Your limb bending of your Nadia should get the tree to fruiting soon. Beautiful landscaping. Bill
I do experimental design every day and I agree that assumptions make a huge difference. My “experiment” was more of an illustration than a careful study and was mostly in response to Klondike_Mike. After searching the literature a little, there have been experimentally determined equations for estimating the thermal properties of wood based on moisture content. For apple, I did a quick calculation and got to a value of 0.2 W/(m*K), which is just a little higher than dry wood and not very conductive.
I’d be interested to hear if anyone has tried your suggestion and what the results were. As northwoodswis4 noted, many people paint their trees to protect against sunscald. If there was a noticeable delay in bloom, I’d expect that to have been noticed and reported but it’s certainly possible that it has been overlooked. For me in the southeast, I’m not sure I could delay enough with our warm spells in early spring to combat the occasional late freezes.
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http://www.hriresearch.org/docs/publications/JEH/JEH_1992/JEH_1992_10_1/JEH%2010-1-23-27.pdf
There it is, solid evidence supporting Klondike Mike’s Tip of The Day and a straight knock-out of the well intentioned but clearly misinformed Alan. Three or 4 days could make a difference and a thick layer of mulch delays budding of crabapples that much- in Alaska, anyway. I don’t believe they waited for soil to freeze either.
I hate crow- tough meat to chew.
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My wife has served it to me many times! It definitely helps to floss after:smirk:
Here’s a tip you probably won’t find in the literature that I learned from hard experience. Read the article I posted on roots and realize how competitive established large trees can be to young transplants- even when they occupy the north side only- and are twice as far away from the transplant as they (the established trees) are high.
When digging holes for a transplant, any roots severed from nearby trees will send out vigorous feeding (and drinking) roots from the spot they are cut- just like a stub-cut branch sends out a riot of growth specifically at the point of the cut. These feeder roots will be encouraged by the soft, oxygen and water rich soil and quickly occupy the soil your new tree is trying to get its “footing” or rooting in.
Peaches are especially poor at competing with such roots but I’ve had pears runt out that have been planted near large forest trees as well.
Extra water and fertilizer will help but sometimes you need to dig an especially wide hole and sever competing roots with a heavy spade (18" deep) at that holes edge in mid spring for a couple of years to help the transplant become established if it is facing excessive competition.
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@Alan- am facing that exact issue with young pawpaws struggling to put on any growth. I thought 30 feet from a row of oaks was enough but the soil is filled with oak feeder roots. To get down 18 inches do you dig a trench?
I just use a King of Spades with the longest blade and handle they sell and kick it down and push towards the transplant until I’ve completely circled the tree.
A trench would be even better- especially if you lined it with some kind of root-stop material. Someone should develop very large root bags made of rootstopping fabric. It would encourage rapid growth and then early fruiting while keeping a large area free from competing roots permanently.
Paw paws are glacial even in the best of circumstances- but then, I always give young trees shade from established trees that are competing with them.
In spite of high demand they grow too slow to be a profitable nursery tree for me.
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This is not a new tip but I think it is worthy of adding. Bend those limbs down now and ask for forgiveness later. If you want earlier fruiting on your pear and apple trees bend early and often. I’m still early in the learning process of bending but I believe it will get your tree to fruiting much earlier than letting it grow upward. The first year I like for the limb to grow until it is near the length or space I ultimately want it to be. My tree spacing is close so one year is about the time I need. Then I bend down but not to the breaking point. At the breaking point you can decide to wait until later to do more bending or use the Alan Hinge (I call it this name because he first guided me through this process) cuts and bend even more. Of course most of what I’m posting hear is what I think so proceed if you choose to. I personally think this process is something that has greatly enhanced my fruit growing. Bill
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Yes! I think this makes a lot of difference, and is showing results on my pear this year. (And I think that one of the reasons my Liberty sets so dern much fruit is that it’s a weeper.)
