Pros Teach me How to Prune and Fertilize Apple Trees | Dream Farm w/ Bill Winke
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 мар 2024
- I have had two experts come by my farm over the years to teach me how to prune my apple trees. The thing I found most interesting is the fact that even doing it wrong is better than not doing it all. Apple trees need to be pruned each year to keep producing well - even the old wild trees need to be pruned. So, if you have an old apple tree, or even have one on the farm you hunt on permission, now is the time to go in and make it better. I also learned that fertilizing apple trees is valuable.
Bill, nice to see Eli and family on your farm! Great people from back east where my family roots originate.
Yes, they are great people. Also they have been very successful with their farm stands out there selling local grown produce. Thanks for the comment.
Probably gonna be my favorite video so far, I got apple trees to prune lol, yes I'm commenting before watching
Shawn, thanks. You will really see an improvement in those trees after you prune them.
Very helpful instructions. I can now see that I was making some cuts improperly and leaving "nubs" on the branches and telling the tree to send up more branches. Was always frustrating to see all of the shoots that popped up by summertime. One thing I didn't catch from them was when to remove the cages. Those trees seemed big enough and could be cage free.
Excellent. Thanks for the tips. I like how the gentleman from Michigan explain the whys and hows of pruning.
They are both very knowledgeable. Jesse works for the university so he is probably used to teaching people. Thanks for the comment and the support.
Great throwback video, look forward to implementing these tips on fruit trees in the future!
Bill, appreciate you doing these apple specific videos and breaking it down into the maintenance sections. This is something I’ve been interested in for this exact hunting use case and nobody until now has gone into this level of detail
Thanks Justin. I think that adding apple trees to any farm is a great addition but especially so for a hunting property.
Hi Bill. As I've shared with you in the past all my apple trees have multiple varieties grafted onto them. The one apple tree that I call 10X has six varieties all in bloom right now. The other 4 varieties have not expressed blossoms yet. I'll be adding 4 more different varieties to it this year as 4 new limbs have become available. Hopefully I'll be able to rename it 14X. Just for kicks, about ten yrs ago, I started using the cuttings that I removed from pruning my fruit trees by sticking many of them in the ground and mulching around them. My success rate is pathetically about 1 out of 100 cuttings that actually sprout roots and go on to become a mature apple tree. You can't produce a more pure variety than that. I should invest more into that process but I'm actually happy to get even just one. The only improvement I've made is I now figure out where I'd like a new tree and then I jab about 50 cuttings in a circle every two inches apart. Always thrilled when one actually sprouts roots in an area I select. No transplant shock when successful. I've been lazy with that effort but this Spring I've been trying all kinds of techniques to improve my success rate. It started as just a thought vs typically burning all the cuttings. I'm certain there are better methods out there. Good luck with your apple tree adventure.
Great video. Gave me motivation to get back after my neglected apple trees both planted by me and released wild ones I found.
Yes, pruning makes a huge difference in their production from what I have seen and I love the quote from Eli that even a poor job of pruning is better than no pruning. Good luck.
That was a fun day. I would have to bring a crew out to prune all those trees on your new farm.
I do have a few new techniques we been using. Maybe one day I could get up there. Eli
I would really like that Eli. I have been trying to prune some of these super old wild trees and finding it challenging. I am also playing with grafting commercially developed varieties, like Enterprise, onto some of the smaller trees. It will be interesting to see how well that works. You are always welcome. Have great day.
Bill, that was an excellent educational video that I will put to good use. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Thanks for the comment Ron. Have a great day.
Another great video with good information explained in a simplistic manner.
There is so much available fertilizer in our atmosphere just through photosynthesis that I rarely have to fertilize any of my fruit trees. I don't want more than 18in of new growth each season yet I sometimes get as much as 36in of new growth. I'm a big believer in adding mulch out to the drip line. If I do ever average less than 18in of new growth I add a layer of rotted horse manure.
I got 25 more apples and 125 willows for screening. Wish I would have pruned every branch below shoulders off at time of planting on apples.
Travis, it is never too late to go back and clean them up. The older they get the harder it is to reshape the tree, but even a couple years after planting you can still make those changes easily. I ordered a bunch of hybrid willows for screening too. That should work well as they are supposed to grow up to six feet per year. Good luck.
Great video, thanks for the insight on pruning. Knew a lot about pruning regular trees, but fruit trees had some specifics I did not know.
Thanks for the comment. Both of these guys are experts and I am slowly learning to apply what they taught me. The main take away for most people is that pruning - even not done correctly - is better than no pruning. Good luck.
Great video. I maintain too many wild apple trees to count. It's made a huge difference..
