Gonna Restore Apple Orchard

[HillStreet]

We are just finishing construction on our house in an apple orchard. It is only 8 acres but was part of a working 15 acre orchard a few years back. Last fall the trees were loaded with apples but I am not sure how good they were. It is just a hobby, and we're going to start slow in terms of pruning and fertilizing. Probably will even experiment with different products in different areas.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks

 

[nybirdman]

Best time to prune is right now(Feb.)Cornell Cooperative Extension has directions on how to properly prune fruit trees.I have hundreds of old growth apple trees on my property,last year was a banner year for apples and we found lots of apple trees that were buried in the brush.
I have been clearing brush and pruning for at least 10 years..........a never ending job but worth it in the long run.

 

[MossRoad]

I pruned two apple trees yesterday. I have three, but didn't want to exert myself! :laughing:

How about some pictures?

 

[5030]

I have a couple I prune and run the pruned limbs through my Jinma chipper (and hang a burlap sack over the chute) to catch the chips. I have lots of friends (including myself) who use the chips in the BBQ for flavoring meat.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

You guys are living my dream. I am still struggling...waiting...trying to get my 400 apple trees into the ground this year.
I have no idea how many of them will survive, but come **** or high water, they are getting planted.

Hillstreet, do you know what kind of apples they are?

 

[HillStreet]

You guys are living my dream. I am still struggling...waiting...trying to get my 400 apple trees into the ground this year.
I have no idea how many of them will survive, but come **** or high water, they are getting planted.

Hillstreet, do you know what kind of apples they are?

Wow, I don't know! I guess with the prospect of reviving an orchard, and building the house, it never occurred to me what kind of apples they are.

 

[Cjm005]

Pics!

 

[dmccarty]

Wow, I don't know! I guess with the prospect of reviving an orchard, and building the house, it never occurred to me what kind of apples they are.

When you get the next batch of apples, try to identify them. Many old apple varieties have disappeared and are lost forever. You might get lucky and find you have a long lost variety or two.

Later,
Dan

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Old fruit trees are very labor intensive and not practical for commercial production. They make a nice hobby, though. Many older trees represent varieties no longer grown much, and can be very nice to have. My parents had Jonathan, Rome Beauty and Gravenstein trees that were at least 75 years old. It would take me a whole day to prune each tree.

 

[nybirdman]

Our orchard goes back to at least 1865,that's when the house and barn were built.We do have Heritage apple trees;The Tallman Sweet apple was developed on this farm.Both original houses we owned by the Tallman brothers;they were(one's gone now) mirror images of each other.
These are very large trees(for apple trees),we are only trying to keep them alive no idea on going commercial.They will be for the wild life and our own uses.

 

[DrRod]

I'm totally impressed that your trees are surviving. I hear nothing but horror stories on keeping apple trees alive. So you must have some hardy varieties in there. Well worth the effort to keep them healthy and productive. Best of luck to you -- enjoy.

 

[yankeerider]

...These are very large trees(for apple trees),we are only trying to keep them alive no idea on going commercial.They will be for the wild life and our own uses.

All trees are eventually going to die. If you have the interest, you might want to try to do some grafting in order to preserve some of what you have.

 

[nybirdman]

All trees are eventually going to die. If you have the interest, you might want to try to do some grafting in order to preserve some of what you have.

We have plenty of young trees also that have "popped up" on their own.The work now is getting the brush cleared from around them.

 

[HillStreet]

Wow, these are great replies. I am building a house so have a lot on my plate right now. I will really get moving this spring and look into Apple types, tree maintenance, grafting, as a poster said, how many, how much. It is going to be fun. I do have plenty of time so I will work relaxed, (if I can do that.)

I do think it is a perfect hobby for a guy like me, you know, work with a saw, pickup and burn brush, fertilize. I have to remember to keep a record of activities so I can use certain methods that work. I have a feeling I'm going to meet a lot of new people too.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

You will definitely meet interesting people. And you will get to make all kinds of things out of apples. Speaking of which, I'm bottling up 15 gallons of cider this weekend.

 

[tcreeley]

PLenty of apple orchards up here in central maine. We still have snow on the ground, but further south I imagine you can get out to the trees. Good time to prune! We have 20 0ld trees- 5 of which are ancient. They are the stock for all of the wild trees and we get some terrific apples - Joyce. We eat them fresh, apple pies, apple butter in the slow cooker, and last year we started making cider (keeps 10 days with refrigeration straight from the press). Apples are great. We don't spay for bugs. I imagine commercially- you will need to. Great way to live your life!

 

[Zerk]

I went to a class. I learned you need to cut quite a bit of them. You want air moving through so you don't get rot. Plus the tree can only support so much. They said people freak out at how many branches they have to cut.

 

[jeff9366]

I do quite a bit of Oak, Pine and Hickory pruning in Florida.

I have found Silky's aluminum, manual pole saw to be easier to use than any gas powered limber.

LINK: Amazon.com: Silky 179-39 Telescoping Landscaping Pole Saw HAYAUCHI 390 21-Feet: Home Improvement

 

[JRobyn]

I went to a class. I learned you need to cut quite a bit of them. You want air moving through so you don't get rot. Plus the tree can only support so much. They said people freak out at how many branches they have to cut.

Mt FIL has about 30 fruit trees, about half various varieties of apple, the rest pear, peach, plum, cherry. About halfway through last season, many of them, particularly the apples, got what we are pretty certain was a fungus - lost most of their leaves, dark spots on fruit. The previous season, the yield was so great that they broke a few branches. He doesn't "believe" in pruning. But we know that with fungus, there's only one possible salvation, to ruthlessly prune off all the diseased wood and burn it.

Wife went to try to do that today and he freaked out and stopped her after only a few trees, only letting her "shape" the rest a little. Guess he forgot about the fungus or thinks it will just somehow be cured. I told her to quit, as she was just wasting her time and ALL of the trees were likely doomed. Makes me furious, but there is just no explaining things to some people that have some other notion stubbornly implanted.

Sorry for the rant and the thread diversion. I really needed to vent.

 

[flusher]

We are just finishing construction on our house in an apple orchard. It is only 8 acres but was part of a working 15 acre orchard a few years back. Last fall the trees were loaded with apples but I am not sure how good they were. It is just a hobby, and we're going to start slow in terms of pruning and fertilizing. Probably will even experiment with different products in different areas.


Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks

Not directly. But my neighbors around my ranch I used to own in Tehama County are orchard growers (olives, English walnuts, plums for prunes, mandarin oranges, almonds) so I had a ringside seat to watch them toil amongst their trees.

There's a lot of manual labor involved in orchard farming--harvesting, pruning, mowing, fertilizing, spraying.

And here in CA with this 5 year drought, these growers have been cut off from irrigation district water (from the Sacramento River) since April 2014. Many of them needed to drill deeper wells with larger pumps to handle the year-round watering requirements for their orchards. Cost runs from $20K up depending on size of the orchard operation with typical 6 month waits to get the drilling crew on site.

I thought about putting an 7 acre orchard on my place when I bought it in late 2004. Whenever that happened, I lay down until that madness passed. It was easier and cheaper to do dry land farming and grow oat hay which I did for 3 years until the drought hit in 2012.

Another big problem is getting harvest crews. There's a shortage of ag workers all over CA. Orchard growers in Tehama County ration the harvest labor to ensure that each grower gets a equal shot at the available supply of labor.

Good luck