Apple trees

[wilcam47]

Originally Posted by lazarus

Yeah, I've got 3 dwarf apples. Can't recall the varieties off the top of my head. I think mac, pink lady and Fuji. Anyway, they are extremely susceptible, mildly and highly resistant to apple cedar rust. Took me 3 years to figure out what was wilting the leaves so bad on 1 and mildly on the other. I thought it was big damage. This past season I sprayed them with fungicide and that helped out enormously. From my reading another season or two of spraying them should finish clearing them up and then it should stay away or at worst I'll just need to spray once a year right after the buds start opening.

The one tree that hasn't been hit with rust would produce a lot of apples, but we have been trimming the blossoms back to let it grow as fast as possible. This year we only trimmed off half and it produced about 20 apples though caterpillars hit the tree bad and it lost half of those apples and half its leaves. Deer ear a few more. In the end I got 2 decent apples from the higher part of the tree.

Oh well, maybe this year I'll finally start getting some harvestable amounts.

I planted a (full size, but sapling) peach on the other side of my yard and I plan to plant 2-3 more dwarf apples (resistant variety, lesson learned) and 3-4 dwarf pears.

Sadly on my 1.01 acres I can't hunt dear. I see them out there every once in awhile and they destroyed my 5000 sq-ft fenced garden. Time for an electric fence with peanut butter cans tied on it for this year (fortunately it was only the fall bean crop they ate).

Thats too bad are you inside city limits? or too close of neighbors?

I also have heard to spray trees with dormant oil in the spring before the trees start to bud. Ive got bugs problem but hopefully this spring spraying with the dormant oil will help the trees I planted last summer.

[lazarus]

Originally Posted by wilcam47

Thats too bad are you inside city limits? or too close of neighbors?

I also have heard to spray trees with dormant oil in the spring before the trees start to bud. Ive got bugs problem but hopefully this spring spraying with the dormant oil will help the trees I planted last summer.

Yeah, I've heard the oil thing as well. I just haven't tried it yet. Also rake out all the leaves under the tree as the spores over winter under the leaves.

I am in Sykesville in HoCo. Unless they change the archery safety zone to 40 yards no dice. Mostly barely over 1 acre properties up to about 30 for a couple of farms, but my side and back neighbors are 1-1.2ac. That said if they changed it to 50yds I know I could get permission from my back and one side neighbor so I could probably hunt a half acre or so over that garden.

I am here for the schools. Moving out to Washington or Frederick counties or up to Carroll and hopefully to at least 5-10ac once they all make it through school. I'll deal with the longer commute then. I also want 20+ somewhere like WV or far western MD. Retirement goal is 40 or so acres in WV and a condo in a city. My wife refuses to live more than an hour from a big city even though she loves rural. So that might be our compromise is living 9 months in the country and and 3 in a tiny condo in the city. Ugh

[Nnztg8r]

Don't forget the lowly persimmon. Deer cocaine.

[gwchem]

We ordered two bare root trees from stark brothers nursery. Both took off growing like crazy last summer, and I'm going to order different fruits this year.

The cherry tree we ordered died, but it was a sale item and I'm not too down on the 2:1 odds we got out of that deal.

[Archeryrob]

Finally ordered two 4' - 5' Bare rooted Dolgo trees from Willis Nursery. I'll clean up the corner of my hedge row and stick them in there and report back later on.

Still looking of the bird varieties, cheap. Damn, some of the ones that I found that are resistant to Cedar apple rust and have 1/2" berries that last through the winter are running $125 a tree.

[Archeryrob]

Just reporting back. The Dolgo's are starting to leaf out, one faster than the other. The one leafing out faster has 4 blossoms already and the one that is slower might have a bit more. I was surprised to see blossoms on such small trees. I put 20' of cattle fence in a circle around them to keep the deer off the leaves until they get bigger.

[whistlersmother]

My BIL has some pear trees. I was amused to see many large pears on a tiny little tree no taller than me.

Venison roast with a nice apple sauce sounds very nice.

Watch out for those damn squirrels - they:ll gobble the little apples.

[outrider58]

Originally Posted by Archeryrob

Just reporting back. The Dolgo's are starting to leaf out, one faster than the other. The one leafing out faster has 4 blossoms already and the one that is slower might have a bit more. I was surprised to see blossoms on such small trees. I put 20' of cattle fence in a circle around them to keep the deer off the leaves until they get bigger.

Don't forget, bonsai can bloom at six inches tall.

[Doco Overboard]

Plant Russian olive trees, they grow 3-5 years and make good cover and browse. No maintenance. Takes a while to get fruit trees going but they're great. I like pear trees.

[Archeryrob]

Originally Posted by Doco Overboard

Plant Russian olive trees, they grow 3-5 years and make good cover and browse. No maintenance. Takes a while to get fruit trees going but they're great. I like pear trees.

I have Russian Olive and Bush Honeysuckle growing wild. The deer eat both, but they grow everywhere out here and its not really a draw to one spot. The bush Honey suckle has grown a 1' in some areas already. It's a bush that grows like a weed. I have loopers for tree pruning and cut Honeysuckle off at the ground and it still grows back with vengeance. I have to spray the regrowth for the ones I want dead.

The Russian Olive is nice stiff wood too. I've already pics some arrow shafts growing wild and might use one to put through a deer. The olives are barely visible they are so damn small and its blooming right now.