Got my Orchard Planted Early
 

The weather has been wonderful.

Last week - the snows finally were mostly gone, and on Friday - I received my tree order. For
once the weather and timimg let me get in the trees early - and this year was special because I started the orchard.





I put in 10 cold weather variety (zone 3 and 4) Apples - 5 were local favorites, and 5 were old varieties.

I also put in 5 Plum trees, and a Grape arbor for 9 vines - 5 different varieties.



Also - today I started plowing. I got the Rye Cover Crop field plowed, and some of last year's corn plowed under too - About 2-3 acres. I'll post sometime over the next few weeks about this spring's planting.

FH

RE: Got my Orchard Planted Early
 

looks great! you'll have a nice area there in about 5-7 years. how soon before they start producing mast

RE: Got my Orchard Planted Early
 

I look forward to cultivating a small orchard over the next couple decades.
I didn't plant as much for the deer - as I did for the heirloom of an orchard at the Cabin, but I'll bet the deer will appreciate the crop. I expect to start seeing apples in about 6 years. The trees are Full Size on Russian Rootstock - so they will be a small, full size tree.

Right now, I'm more concerned about the deer eating the limbs off.

FH

RE: Got my Orchard Planted Early
 

Real nice. Yes,you will have to protect them from deer and rabbits, and I see that you did. keep an eye on them when the snow gets deep. In one nite they could all get destroyed.

RE: Got my Orchard Planted Early
 

They look great Farm Hunter. The chicken wire looks like it will do the trick for the summer but you may need to look into repellent spray or paint to make them less attractive to the deer and rabbits. What apple varieties did you put in?

Dan O.

RE: Got my Orchard Planted Early
 

Hi Dan -

I planted a variety of trees -


Early McIntosh, Canada Baldwin, Goodland, Grimes Golden
Kaneb Sweet, Liveland Raspberry, Macspur, Scott Winter
Peace Garden, Striped Harvey and a Macintosh.

I left room for at least 10 more apple trees in the main plot - and I left a section for a couple Pear, and maybe a pie cherry or two.

I also planted a couple Mount Royal Plums and picked up a few "seedling plums" - they were cheap and I thought they might help in cross polination. - Do deer eat on plum trees as much as apple trees?

For Grapes - I planted :

Fredonia, Worden, St. Pepin, Swenson Red, and Edelweiss

I hope to be able to keep the deer off the trees - They left alone my White Birch from last year that I planted flanking the orchard - so I hope the wire and maybe some "bags" and/or scent will help keep them off.

Right now I'm reading up on training the trees and pruning to form. I'm worried about doing this right.

FH

RE: Got my Orchard Planted Early
 

You might find this site helpful:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag29.html

Dan O.