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Apple/Pear Trees

maybe a stupid question, iv just started to get into the fruit trees, i have tried to match up what will pollinate what on my trees, my question is, if i buy 6 of one kind like an arkansas black apple for example, will they pollinate each other or do i have to by another kind?

AB is a triploid, it can accept pollen, but will not pollinate any other apple.
 
I bought some potted apple trees I'm planting soon. Would it be a good idea to put potting soil in when I plant? Trees are 6-7 ft tall. Miracle gro potting soil?
 
The fruit trees are doing great this year





Most are pretty consistent, bearing fruit every year





Tree orchards that include fruit and chestnuts planted in our plots add an element of attraction usually not found on property next door.





It takes a few years but once they start bearing fruit deer will quickly adapt and create new habits that help make harvest much easier

 
This spring everything greened up and had leaves through the summer. Then around the beginning of August, two of my pear trees started dying back. One is almost completely dead, the other is getting there. Anyone had this experience with pear trees? I sprayed roundup about this time to kill the grass around it to help keep bugs/rodents away. I didn't think the glyphosate would have killed them.

 
I planted 6 apple and 4 pear a couple years ago Landon. All 6 apples are doing amazing. Only 1 out of the 4 pear trees is still alive. Dont know if they are a little more "needy" or what the deal is?!?!?!
 
Not sure? I have quite a few pear trees too. They are pretty toug lke apples. Peach and stone trees more touchy to too much water. I lost some of those back in the wet yrs. Did you check for boerers- holes in the trunk? I have had them kill trees ? I spray roundup around my trees never had them die from that.
 
This spring everything greened up and had leaves through the summer. Then around the beginning of August, two of my pear trees started dying back. One is almost completely dead, the other is getting there. Anyone had this experience with pear trees? I sprayed roundup about this time to kill the grass around it to help keep bugs/rodents away. I didn't think the glyphosate would have killed them.

I am not a fruit tree expert, but I too would have never anticipated that gly would fry a tree like that. Is it possible that there was some residual in the tank or something like that? That looks pretty dead I'm afraid to say.
 
We don't use glyphosate on fruit trees because if there is even a small open wound or small sprouts coming up, the tree is going to be toast.

We also use window screen stapled tight up against tree and tight to ground to keep borers, mice and rabbits from tree. Look back in this thread for pictures and link's to pest and disease information. Let us know if you determine the COD ;)
 
You do have to be careful when spraying for ground suckers, or cuts. I didn't know screen would stop borers. That is a good tactic. I use super 8 spray on the trunks in the spring, but screening would help with the rodent problem too.
 
Prepping for my spring planting of fruit trees, have about 100 russian antonovka apples, which grow true from seed, in my indoor greenhouse right now it rootmakers. Also have 20 various grafted trees on m111 from burnt ridge nursery.

A while back there were postings of the Kazak apples that grow true from seed. Where can you get these seeds? I'd like to start some of those too along with the antonovka.
 
update

A few years ago I tried planting some apple seeds without knowing what would the outcome would be. You can refer to this link for my first posting on this subject.

<O:p</O:phttp://iowawhitetail.com/forum/showpost.php?p=526263&postcount=221
<O:p></O:p>
Now I know there are a lot of easier ways to skin this cat , but I wanted to try my hand doing the process from start to finish like it would be done many years ago like grandpa might have done .I took4 of the more vigorous whips and planted them without grafting thinking I'm going to graft onto them later when they reached 4 or 5 feet tall. The rest of the dozen or so year old whips I grafted scions from a heirloom apple passed down through the family. I had some health issues last winter and did not get to plant more apple seeds but did collect seed from the fruit of the heirloom tree this summer and fall. I did what a number of internet searches suggested and rolled the seed up in a wet napkin and place in a plastic bag and tossed it into the freezer for two weeks and then in the fresh food section of the refrigerator about December 1, 2014 and forgot about them.I started some of my garden seed in flats on February 14, and checked the apple seeds . Much to my surprise many had sprouted.I planted the in a flatand they started popping up like mushrooms less than a week later. I had about a 50% success grafting last year. Generally if you fail ,the seedling will sprout again from the stem and you can try again the next year. My grafting tools were black electrical tape, a utility knife with a new blade and a little white first aid tape to secure the black tape from un raveling.We will see what happens in a few years. Next year I'll have50 or 60 to try to graft.I'll post some more picswhen I have something to add. In the meantime , I'm having fun.
















<O:p></O:p>



<O:pNext spring I'm gonna go try to start a bunch of grafts.

Mike></O:p>
 
I am trying to grow apples from seed per the instructions in thos thread. They have been in the refrigerator for about 40 days and I have several seeds with radicles already. My question is, do I pull those out and germinate at 50F for 2-5 days or keep them in the fridge until i get to 60 days?
 
I'm unsure haverland but I'd say if they're germinating in the fridge then they're ready to plant!

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Pruned our fruit trees tonight. 1 peach, 4 apple, and 1 plum. These trees were planted in 2012 as 4-5ft tall container trees from a local farm supply store. This is the first time we have pruned them and it was very needed.

My focus on this first prune was to establish a central leader, remove dead wood, crossing branches, downward growing branches, bad crotch angles, branches growing too long, and open up the center of the trees.

Here is the peach tree after I pruned it. This tree is nearly 8 ft tall and great, hoping to have peaches this year
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I read that if the branches are getting too long, such as these 3+ft branches...
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you can prune them back some, but I was nervous to do that on all the branches so I just did it to three as a test. Also when making a cut like that I tried to cut near a bud so there isn't a lot of room for wood to rot and this bud will take off and grow. I also watched on the direction the end bud faced as I made my cut, you don't want to leave a downward facing bud as your end bud
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The first apple tree to be pruned... and did it ever need it! Three leaders that are wayyyyy too long and have horrible form
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After pruning. Really did a lot on this one but it was needed. This tree couldn't even hold its self up from the long limbs with just leaves on the end
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I also removed all the support strings we had on these trees as they were beginning to cause the trees damage. Should've watched this closer. :?
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Apple tree #2 - again, multiple leaders that needed taken down
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Apple tree #3 - This tree is an agressive growing tree! So many crossing branches and it needed pruned in a bad way
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After pruning
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And apple tree #4 - this one was the best growing of them all. A huge tree with tons of growth and needed pruned very bad
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No after pictures after trimming tree #4. I was hesitant to prune too much on these trees now. They still aren't ideally formed but over the years we'll clip them into shape and hopefully we see some apples from them this year! We'll be watching for them to blossom and keeping our fingers crossed for no late frosts this year.
 
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I noticed the two larger apple trees I pruned a few weeks ago have started to blossom. Hopefully we don't get any frost damage and for the first year we see a few apples grow
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And I thought I'd share something I read and tried when trimming fruit trees. I read to always make a cut near a bud and you can actually point where you want the limb to go, to an extent anyway. So this particular limb was growing towards another limb, I made a cut near a bud that would take the growth of the limb another direction. Another one of those things we'll see how it works over the summer!
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