I am located in SE Minnesota, I have apple, plum, pear, peach, and mulberry trees. My apples have been producing for years as young trees. My pear trees on the other hand have not produced any fruit yet and they have been in the ground for 5 years. I am hoping they will start to produce in the next year or two. It is important to plant pollinators for your trees. For apples I have early, mid, and late season varieties. The earliest can pollinate the mids and the mids can pollinate the late or vice versa, but the lates cannot pollinate the early varieties, so it is important to plant the correct varieties for the best production. Good luck
Some discussion has been made as to location of Apple trees... Here's some thoughts on this. At the Homestead property a portion of the property was an old orchard, we are talking an extremely LONG time ago! Now there are maybe half dozen to 10 apple trees still living but not producing due to limited light. However....production is not what I'm discussing. No clue if others have seen this but DEER LOVE TO SCRAPE UNDER THEM.....LOVE TO! For that reason alone think through not only their location for food production but shot chances as well depending if this is a spot you bow hunt (gun obviously you can reach out anywhere for most part). I plan on having an "orchard" food plot (clover/chicory around em) at my property...maybe even two...and one spot the trees will line the center of the plot due to the narrow nature of the plot and potential treestands. Another will be more along the edges of the larger plot to encourage them more likely to get within bow range of me. I'll be doing not only fruiting trees but fast producing Oaks as well....obviously funds will dictate this somewhat.
My apple trees are doing great. Had a wonderful crop this year. is it enough to hunt over and change deer movement? Probably not yet. But the trees are putting on good groth and making lots of good looking apples. What more could you ask for?
My opinion is get a semi-dwarf crab hybrid and that is what you need for quick solid production. You don't need fancy names.
What ones did you go with Brad? I am going to most likely be going with Grandpas Orchard up in Michigan as someone mentioned earlier too and have already decided I want 2 Dolgo crab for September maturity and then want a couple that hold into season....I've decided while I may go with some Pears...makes more sense to go apples as I have some wild native pears already albeit the tiny fruiting kind.
We have two apple trees that sit in the middle of some rolling hills and there was 7 scrapes under them. Most all scrapes found on our property are under apple trees.
Not really other than growth has been good. Maybe 12" per year? Not sure Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last year we planted some libertys and freedoms and they all appear to be doing well and I think they were around 25 a piece for bare root. In the other stand I planted some semi dwarfs one type was "wolf river", and i cant remember the other variety. The other variety haven't made it though, so do any of you guys know if hybrid crab apple trees pollinate the wolf river trees?
