apple trees
 

I dont have any apple trees on the land I hunt. I thought of planting some apple trees. It would be years before they would produce apples. Any ideas should I plant apple trees? This is family owned land so I can basically do anything I want.

RE: apple trees
 

Apples,Pressimmions, Pears- they all would serve you well.

RE: apple trees
 

maybe throw some food plots in there too!;)

RE: apple trees
 

Be sure to check the ripening dates for the cultivars that you consider planting , idally you want to time it so that the fruit is ripe when the deer season is coming up .

RE: apple trees
 

Plant disease resistant varieties such as liberty and johnafree. Put tubes around the base to protect from mice and rabbits. Fence them with a 5' tall 5' or larger diameter fence to protect from deer. Dawrf type trees produce faster, but Standard are larger and will be more browse resistant long term. If you have bears in your area, don't bother with apple trees.

RE: apple trees
 

1sagittarius; why not bother with apples if you have bears? I haven't had any problems.

Dan O.

RE: apple trees
 

You could spend 10 years babying a set of trees, watering them, fertilizing them, properly pruning them. Thenwhen they just start producing fruit, a 500 pounder decides to climb your small apple trees for a snack. Then he keeps coming back until the apples are gone or all the tree branches are broke. Larger orchards can handle some bear damage. A couple young new trees around a remote plot, will eventually get trashed. Seen it several times, the trees luck eventually runs out.

RE: apple trees
 

Don't plant apple trees as the start of a food plot endeavor, imho. Too many things to go wrong, and they can require a lot of maintenance. You can do better with other trees/crops. That being said, apples are like ice cream to deer -but serve up the main course first...
-fsh

RE: apple trees
 

In my area alot of the orchards are being sold for development and they are removing trees often just cutting them up. If you go to the local tree guy you can get great deals. I bought 10 mature trees delivered for $50.00 apeace. Of course You need to plant them (and I paid for it) but you have an instantanious orchard....

If you consider the $$ time and wait to start from seedlings, I think its a no brainer.

Tried to show a pic but got the dredded "file to large"

RE: apple trees
 

A bit off the subject, but you can download irfanview (freeware) that will allow you to re-size and otherwise manipulate your digital pictures. Here is a download link, or otherwise just google "irfanview" for other reviews/info before you do so: http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

-fsh