We planted our orchard!

[for_simplicitys_sake]

Took a lot of work, what with the fence and all. But we finally got our orchard started this fall. We have 5 peaches left to plant but they’ll be in a different location on the NE slope.

We’re still mulching too. Can never have enough right?

This is meant to be a seedling orchard, but we’ll have two rows of M111 and 20 seedlings. Mostly apple, the rest pears. Pears are on the outer rows near the fence due to growth habit, apples in the middle on a 25x25 grid. And I took one out of Michael Phillips’ book and we’re planting interstem trees in between the seedlings.

I sure hope these trees like rocks. These stones were all pulled out of the one planting hole in the picture

One last set of pictures just of the fence, idea also taken from the previously mentioned book. I hope it’s high enough and the gaps aren’t too big. The high tensile wires are spaced 1’ apart up to 8’. First gap is 6”, then on to 1’.

More seeds are ready for stratification, as well as several more M111 rootstock ready for grafting. I have two Arkansas black T-buds, one t-bud on m111 that I believe to be gold rush (while driving through Lenexa Kansas my wife and I took a walk in a park and there were two apple trees there. One I’m pretty sure was Gala, the other was loaded with spotless little green apples about two inches in diameter. I found a scion and brought it home and grafted it), and a fourth M111 T-bud Of black strawberry from @SkillCult. Thanks for all the scion wood and seeds Steven.

Hope y’all enjoy the photos. I’m pretty happy we got all this done this fall. A total of 23 trees planted. 5 interstem (golden russet, wickson, January russet, king David, and a pink parfait seedling) , 5 m111 (wickson, 3 cherry crush, and january russet), the rest are seedlings for rootstock or to see what plays out.

[drusket]

Congratulations! Keep us updated.

[FarmGirl-Z6A]

This looks awesome! Congratulations!

[Bill]

Tell us something about the land. Where is it located? Looks like nice hilly views. Does the tent in the photo mean you ‘rough it’ while you plant the orchard? Sounds like you are planting a couple crabapples (Wickson). Do you use then to encourage cross-fertilization? I envy you. Sounds difficult, but rewarding.

[figjamjar]

Wonderful! Did you till the dirt?

I put down a layer of mulch this year (6"+) over what will become our orchard and am holding my seedlings in our greenhouse over the winter before planting them out in springtime. I am a bit concerned that I didn’t till to establish the seedlings since we have heavy clay soil. I imagine myself raking back the mulch to dig out the dead grass layer this spring …

[for_simplicitys_sake]

Ours is a heavier clay silt as well, tons of stone. I didn’t till either. All we did was scythe downy about a 10sqft area of thick grass where the tree would be and pile it in the middle. It killed the sod and made it workable. Broadfork and spade fork did the rest of the hole prep. A 3-4 foot wide hole was dug up, down to the depth of the fork times. Seedlings will push through it I think and establish themselves. Ideally I would’ve liked to to till the rows and cover crop it for a year, but we don’t have a tiller i and I don’t really wanna buy one. Or rent one. I wanted to leave the rest of the soil as undisturbed as possible. I began to over think it at first but figured the trees will know how to do what I can’t seem figure out so I kept it simple.
The plan is to use heavy mulch rings (hay and leaves) each year to kill the sod further and further away from the tree. It’ll fertilize and make the topsoil softer for the feeder roots. The clay and stone will help anchor them even if the roots aren’t too deep.

[for_simplicitys_sake]

Not roughing it. The tent is really there for getting out of the elements if needed. We plan on building a farmstead so a house is being built now, followed by a second one.

We’re in northern Kentucky, edge of the bluegrass and the knobs region. It’s a heavier clay silt soil with an absurd amount of rocks called Eden soil. Used to be pasture on a 100+ acre farm that was subdivided into 10-20 acre lots. Ours is 19 acres. The topsoil seems pretty nice, but the subsoil is fairly dense. Probably was overgrazed, farmers don’t rotate cattle thy much round here. The grass is lush but sparse because it hasn’t been mowed in a couple years. This land is said to not grow much other than cows and hay, and of course deciduous hardwoods (apple trees). The surrounding area is dominated by hickory, oak, and the dreaded cedars (Arkansas black, wolf river, Akane, gold rush, and Williams pride are my core choices). But cedars are good to have around when I wanna build homes and fences.

