Need Help Rejuvenating Old/Neglected Apple Trees.

[canna woop!]

been watching a few permaculture videos and thinking about dumping them here. This one reminded me of Thaicat's grasses a video by Marjorie Wildcraft. She talks about nut-sedge, a weedy grass that actually makes edible rhizomes that attract turkeys. You can actually buy a bagged commercial product called "gold Chufa" that is the turkey feed.

So she says the nut-sedge is close to its wild cousins, hard to get rid of, tolerates climactic changes, and potentially worth identifying/finding and using for survival gardening since it doesn't require much care. It looks like your ordinary crab grass! hahan She also poses with her canna-lillies and that's a real cool plant that surprisingly does well in abject conditions

probably not too helpful. Any how, yeah I am still mulling through the info on the last page. It's a lot to remember though over time and experience i gues it will get easier. I have a lot of stuff to do to day so signing off and will check in later. Peace,

How are the chickens?

 

[thaicat]

 

[thaicat]

been watching a few permaculture videos and thinking about dumping them here. This one reminded me of Thaicat's grasses a video by Marjorie Wildcraft. She talks about nut-sedge, a weedy grass that actually makes edible rhizomes that attract turkeys. You can actually buy a bagged commercial product called "gold Chufa" that is the turkey feed.

So she says the nut-sedge is close to its wild cousins, hard to get rid of, tolerates climactic changes, and potentially worth identifying/finding and using for survival gardening since it doesn't require much care. It looks like your ordinary crab grass! hahan She also poses with her canna-lillies and that's a real cool plant that surprisingly does well in abject conditions

probably not too helpful. Any how, yeah I am still mulling through the info on the last page. It's a lot to remember though over time and experience i gues it will get easier. I have a lot of stuff to do to day so signing off and will check in later. Peace,

How are the chickens?

I've only made it out there a few times in the last week. I don't recall seeing the Nut Sedge out there. I posted pictures but forgot to remove the metadata so had to repost.

Right now it's just clearing space and making innumerable compost piles. The chickens seem to be thriving and I've not seen any signs of wildlife trying to get to them. I, for one, will be glad once all the initial labor is out of the way and the place starts to resemble my dreams.

 

[thaicat]

So, these trees are blowing up. They're now about twice the size as in the pictures and for the most part, are covered in blossoms. I'm a little hesitant to trim them now but feel like cutting the centers out might be a good thing.

Any advice from those who've grown Apples?

 

[rangergord]

The idea in pruning is to open up the centre of the tree to light and get most of the branches in a horizontal plane . Learn to identify the fruit spurs where the blossoms appear. As long as you don't cut off all the branches with fruit spurs it should bear fruit. AFAIK it is not recommended to completely prune a neglected tree the first year. Removing about a third of the overgrowth each year would result in a better tree. Severe pruning may remove too many fruit spurs and result in lots of water sprouts.

 

[GoonSaibot]

How do you feel about replacing any of the very sick tree's with disease resistant cultivars like liberty or prestien?

 

[paulo73]

Nice project you got in hands.
I´m also trying to managed family lands and the existent trees (mostly olive and cork trees with a few fruit trees) and slowly (due to budget,time and back strength limitations mostly) i´ve been using some permaculture&common sense gardening/farming principles on it and even if the results are slow to show up the progression is steady and the money&effort input are quite low.
I´ve dug out all sick/dying trees and as money flows in, i´ll replace them with new ones.
As you might be aware all trees have a specific longevity related with the farming techs used during her life cycle. More intensive farming practices shorten the productive life cycle of trees but crops, when things go well, are bigger&healthier. Less intensive farming practices give less fruits but during a longer period. I prefer the second option for many reasons that i won´t go into.
On these first stages i´m also checking the performance of the old remaining trees to see which ones are in good enough shape to keep. And now i go biblical, by their fruits you´ll know them!
Good luck anyway.

 

[thaicat]

Nice project you got in hands.
I´m also trying to managed family lands and the existent trees (mostly olive and cork trees with a few fruit trees) and slowly (due to budget,time and back strength limitations mostly) i´ve been using some permaculture&common sense gardening/farming principles on it and even if the results are slow to show up the progression is steady and the money&effort input are quite low.
I´ve dug out all sick/dying trees and as money flows in, i´ll replace them with new ones.
As you might be aware all trees have a specific longevity related with the farming techs used during her life cycle. More intensive farming practices shorten the productive life cycle of trees but crops, when things go well, are bigger&healthier. Less intensive farming practices give less fruits but during a longer period. I prefer the second option for many reasons that i won´t go into.
On these first stages i´m also checking the performance of the old remaining trees to see which ones are in good enough shape to keep. And now i go biblical, by their fruits you´ll know them!
Good luck anyway.

Thanks! I can surely relate to slow/steady progression and limited funds to throw at it all. I haven't really seen any dead or heavily diseased trees. Fact is, I'm not even sure if I've seen each tree. This place is huge and planted heavily.

I have found significant "artifacts" out there. I found the shell of a 1972 Nova and 1969 Camaro, along with numerous farm implements and random scrap. We loaded up just a small fraction of the metal found out there and came home with over $2800, so I guess it's already paying off,lol.

 

[FatherEarth]

Yea what BFarmer said and also Calcium 25 for fruit trees would be helpful as well.

www.calcium25.com


If you are really into getting plants and trees healthy listen to these guys talk about how to do it..

specifically

"2013 Soil & Nutrition Conference: Putting Principles into Practice"

http://bionutrient.org/library/audio-archive


Respectfully,

FE

 

[thaicat]

On a wayward side note...
There may soon be a Ms. Thai Cat that will help me on this project. If nothing else, we may run around nekid and forever prune Apple trees...

Seriously, this has been a lifelong dream. Not so much an Apple orchard but having 140 fucking acres to ru rampant on. I've already bought my partner out. It's now a matter of what I'm going to do with 140.7 acres...Just the thought of that shit drives me to new levels of insanity...

It wasn't that long ago, I stressed hard on if I'd even have a plae to live. A true miracle in the making.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

Big up, and remember to always have fun!