Planting Fruit Trees: 3 Things to Know BEFORE Planting

Comments · 19

• MA

  @Matt-33 · 5 months ago

  Fruit trees are definitely a labor of love... and money.  But it's worth the work and expense.  Eventually as the trees get big enough you can start cycling the fencing, stakes,  and trunk guards to the new ones and the only expense becomes the tree itself.  I like trying new grafted varieties as well - this year was 5 different pears.

  2

• GA

  @Gary-s8z1c · 4 months ago (edited)

  Before mulching cut a hole in the middle of cardboard and place under tree. Add mulch, plant comfrey and garlic, a few daffodils around fruit trees. Plant  nitrogen fixing trees.When fruit trees are young you can plant annual food crops or even perennial berries.

  1

• JO

  @joshanderson1901 · 5 months ago

  Dolgo, Chestnut, Centennial, Wickson, Kerr are all great wildlife crabs for the Zone 4 area. I used to make my cages that large, now I just buy 5' fencing and make the cage like 2' diameter to protect the trunk. I prune all lower branching below 5'

  3

• DA

  @Davefromrollinghillsfarms · 4 months ago

  We’ve had great luck with cherry but our base in crab and full size apple like fireside and heraldson.   20 fruit trees attracting does and fawns through December cleaning fallen apples.   Going to try American Hazelnut down in the big woods.

• TO

  @toddweston2840 · 5 months ago

  I see one of your stakes looks like a tree limb.  I started using then several years ago and they work fine and last a few years.  Saves a lot of money!

  1

• BI

  @billanderson6172 · 5 months ago

  Any luck propagating apple trees with cuttings

• SA

  @sandych33ks1 · 5 months ago

  Great video but if you raise those cages up you might have a problem. In my area where the snow gets deep the rabbits love eating the bark off of young fruit trees. They will kill your trees fast. If you have grow tubes and the snow is deep they will eat that tree off at the top..

  1

• OR

  @Orbitalzoo · 5 months ago

  Just road right through the middle.  They’ll stand on it for literally no reason.  Easy shots.

• MS

  @msa4548 · 5 months ago

  Might be better to get a load of stone to use for mulch. The voles are devastating to trees, love grass/ hay but wont go through gravel/ crushed stone. That's what we've moved to.

  1

• CL

  @clokie1 · 5 months ago

  I echo the earlier comment of pruning everything below 5’ if planting for deer. If you maintain a really large diameter fence to protect some of the lower lateral branches eventually you’ll have a lot of apples falling inside the fence which you will need to take off and those lower branches will get annihilated by deer. I prune off every lateral below 5’ even 6’ to train the tree higher and establish higher lateral branching above the browse line. As the trees get older I will move to a much smaller diameter fence to protect the trunk from rubbing/critters but allow the apples to fall outside. I’ve let low (3-5’ tall) branches go for too long only to get snapped off by deer browsing and pulling on them as soon as they got to the edge of the fence, even snapping the top of one young tree off. Better to cut off early and get them putting that energy vertically. I’m fine with trees still being a straight whip the first year or two while I wait for the height before they start their laterals.<br><br>Agree with the overall sentiment though, it’s a labor of love, but it is labor! Only plant what you can baby and protect. Better to plant 5 right than 25 lazily.

  1