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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Opinions on tree size and spacing

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Opinions on tree size and spacing
  • Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 11:48:06 -0500

Dale,
I'll be watching this thread eagerly to see the responses. Heaven knows I've made plenty of mistakes with mine, as I've been on the front end of the learning curve. Pay close attention to what Don Yellman and Ed Fackler tell you, as they have some of the most hard-earned experience in growing apples in climates that might approximate your own.

The bulk of my original plantings were on combo M111/M9 rootstocks, but I've found they don't anchor nearly so well in my good clay soil as I'd hoped - many are leaning, and several are almost lying on their sides - and the rootstocks sucker pretty profusely(I'll eventually replace them with pears or persimmons). Probably the best performers in my orchard, from an anchorage standpoint(my orchard is fairly exposed, and it seems that the wind never stops blowing - sometimes I think I'm in back in KS or MO), have been those on M7 and M106.

Size? - Ultimately, YOU are in control. For a somewhat humorous, but insightful, rant on rootstock selections, and the myths that have been foisted on unsuspecting 'home orchardists', read Ed Laivo's rant, "Dwarf Tree? But it's so BIG!" at the Dave Wilson Nursery website:

http://www.davewilson.com/br40/teds_head6_dwarf.html

Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY





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