North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Sam Franc <franc@oregonfast.net>]

I have about an acre + in orchard here on the oregon coast.
!3 x 13 foot spacing , mostly m111 X m109 root stock.
There are some asians, pears and plums included.
It is not too crowded and I drive my 20 hp craftsman tractor down the 
rows to mow.
I think climate makes big difference.
I could not have done this on my CA place as they would have overgrown 
me there.
In CA I would have put them in on a 20 x 20 spacing.
I planted originally there at 15 feet and I was getting crowded when I 
left there.
Sam

Dale Burkholder wrote:

> I recently bought a 9 acre farmette and want to plant about 1 acre in 
> apple orchard. I would like some opinions on tree size and spacing. I 
> had planted about 40 trees with 70 varieties grafted, on all kinds of 
> rootstock where I lived before, but the trees haven't grown to full 
> size yet so I didn't have a chance to learn from all my mistakes. 
> Here's what I'm thinking now. Plant part of the orchard on 
> approximately M26 size rootstock for the dozens of more "commercial" 
> varieties, and smaller, M9 size trees for the 100 or so wierd, 
> experimental, unusual, overlooked, and test cultivars. Maybe I'm 
> crazy, but I'd like to try them all right here. Probably mostly 
> roadside sales.
> A local commercial orchard has M26 trees spaced about 9x18 and they 
> look too crowded - not enough space to drive through, although that's 
> only 270 trees per acre.
> My questions -
> 1. What tree size would you recommend? (Yeah, I know some cultivars 
> are more vigourous than others).
> 2. Spacing. With room for tractor.
> 3. What about Cummins' Geneva rootstocks? I kinda like not having to 
> worry so much about fireblight. And where in the world do you get 
> Vineland 1?
> 4. And, finally, while I'm collecting opinions, any wisdom on growing 
> the more northern varieties in the "South".
>
> Dale Burkholder
> apple testing addict
> Shenandoah Valley, VA
> reluctantly admitting I'm in Zone 7 now
>
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