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| I have a little room for some dwarf apple trees, probably up to 15' large. At local U-pick, they support the dwarf trees with posts and wires, just like a large grape vine. But my trees would be scattered in several places. Do we support the main trunk, or the branches? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I support the main trunk just below the first branches or higher if there is a good tie off point. A T post pounded about 2ft into soil and positioned a few inches from the trunk has never failed to keep mine upright. |
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- Posted by Orchardman 7 (My Page) on Sat, Nov 15, 14 at 20:57
| I been wondering about this myself. |
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| Semi dwarf trees are about 15' tall. |
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- Posted by harvestman 6 (My Page) on Sun, Nov 16, 14 at 5:59
| I don't believe you need to support dwarf trees with wire if you prune it in one of the forms with short branches and use a length of electric conduit to support the trunk. Short branches aren't created by stubbing them but by removing branches more than a third diameter of the trunk and leaving everything else. The lesser diametered branches fruit almost immediately and I believe there is a cycling in and out of branches but I don't manage any trees this way so am unsure of the details. |
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| My local U pick trains the dwarf apple trees on a tall trellis, for better picking. I believe they get the trees very cheaply, so they went with the dwarf route as opposed to semi dwarf. |
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- Posted by harvestman 6 (My Page) on Mon, Nov 17, 14 at 8:29
| Most commercial growers are going with dwarfs these days, although the cost of trees adds up when you need double or more the quantity. Labor is hard to come by and expensive. Labor in all aspects of management is greatly reduced with low growing trees that don't push out a lot of vegetative growth. Even commercial orchards have to pay a premium price for skilled pruners and it probably takes a third the time to prune an acre of dwarfs over semi-standard free standing trees. Squirrels, coons and deer also prefer dwarfs, though. |
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- Posted by johnthecook (My Page) on Mon, Nov 17, 14 at 8:36
| Tall spindle dwarf trees. Easy to pick and you can train just about anyone to prune them. My free standing dwarf trees are much more of a pain to figure out pruning. And don't get me started on Liberty apple trees. |
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- Posted by Orchardman 7 (My Page) on Wed, Nov 19, 14 at 8:38
| Does anyone have a photo or a link to a photo of dwarf trees supported I am thinking of doing this too. |
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- Posted by spartan-apple (My Page) on Fri, Nov 21, 14 at 10:43
| Orchardman: U of MN has a listing thru their extension site about staking -individually stake each tree -stake each with conduit but top of conduit -run 2-3 wires down tree row and stake I hope you can find this document on the internet. I have Here in SE WI, we have several orchards growing apples |
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- Posted by spartan-apple (My Page) on Fri, Nov 21, 14 at 10:46
| Greetings again: Here is a second shot from another local orchard. |
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