^^^^
The place I referred to earlier was planted by the owner's father in 1955. He died of a heart attack in the orchard shortly after, so I'm sure there's some sentimental value to keep it going. At one time he had a couple of hundred trees but just couldn't keep up with them or find a market for all of the fruit they produced; at least partly because most are MacIntosh, which (understandably) isn't as popular as it once was. When I started in 2005 he had 80 full sized trees, plus about an acre of dwarfs; over time he has taken about 1/2 of them out as I didn't have time to prune them. Last year I had minor surgery and couldn't do them; and decided that was a good time to bail on the project and spend the time on my own property. I hated to do it as he's 80 years old and can't care for them himself; but I was burning up most of my vacation time while essentially charging just enough to pay for my trip to drive there, and really don't have the time it takes to do them.
The place I referred to earlier was planted by the owner's father in 1955. He died of a heart attack in the orchard shortly after, so I'm sure there's some sentimental value to keep it going. At one time he had a couple of hundred trees but just couldn't keep up with them or find a market for all of the fruit they produced; at least partly because most are MacIntosh, which (understandably) isn't as popular as it once was. When I started in 2005 he had 80 full sized trees, plus about an acre of dwarfs; over time he has taken about 1/2 of them out as I didn't have time to prune them. Last year I had minor surgery and couldn't do them; and decided that was a good time to bail on the project and spend the time on my own property. I hated to do it as he's 80 years old and can't care for them himself; but I was burning up most of my vacation time while essentially charging just enough to pay for my trip to drive there, and really don't have the time it takes to do them.