North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["David Doud" <doudone@netusa1.net>]

<It doesn't get full sun, >
What is it that furnishes the shade? - other species of trees will have
interaction with your apple - apple is particularly sensitive to walnut,
which will cause decline and death, - -  even species without allelopathic
activity will compete,  maples will remove so much moisture from the ground
as to cause death by dehydration,  for example -
morning or evening shade is less a factor than shade from 10AM to 4PM - it
takes energy to drive the processes that result in fruit -
'standard' apples are propagated on seedling roots,  which are variable in
and of themselves - a rootstock/cultivar combination requires a certain
volume of space to be 'happy' - certainly a 'standard' tree has the
potential to get 20-30 feet tall in your climate - if the tree senses
competition, it's reaction is to grow out of it -  a while back someone
posted a link to a nursery that in a fairly clever way promoted pruning as a
method of size control - I contend that pruning is secondary to fruiting as
strategy to control tree volume,  and that pruning as enthusiastically as
promoted by the afor mentioned article is likely to result in 'unhappy'
trees, predisposing the trees to fireblight and winter injury - DOUD

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ginda Fisher" <ginda@concentric.net>
To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 10:10 PM
Subject: [NAFEX] replanting apple trees


> Last summer I lost a crab apple to the drought.  I had grafted about 8
> cultivars to it, and I wonder if it was also infected with some virus,
> as I didn't notice any widespread problems with the local crabs, despite
> the lack of water.  Anyhow, this spring it had barely any leaves, and
> despite a lot of TLC, it is now completely dead.
>
> I would like to plant another apple in the spot, possibly a crab, or
> possibly a eating type.  It doesn't get full sun, but the crab bloomed
> and fruited nicely until it died.
>
> 1)  Is it a really bad idea to put another apple tree in the same spot?
> I don't have any other place that would be at all suitable for an apple,
> so it is there or nowhere.  Of course, I could plant something different
> there.
>
> 2)  Does the reliable fruiting of the crab suggest there's enough sun
> for an eating apple, or do larger fruited types need more light?
>
> 3)  If I do replant with an apple, I'm considering Ashmead's Kernel,
> from Fedco.  Of all the mail order apples we've tried from AppleSource,
> this was the one the family liked most.  (Among other things, this
> suggests it keeps well without refrigeration, as most of the other types
> tasted like they'd gotten too warm in shipping.)  Fedco sells standard
> size trees - does anyone know how large this one is likely to get in
> eastern Mass., zone 6?  Does anyone know what rootstock they use for
> "standard" trees?
>
> Thanks,
> Ginda Fisher
>
> p.s.  the nearby woods are full of wild crabs, so we have plenty of
> pollenizers for all apples, and plenty of disease pressure.
>
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