Any apple growers

1189 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by bfloyd4445, Sep 18, 2021

Firewood Bandit

Discussion Starter · Sep 17, 2021

Back in 2015 I started a renovation of my orchard. Pulled out the standard sized trees with a mini excavator, built 1,000 feet of 8' deer fencing.

In 2016, 2017 & 2018 planted 680 apple trees on a high density setting. 3/4 are 3 varieties of Honeycrisp, but also have Gala, Cortland, Macintosh, Zestar, Wolf River and Granny Smith. Installed drip irrigation, and have moved to an air blast sprayer to keep them healthy along with a Case DX33 loader tractor to run it.

Anyway things are now starting to come into production. Sold 51 bushels this week to a local produce market along with a bunch in the previous weeks. I have a cadre of people who have been buying apples for years.

In the orchard business we have a saying, to make a small fortune, start with a big one.

But I enjoy it and has been a good pastime since 1991.

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Firewood Bandit

Discussion Starter · #2 · Sep 17, 2021

More, plus the new T shirt the wife got me, Oh and Beau the dog.

Food Photograph Plant Fruit Natural foods

Joint Shoulder Cabinetry Picture frame Sleeve

Dog Picture frame Smile Standing Carnivore

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Firewood Bandit

Discussion Starter · #11 · Sep 18, 2021

bfloyd4445 said:
So are you using old school chemicals or are you using phermones traps etc.?
I lost some of my trees two years ago in a storm that shut down the whole county even stopping a commuter train dead on the tracks for three days and have yet to replace any., Thinking of maybe going the same way as you except tilth organic.

Pherone trapping for coddling moth (or however you spell it) is only effective on large blocks of apple trees and then those on the perimeter not so much. I spray the accepted materials used in commercial orchards and base spraying decisions on the NEWA weather stations nearby.

FWIW, some of the products used in organic orchards are pretty nasty and rely on heavy metals and Sulphur based chemicals.

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Firewood Bandit

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 18, 2021

notwrkng said:
I'm planning to put in about a dozen fruit trees next spring. I tried Honeycrisp about 10 years ago at a different property but got very little fruit. Harrelson and Zestar did well though. I live in Minnesota where the Honeycrisp originated but have heard it is a difficult and low yielding apple. Is that your experience? Given my past experience with Honeycrisp I am planning to go with yellow transparent, Harrelson, Zestar and Sweet Tango. All are Minnesota hardy and should spread out the season, however I would like to have a few Honeycrisp if I thought they would produce. Any advice would be appreciated.

About the dog, is it a Grif or GWP? I have a Grif and consider him without question the world's best dog. The wife doesn't always agree, but that's not new. I hunt upland birds a lot and there is nothing better than a day in the field with my dog.

I have had Duetsch Drahthaars for 35 years and still have one presently. The dog in the picture is a Labradoodle and he is a very social dog and a big part of the household.

Here is the one that passed away 2 years ago, he was a Dog's dog. His name was Yatt.

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