North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 09:07 PM 06/08/2000 +0000, Victoria Caron wrote:
>Does anyone have any ideas or experience that might get these to
>grow like trees, or am I most likely stuck with shrubs?

Vic,
Try sticking them in a tree shelter(TreePro or Tubex, your choice) - I've 
never used 'em on stonefruits, but most of the other stuff(oaks, pecans, 
persimmons, kiwis, grapes) I've put in 'em shoot up like a rocket.  They 
tend to be somewhat spindly, as they're not being 'caressed' by the wind, 
and may need to be staked for a year or so after you remove the shelter.

I have a friend in middle TN who's growing some of the advanced back-cross 
ACF chestnuts, and he bought what must have been a semi-trailer load of 
5-ft Tubex tree shelters a number of years back to use on them.  He put 
them on some apple whips(on M9/M11 rootstocks) when he planted them, and 
just left them on - first limbs on those semi-dwarfs are 5-6 feet above 
ground.  Of course, he can't remove the shelters now, but they're supposed 
to photo-degrade in a 3-5 year period(might take longer in more northerly 
latitudes).
Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY


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