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Agree 100%. I employed this technique last year for the first time on a stubborn, yet to bear honeycrisp. Those branches are loaded with spurs this year. I’ll be doing a lot more of it this year. I have 4 honeycrisp and they really like to reach for the sky. Bonus tip (for Auburn), when returning serve, split step just as the servers strings contact the ball. I learned that rather late and it’s really helped.
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Thanks Bill, I went out after work and started doing just that. I’d like to know more about the cut and hinge if you could link me to that.
Also, can this be done with elderberries? Or do any berries respond to this?
Also, has anyone done this with almonds?
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These two videos show a lot of details. I have been doing a version of this for 2-3 years but I’m pretty sure Alan has been doing this type pruning for a very long time. I would advise you to proceed with the cutting slowly because mistakes can cause you to break a limb if you go overboard with it to fast. I lost one limb not from the procedure as much as having a weak place above the cut where it was not visible from below. I think Alan said to not cut any deeper than 1/3 of the thickness and space the cuts about 1". Best of luck to you and hopefully others and Alan will clean this up a little. It is a great system. Bill
001 cuts start at 1:04-117
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnIgTkVW7vk
002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFaB1uzFIgA
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I recall reading reports years ago, of people who would shovel snow around the base of their trees to keep the soil colder and delay blooming. This makes sense, in that all that frozen water would need to melt before the sun could get to the soil, and that cold melt water should help keep the soil colder. Obviously not something one can do every year, but if you have enough snow in late winter might work.
I suspect the effect of mulch (or any insulation) over the soil would depend quite a bit on how/when it is placed. If you let the ground fully freeze to depth (Dec or so?) then mulched it might be pretty effective. If the mulch was on early enough that its insulating properties keep the soil from freezing as far down, then not.
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agreed, a lot of variables, like the ones you mentioned plus what kind of mulch, how deep, how wide an area, moisture content of the soil, is it sand or heavy clay. I suspect the further north and colder you are, the more you can manipulate using this strategy.
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Bill, it appears from the videos that Solaxe pruning involves applying some of the Tall Spindle pruning principles to larger - semi dwarf type trees. I have started using this system as well pulling branches down just below horizontal and I think it should work well for my setup which is mainly dwarf trees on around 5 to 6 foot spacing. Trees on tighter spacing like 3 to 4 feet might need branches pulled down further below horizontal to reduce growth vigor even more.
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I’ve often thought that would be a great strategy. I wish I had enough sun by my driveway for a couple peach trees that I could bury or partially bury with my snowblower
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Most of my apple and pear trees are on 5’ spacing so I have to be careful about allowing enough walking and maintenance space. I’m mostly bending to a little below horizontal and planning to prune the top to about 7’ as the trees become fruitful. In some cases I’m pruning scaffolds to a little above horizontal mostly so I can easily manuver in those tight areas. Bill
It is much easier to bend before the limbs get large.
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You know, I have trees on the edge of my driveway that I’ve never noticed budding out later than other trees after a snow winter where the snow banks the trees are footed in don’t melt until well into spring- in the future I will look more closely.
The research I referred to suggests a difference of only 3-4 days- in Alaska. It could be more or less in areas where the seasons don’t change as quickly from short to long days. Logic suggests less because mulch insulates against heat in day and cold at night. However, waiting for the ground to freeze before mulching could extend the delay also.
This is an interesting and possibly useful strategy, but usually spring bud kills aren’t affected by a difference of so few days. Harglow flowers 5 days later than other apricots, but I’m still waiting for a season it has fruit when others don’t after 20 years of growing it.
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Yes, the more I think about it, with regards to delaying bloom, I have a blacktop driveway,so any effect of lingering piles of snow may well be canceled out by that huge area of asphalt soaking up all that sun and radiating all that heat into the nearby soil.
The big snowbanks would still be useful to protect the flower buds from the worst of the winter though. . .
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