Richard Terry

Hello Again!

I heard back from the nursery,  they have suggested that the damage maybe caused by an apple borer. In which case I would need to dig out the larvae and then wrap the lower part of the trunk in mesh.

What are people's thoughts on that theory?

Thanks Everyone.

I'll be honest, grafting seems well beyond my skill set!  I have started by adding more soil as suggested and taking some more pictures, before and after.  It does seem that the infection is all below the graft union,  I'm not sure if that is good or bad.  Please let me know what you think.

Thank you!

I should say, since you are in the area, we could connect at some point if you are interested in seeing what we're doing. Not that we are experts by any means!

Hello Carolyn,

I live not too far from you (outside Norwood), so we have a similar climate and likely similar soil. We planted a number of fruit trees 4 years ago, apples, pears, peaches and plums and have added a few more things in since then.  We didn't do much to ammend the soil beforehand, that may have been a good idea, but I guess I subscribe to the philosophy of the best time to plant a tree is yesterday, failing that , today!

Since planting,  I build fairly sizeable mulch rings around the trees.  These vary abit in their makeup as I use materials that I have to hand. Typically a lot of dried leaves,  weeds that I have pulled out. If I've been splitting wood down in the forest, or have moved brush piles, I will add wood chips and bits of decaying twigs and wood, as I clean up.  We also have a number of comfrey plants around the food forest (which the pollinators love) and I will chop these down and add to the mulch piles. My aim is to have comfrey near every tree, as I notice that I'm lazy, and the trees closer to the comfrey plants receive mulch more regularly!  

In terms of general ground cover, we had a lot of disturbance to the soil after we built our swim pond and we've seeded white clover in those areas, just to act a ground cover and add nitrogen.

As yet we have only harvested peaches from the trees, maybe if we'd ammeneded the soil prior to planting, things would have established more quickly but things are growing. I think we would have had plums this year if the ice storm hadn't done quite so much damage to our plum tree.  

Good luck with your journey.   Enjoy it!


Richard

Thanks guys. I will look into this.  I do know that the nursery I bought from, only uses standard root stock, not semi dwarf rootstock, as they believe it to be the best thing for our northern climate.   Does that make a difference in this scenario?

Hello All,

I have a 4 year old apple tree, it's planted on a hill in my food forest, which is in a woodland area. The soil mostly seems to be fairly poor but drains well. The tree has been growing slowly but seems overall to be healthy.  The other day I went out into the forest after a pretty windy day and noticed the tree was leaning quite significantly. On inspection it seemed to be quite loose in the ground. I've temporarily tied it up to straighten it out.  I'm just wondering if there's something else I should be doing.  I've posted a few pictures here.

Thank you

Hello Everyone,

I thought I would give you an update.  The tree seems to be healing well,  there's been plenty of new growth below the cut that I made.  The tree produced lots of blooms, no fruit though,  although it hasn't done that in previous years either (Hopefully next year!).  

I think my next job will be to select which of the new shoots I should keep and which should be pruned. I'm not sure if I should go ahead and do that now, or wait until the tree is dormant. Let me know your thoughts.

I also think that I probably need to cut back the large limb on the next side of the trunk, to balance the tree out more.  Again, I'm not sure on the timing for this,  or how much I should cut back.  I would welcome any input.

Thank you!

Richard

Ok.  I'm getting closer, I followed your advice and cut down in sections. I've cut to just above the thin branch. I think it is still quite close to the other bigger branch on the right, so it may still need to be cut down below that. I've attached a couple of pictures that show that thin branch a little better.  Let me know what you think.

I am also wondering if I need to trim the length of the remaining branches, they getting close to 5' or 6' in length. What do you guys think?

I am really grateful for all the help here.  I will be starting another thread with some other trees I know I need to prune. I know I haven't done a great job up until now but I feel like with all your insights, I'll get there! So I'll see you over on that thread too!!

Thanks again


Richard

Thanks for all the responses, your support will get me through this!  I have begun to prune the main trunk.  I am attaching 2 last photos (Until next year!!) , one show the whole tree, and I've circled where I have already cut, and the 2nd is a closer view of the lower damaged branch, and I've marked where I plan to cut.  I just wanted to confirm that I have understood correctly what needs to be done before I go ahead, it feels so drastic!  Am I on the right path??

Thanks Nick.  

I have opted to prune just the 2 broken branches. I feel like I might have been a little timid in the pruning,  as I know I can't glue it back on once I've cut it.  I am posting some pics here,  to see what you guys think.  Don't be shy!

Also, if you have any tips on propagating from the branches I pruned off,  that would be great!