Our apple trees have been growing for the past six years, they have only produced one apple. It is time that we part ways and talk about what next steps we are taking.
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23 Comments
Tough love baby.
My pear/apple trees are just growing for spring flowers, but I would love fruit – just too lazy again this year to spray with surround to keep pests away. My chickens take care of anything that drops on the ground, as my goats love when I prune them. But yes, find the variety that works in your area to get the healthiest garden produce trees.
Research grafting apples, growers change their entire orchard if other apples are in demand, they cut down most of the tree and add new sorts on the old trunk
Very corny, Luke. 😆😄But sadly I think this video is very telling of my life atm. 🤣
LOL. I am also considering getting rid of my apple tree as well. It barely produces anything and it's always sick.
Tree be like, oh no, you did not just use the its not you line on me!
I need to finally do this with 1 of my blueberry bushes. 😩
I really enjoyed this video, both the comedy bit at the beginning and the information.
Your way ahead of me…finally admitting defeat after 20 yrs. of crappy apples. 😁
I planted 2 of my all time favorite apple trees about 3 years ago. One was yellow transparent, which ripens in July. My Grandparents grew it and had huge production. It was the best early munching, sauce, and pie apple ever. It bloomed and fruited 7 apples the first year and has produced a few apples every year. The other is called Wolf River and produces 1 or 2 pound apples in the fall. I first found it when I was 10 or 11 years old and was only able to take 2 of the apples home as they were so huge. They were tasty, sweet, juicy and my Mom was able too make a huge delicious pie from one apple! That tree planted at the same time hasn't produced any apples, but did blossom this year for the first time. That's my apple life. I did no research, I relied on history. Good luck Luke! I liked the other comment about grafting because loss of trees is a major climate change issue. Plus there's another video you could make. May the Lord keep blessing you and yours
Are you going to try grafting off any of the rootstocks? A more aggressive apple or different kinds on one trunk?
First time composter: I have insects ( look like grubs) in my compost pile. I’m guessing they help break down the fruit & veggie kitchen scraps. I’m worried about moving the compost, & the insects, into my garden. Please advise!
my baby (2-3) year-old Liberty apple tree gave me 6 good apples this year. I was surprised it fruited so soon.
I attempted to grow apples from seeds, taken from store bought apples. This is pretty much gambling, because apples do not grow true to type, which means you can get a lot of randomized traits. The disadvantages are that you won't know what you're getting until 3-4 years later, and most of the apples will be unremarkable. The advantages are that any apples that grow will be completely unique varieties, and you will have a lot of diversity by default.
If you're interested in germinating apple seeds, wash them off and place them in a damp paper towel inside a zipper bag in the refrigerator for a couple months. When you see them send out roots, they're ready to pot up. This works with all pome fruits, including Asian pears, which are probably the most worthwhile to grow at home since they're quite expensive at the store.
I had a tree that i forgot what kind. I believe it got fire blight and died in year 2. I got a sprout from the stump and i let it grow years. I said last year if i got no fruit it was coming down (skipped pruning for last 2 years even). Well last year it had 5 crummy apples (didnt spray). This year it was loaded and ive veen spraying and i mustve had good rootstock because theyre delicious and look like all my honeycrisp apples and trees!
I'm kind of the same way on my mystery apple trees I started from seed 3 years ago when I started following you Luke, once I found out how to propagate them I've been obsessed with their growth, they are in their 3rd summer of growth one is beautiful and on fire with growth 2 others are beautiful but only half as big and one I almost killed over prooning to far into spring, 10' apart across from each other.. but after seeing this vid tonight I think I will do some more research for zone 6 and buy 4 pre established apple trees and get them in the ground..
Japanese plum. First two fruiting years were amazing. Amazing plums, so juicy you had to eat them outside. Half dead for the last 3 years and only had one plum this year. It's time for it to go.
So what are you going to grow there now? And when will you re-plant?
Thanks for sharing. Sometimes we have to cut the loss and move forward!! Awesome lesson for me.
People severely underestimate how difficult a successful apple orchard is! How labour intensive it is!
I always laugh at that viral post about lining all the city streets with fruit trees to feed everyone. Not a clue of the absolute destruction that apple pie in the sky wish would cause.
keep the apple tree root stock. graft what you want if staying with apples. save yourself some years of growth.
I have apple tree issues too here in northern Illinois, so I appreciate your troubles. The trees that amaze me the most are the Paw Paw. Had my first taste this year from trees I planted at least 4 years ago and it was amazing. The trees are very slow growing in our clay but I'm definitely going to plant more and I recommend you try a couple too. Best tasting fruit I've ever had. Sort of a cross between banana texture with a mildly sweet indescribable flavor. My particular fruit tasted a little like caramel but not in a bad way. It is native to your neck of the woods. I grew up just south of the border in Canada from where you live now but I don't ever recall seeing paw paw trees in Ontario. It is like a secret tree in plain sight.
Last year I planted 5 dwarf apples. I wanted to train as columnar trees and now this year I see they sell columnar trees🙄. So mine are spaced close together like 4’ apart. In my location we get freak frosts. I’ve tried 3 times to grow a peach because at our previous residence 2 miles away I had a glorious peach. It’s disheartening to think I may not be able to grow Any fruit here. The apples didn’t grow much this year and only seen a couple blossoms. We have cedars in the area and two of the apple trees are very susceptible to cedar rust. I used fertilizer spikes. I love the Honeycrisp apple, but it may not produce here. It’s hot and sandy in this Z5 garden. I did install irrigation because of drought and they look better than last year.
I suppose I should have sprayed horticultural oil and copper or sulphur, but I’m not yet up on a regimen. Clueless.
I know some use Surround clay and it would’ve worked because we had no rain this year, but if we had rain, who could keep up mixing and applying. Maybe they will just be for decoration and shade and realize buying the apples is not so bad. As it is this year I’m sure the apples will be small and few at the orchards because of the extreme drought.
Yes, do the research especially if you have cedars. In my case my favorite apple may not hack it here.
If the fruit trees were anything like the oak, cedar or the neighbor’s hideous rapidly reseeding black walnut, I’d have it made. I’m trying to get maples to grow. I didn’t cover the trunk on a beautiful Autumn Blaze and it frost cracked and fell over. It suckered a lot and I trained one into a single stem and it’s growing Really fast, but it has sucker issues at the base and wish I could stop them, but I will trim as needed as this tree already surpassed the potted maple and is a beautiful red in the fall.