The wickson is planned to be cultivar for cider actually. If it’s a good pollinator too then hey, we god good seedling stock too from it. This is a ton of work, but for now our focus shifts to the home building. Rent ain’t cheap. We’ve bought the land with savings between 4 people, as well as the home. Hopefully in a few years we are sitting on a retirement plan with no debt. The expense is all sweat equity.

[steveb4]

my heavy clay rocky soil grows good trees as long as they have good drainage. I’m at the bottom of a hill so most of my plants/trees were planted in mounds or raised beds. once they get started the roots will find their way through the rocks. as long as you aren’t planted on solid ledge or granite your trees should do fine. your clay doesn’t look as dense as mine and your lands on a incline. they should grow well there. before you mulch next spring sprinkle some gypsum on the soil. it helps break up the clay and adds some calcium. a good layer of compost would help also.

[for_simplicitys_sake]

Reviving this as people asked to keep them posted. Our M111 trees (cherry crush, January russet, and Wickson) have taken off a bit. Two of the cherry crush have their final scaffolds started, modified central leader. They’re about 7 feet tall now. The seedlings did not fare well, most were bitten off by rabbits in the first cold snap and never recovered. Not a big deal, they’ll be replaced next year.
Since then we have planted ten peach seedlings, most from a white peach tree outside the Church garden, the parent tree came from Serbia and they are very tasty, some blossomed last year with no fruit, and one seedling has fruit buds right now. Also planted was another seedling by the house along with an M111 grafted to Black Strawberry. They’re doing well. I plan to use Michael Phillips’s strategy of mulching with gravel this year as a lot of the mulching hasnt been kept up with due to schedules at work changing a lot. As of right now we can’t keep up with mulching with organic matter, I work too far from home and really only have a day and a half to work the property.

This year I have ordered many more trees, 50 seedling stock, 50 m111, and 50 bud9. I plan to graft about 25 interstem trees, plant out a a few dwarf rows (some diagonal cordons, some tall spindle) for trialing cultivars. The remaining rootstock (everything except bud9) will go into a nursery bed to be budded this summer.

Cultivars that will be in hand or grafted already are tomboy crab, black strawberry, Wickson, January russet, cherry crush, Clarion, pink lady, pinker lady, cherub, gold rush, BITE ME!, wolf river, Arkansas Black, various seedlings, liberty, Williams pride, golden russet, king David, Grimes golden, appleoosa, ashmeads kernel.

What are the recommendations to get good root development on rootstock in a nursery bed that is to be grafted. Any fertilizer, or just adequate water? We have some pretty rich clay here that will make up the bed, I can also amend with some very old and mulchy composted manure/hay from the previous farmer.
Pictures later of it all if folks are interested, we did a lot in a couple years. Built two homes, tripled the garden, planted more trees, etc.

[Zone6]

Good for you!

I talk to lots of people encouraging them to plant fruit trees but seldom get any success. Nice fence too!

[for_simplicitys_sake]

Thank you for the compliment. The fence has moved a bit, needs tightened up. But it has deterred the deer. The rabbits got in but thats not hard to fix. I think most people think they need more land or sunlight than is actually required. All that is good, but not necessary.
It also takes a great deal of hope and patience. Two virtues that seem to be scarce today.

[for_simplicitys_sake]

Images of the garden and chickens. In that tiny garden we got cucumbers, peppers, basil, and potatoes. The tomatos had their own bed. Cherokee purple and Amish paste. For some reason the hornworms basically defoliated the Cherokee purple beyond recovery before we could do anything about it while the Amish paste went largely unscathed. Still had a fairly good yield. I’ve been using the birds to largely prep the garden areas. They obliterate the competing weeds down to everything but the sod which has to be forked out.

These are the homes, the simpler home is our neighbors and the one with the extension is ours. 2400sqft together. Built entirely by us, still unfinished but livable. Which is why the orchard was kind of neglected. But this year will be exciting because we have the time to grow fruit now instead of building homes. Our garden has tripled in size and I estimate it’s about 2000sqft so far. Hope to grow 200lbs of potatoes, 60 chervena chushka pepper plants (very good variety of bullhorn sweet pepper from bulgaria, awesome for roasting) and 60 tomato plants, mostly Amish paste. And the orchard will be a priority this year.