Sandy, that is what this farm is like too. We have a few hundred that are bearing apples now and I don't know how many that are still growing to that stage. I am slowly trying to clean them up, cut away competing trees and prune them. It will take a few years just to get through them all once. I will be on a multi-year pruning rotation after that, I think. Good luck.
Great video! A lot of valuable information!
Thanks. Much appreciated.
Excellent tips Bill.
Thanks Mitchell. Have a great day.
This is perfect, really like the content
Thanks Takur. Have a great day.
Another great video Excellent thanks for all the tips.
Thanks for the comment Steve. Have a great day.
A lot of great information here Bill. Really appreciate you doing this. Thank you.
Thanks. I appreciate the comment.
Incredibly informative video! Just great info!
Thanks for the comment and the support. We appreciate it.
Just what I need. I have a few to prune.
Good deal. Good luck on your project.
Another thing uria is nitrogen so it will make your plants take off but to much will burn them up but it will also make the weeds grow so definitely put the ground cover down like he said very informative
great information. One of the best videos I've seen. Thank you. very helpful
Thanks for the comment and the support Paul. Have a great day.
This was great. Hope you got all that
It has taken a few years for all this to soak in. I go back and watch it every winter before pruning. It is finally all starting to make sense.
I got 100 Dunstan chestnut seeds and 100 American perssimon seeds and I just built me 2 air prune boxes, I'm gonna try my hand at growing trees this yr, hopefully even sell a few to make a few dollars back! I went down a rabbit hole on trees the last few months and I'm super glad I did!
Troy, good luck. It is cool stuff when you consider that you can grow trees that will feed deer (and other wildlife) for decades to come without much added expense or maintenance. I am starting to really warm up to fruit and nut trees for food sources.
Yeah I'm looking for a cheaper way to add food that is lower maintenance, I'm gonna try a few micro plots this yr also but trees seem like a no brainer, hopefully it will help me keep deer close without having to spend a fortune in corn
Your expert mentioned a weed barrier that was good for 20 years. Do you know what he was talking about? Where to get it? Thanks!
Just started wild apples last year too small to prune yet.
Do a Google search under "Weed Barrier Matts for Apple Trees" and you will see lots of options. Good luck with the apple trees.
DREAM Big brother 🙏
Thanks Edward. Have a great day.
This helps me prune apple trees to keep deer where they dont get shot.
All good as long as we are helping people. Good luck.
Go Green!
Apples are pretty cheap way to increase food on your property and we really like eating them too. Good luck.
100% :) @@bill-winke
Thanks Bill. This may be the best video I’ve seen regarding apple trees.
Question: Did they advise cleaning up the cut limbs? I’ve always been a cleanup guy because of the worries of pests inside some of the dead limbs.
That makes sense. I know they advocate heavily for removing them from the tree, but we didn't get into where to discard them.
Can we get a video of updates from the prunes trees?
Hey Bill, very informative video. I would be interested in learning about your take on Persimmon trees with respect to your hunting areas. Do you ever strategize around them in your hunts? Have you seen them be a benefit at a certain time of year in your areas or are the deer more focused on other browse/food. In WV, we have a lot of success year in and year out with deer populating closeby to Persimmon trees near bedding areas. It seems like they frequent these areas and it looks like tillable ground within the first few days of the fruit becoming ripe. As always, great content!
Lane, we don't have persimmon here. I think we had one the farm in southern Iowa and it was close to a neighbor's house. From the guys that have them (a friend of mine in southern Indiana has a lot of them where he hunts) they are definitely a strong draw. I would think they would be similar to apples and that the deer will go out of their way to seek them when they are dropping and look for new ones every day as part of their movement. Good luck.
Did you do any follow up after this video Bill? Love to know how those smaller trees turned out.
I will take a look soon and do an update video. I have not been to the farm in a few weeks so it is overdue. Have a great day.
It’s fun until you get up to about 50 trees then, it becomes real work every Spring. I had to fall back to every other year.
Bill, any update on how well the trees produced after the trimming
That tree did really well. Went from producing almost nothing to producing maybe 2 bushels per year. Not as much as Eli suggested it should produce but for almost zero maintenance it did pretty well. We had one in our yard the same age that I took better care of. That one really took off, but I also fertilized that one and pruned it every year. That is the key.
Awesome, thanks for the update. Keep making the videos we love them. I'm still working on my cedars here in KY as well. More fruit trees coming again this year.
Bill I can teach you to grow pumpkins like a pro… all kidding aside I have grown a 1989.5 pound pumpkin. Iv always thought I should use that knowledge on growing and fertilization to maximize my food plots!
