Picked up 3 apple trees for the hunting land. Next year we plan on tearing up a 80yrd by 40yd plot for food plots. No real stands over the future plots but know the deer come in to mineral, etc.
Outside of keeping a fence around the trees for 2-3 years any other hints?
Anyone have good luck planting apple tress as part of their plots?
Make certain those fences are TALL, as in about 8 feet and are wide enough that deer can’t reach in. A bigger problem if these will be in the Rapids area is bear invasion. Fencing doesn’t hold up to bear real well.
What varieties of apple trees did you get?
I just planted 5 apple trees (4 regulars and 1 crabapple) on the edge of one of my plots this year. I bought a variety of eating apples, Macintosh, Courtland, etc. I wanted hearty old-school farm apple varieties.
My goal is to get these 5 trees going, then plant another row of 5 nex to them. I’m trying to reduce the overall outlay by hopefully being able to reuse my fences.
I agree the big issue is fencing them off to protect them until they are mature enough to fend for themselves. I put 10-foot circles of wolven wire 6 feet high around each tree. Hopefully, this will be enough to keep the deer away.
My dad has had apple trees at his house for many years and his advice is be prepared to water new trees frequently for the first summer they are in the ground. This can be a significant challenge for hunting properties. I dug “wells” around my trees with a small ditch leading to the well so I can water from outside the fence and the water will run in to the tree well.
Totally agree, fruit trees are a great addition, but they are hard work to get started and require lots of time and a significant $$$ outlay. Even though I got 6 foot trees for $15 each, add the wire and fence posts and I’m sure I’m in to the tune of at least $50 per tree. Obviously it’s worth it if they all survive, but the investment is significant if you’re looking at doing larger numbers of trees all at once.
Grouse
What varieties of apple trees did you get?
I can’t remember exactly but I believe one was Haralred. You can see in the below picture the three trees (surrounded with yellow tape until this weekend). The back plot of land is where we plan on making into a food plot next year.
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<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tegg wrote:</div>
What varieties of apple trees did you get?I can’t remember exactly but I believe one was Haralred. You can see in the below picture the three trees (surrounded with yellow tape until this weekend). The back plot of land is where we plan on making into a food plot next year.
I just brought it up because I know some of the grafted hybrid varietals can bloom at different times so it’s a good idea to try to pair up your trees to get better pollination. I know some of them are later bloomers so they may not pair well with certain apple trees. We planted a handful of trees at our family property for eating purposes and had 2 early, 2 middle & 2 late blooming varieties. We also have a number of volunteer crab apples but they all seem to be early bloomers so they may not be good candidates to pollinate the later varieties.
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