Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - [NAFEX] M9

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Mauch1@aol.com
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] M9
  • Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 13:08:20 -0500

<<
I have a question for which a concrete answer will be impossible, but I
am hoping to get a vague answer gleaned from the collective NAFEX
wisdom. I am planting some apple trees into a field with heavy clay
soil, and I am wondering how much irrigation will be involved. The
trees are mostly on M9, with some Bud9 and some G16 rootstocks. As a
general rule, how much watering do they need?
>>

Jason,
You didn't say where you lived, so I'll give you my experience in SE PA.
I also have rather heavy clay soil. There is a rather high water table (say
10 ft? down). I have a two acre property that is ~200X400 and the apples are
at the far end of the property. I mulch my trees in Spring.
When I plant a tree, I water it well. I only then water (with 5 gal buckets)
trees that were planted that year and then only if there has been a long
period between rains.

During the worst drought (2002) I've ever seen, my soil did not really start
to dry out until towards end of the drought.

So basically I do not irrigate established trees. I've only started to use
M9. Most of my trees are on M26, Bud 9, and Ottawa 2. Of those 3 Bud 9 is
my favorite (Ottawa 2 is nice, but transplanting can kill the tree)

It looks like you're already doing this, but stay away from M26 (or any other
crown rot succeptible cultivar). On clay it is too vulnerable (to crown rot).

--
Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40° 5' N    75° 51'W
~650 ft elevation





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page