Tanner. Man, I am not sure what my deer would do with a 2,000 pound pumpkin. They would still be walking in circles around it trying to figure out where to start! You are correct though, I think pumpkins added to the outside rows of most food plots are a big winner. Thanks for the comment.
I have a very old Apple apple tree that produces great apples with out and spraying, the tree is starting to die off but producing suckers from the trunk, what can I do to them to keep the tree producing apples?
I am not sure, but I am guessing that pruning away the dead growth is a good start. If the whole tree is dying, which may be the case, you can take cuttings from the tree and graft to some other nearby apple tree or buy some rootstock and graft to that. You have a tree that is adapted to that setting and is disease resistant. It would be good to preserve that trait in other trees that you either have there already or can plant in the near future. There may be an expert that can tell you what is wrong with the tree you have there, but I am sure that like all things, even apple trees have a limited life. Good luck.
Loved the video except the part where he recommended using chemical fertilizer. There are natural options out there. Using mulch is one not only does it fertilize but it helps keep the vegetation from growing around the tree.
Chris, that is correct. It is sort of like grass clippings left on your lawn. They break down to produce fertilizer for the lawn. But you would need a lot of mulch to do this on any scale. If you have a few trees, a truckload of mulch would do the job, but not if you have an orchard with many hundred trees - like Eli is managing. When you look up the N-P-K breakdown for mulch, the rates are in the low single digits for % active. So to get a pound of N actual, you would need roughly 50 pounds of mulch. You would need 100 to 150 pounds of mulch under each tree to get you a nice outcome.
That is doable for sure, but again, that would be hard to do on a large scale.
@@bill-winke These videos are geared toward whitetail hunting not big orchards which I would imagine is the majority of your viewership. On a small scale which is what we're talking about here mulching is very doable. Lets be good stewards of the land and keep our use of chemicals to a minimum. I love whitetail hunting and managing my land for wildlife. But the mindset of lets forsake all else whether good or bad with a single mindness towards shooting that next big buck you see in the industry today is crazy. Not talking about you specifically here but as a whole.
@@bill-winke Not quite accurate. Mulch doesn't feed the plant, it feeds the microbiome over time. Mulch has very little nutrients. The microbiome feeds the plant. Once you get this going it does a great job and is a more balanced way of providing nutrients for the plant. The fruits will taste better and have more nutritional value. However, it is more work, and by your comments, you are over-capacity with work. Sometimes we just need to do what we can with limited resources.
I grow fruit trees on my property and this is the salad buffet lot for deer. I don't have to try hard, with bow or rifle, to fill the freezer every year. So I know a thing or two with growing fruit trees with deer pressure. I would never have left those lower branches. Never. Waste of energy to the tree. The idea is to feed the deer with fruit drops, not limbs. They will ravage those limbs and bust and tear them, creating wounds for disease.
Paint the lower trunks with a mix of equal parts white latex paint, drywall spackling, and water. Works like a charm. Never use tubes. Too much moisture retention and rot.
When growing saplings, use hardware cloth 2' tall and with a diameter of about two feet. Any narrower and the top will cut into the trunk when the wind blows. Remove the hardware cloth when the trunk caliper is about 2 to 3 inches and switch to that paint I described.
I just pruned my trees this week
Whew! It is a lot of work when the trees get big. Barring a late deep freeze (like last year) it will be a banner crop.
I leave my cuttings on the ground for a week so the deer can eat the buds. I then remove the branches.
Brush hogging once a year will help with airflow. Strategic hogging can be used to channel deer, while giving them cover and browsing opportunities.
When video recording a person, move the camera to where the person is pointing to.
In-general, a good video for pruning apple trees that have been neglected.
All the best.
Any time I prune trees in the South, all I end up with is fire blight. Even with cleaning shears after every cut.
Dang, that stinks. It sure limits productivity if you can't prune.
How long ago was this footage shot ?
Eli was there in 2016 and think Jesse was there in 2018.
Hey did anyone see the young bill in that first clip ! Good info, I've done it like that for years.worked very well,got plenty of fruit. But out here in Pa. we got BEARS ,In one night a hungry bear can destroy a whole lifetime of your work. Now I let mother nature do the pruning and eat a lot more Bear. Keep the faith and in states that have no bears,start pruning boy's .
That stinks. I would be eating a lot of bear too! Thanks for the comment. Good luck.
Fruit trees take more maintenance than anything in my opinion stay away from them at all costs I have them and I never get the reward for the work I’d suggest chestnut or oaks then you don’t have all the work every year also the apples aren’t going to be there through hunting season like chestnut or acorns will
The guy is trying to show cuts and items on the tree but photographer focuses on him???
RUclips and all its amateurish videos
It is best just to go somewhere else for your information.