieties that were too sickly to produce before.
The only plum I like even better than my best pluots is Ruby Queenā¦ so under rated. Like some of the best pluots, it needs to stay on the tree long after it assumes its deep burgundy color. Unlike pluots, it isnāt ripe until it gets a bit soft. The color of its sauce would even impress you.
If you want to extend your season earlier, you should try Spring Satin which is the earliest ripening high quality plum I grow- well, more plum than apricot, but at least you can tell itās a parent, unlike with the Zaiger creations.
I finished my Burgundy Queens over a week into Nov and they were as good as they day they were harvested. Sauce is nice, but fresh fruit is amazing when itās right.
Iām also a fan of certain E plums that are also great sauced. I was eating them late also, but they become less appetizing when the flesh oxidizes. Ruby doesnāt show any of thatā¦ too dark.
Kudos on your fine crop and nice pictures. Do you grow them in soil?
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Hi!!
I had a related-ish question.
The Fuyu Persimmon I had put in the ground aftet 2-3 years in a pot, died. Or so I thought.
I cut (broke) the completely dead and dry tree off and left the small stump in the ground to take out ālaterā. This was about 4-6 weeks ago.
Today, when I was looking at that area, I see a number of vigorous new shoots coming out near the stump.
Now my problem is - are these D. Lotus or the Fuyu I hadā¦
Any suggestions on this or ways to identify?
Pictures below:
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They are D. lotus. D. kaki leaves are less elongated and pointy with more fuzz.
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