Renovating Inherited Apple Trees

Renovating Inherited Apple Trees (post #12705)

KitGrimalkin on Tue, 09/11/2007 - 19:10

Fruit and Berries

Hello to All here. This is my first post at Fine Gardening. I've been a magazine subscriber for years.

We bought 5 acres two years ago. I immediately set out renovating all the neglected landscaping. We have one acre of woods and three acres of what was farm fields up until about 20 years ago. On this bit of heaven the previous owners planted five apple trees, approximately 10 years ago. They are overgrown and have not been properly cared for. However, two of the trees produce green/yellow apples in abundance. They appear to be golden delicious. Two others produce a quite beautiful red with russet tones apple with a nice crisp white flesh. The fifth tree never produces apples. The apples that are produced are misshapen and full of insect holes.

I would dearly love to renovate these trees and start having yearly harvests to eat. Does anyone have a good book to recommend that would help me in this process? I have absolutely no knowledge of orchard maintenance. I also would like to add more apple trees this fall or next spring.

I look forward to hearing from you and enjoying my membership here.

Thanks,
KitGrimalkin

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by Dagwood in reply to KitGrimalkin [original] on Tue, 09/11/2007 - 20:08

We are in about the same situation Kit. Not that it helps you any!!

We have 2 tres on our property, one on the edge of our woods, and the other standing alone on our creek bank. I should post pictures. The one on our creek is about a foot diameter trunk, and I'm not sure what you are supposed to do with a fruit tree that bid. I think the first step is to cut out all the dead wood now while we can still see what's dead and what isn't. Beyond that, who knows!!

Can the wild, dwarf, misshapen apples be used to make cider?

If it can die, I can kill it.
Certified Brown Thumb, 4th degree

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by KitGrimalkin in reply to Anonymous [original] on Wed, 09/12/2007 - 21:13

Hi Dagwood. Thank you for your post. It sounds as if you have a pretty piece of land. I never thought of "cidering" my apples but now I think I'll give it a try. Thank you for the suggestion. I hope you have good luck with your apple trees. I do have a book on hold at the library called The Backyard Orchardist and I'm hoping to get lots of good information from it. Have you read it?

Nice to talk with you.

KitGrimalkin

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by Dagwood in reply to Anonymous [original] on Fri, 09/14/2007 - 15:39

Thanks.

The few of our apples that I have opened up didn't have worms. That doesn't mean none of them do, or that I didn't just miss them, but if yours are wormy, you may want to think twice about making "Cider with essence of wormguts". On the other hand, if you add enough cinnamon, no one should notice... right?

I will check around here for pruning guides etc. We just planted another apple, so we will have to get on with the whole pruning thing shortly. Our neighbours also have a small orchard, so we are hoping we can get advice from them as well.

If it can die, I can kill it.
Certified Brown Thumb, 4th degree

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by KimmSr in reply to KitGrimalkin [original] on Sun, 09/16/2007 - 10:57

If you are in the USA contacting your state universitys USDA Cooperative Extension Service can get you a lot of information, specific to your area, about apple trees. If in Canada contactiong AgCanada may get the same results.

West central Michigan along the lake shore

A sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, rather it is brown knees.

West central Michigan along the lake shore

A sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, rather it is brown knees.

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by KitGrimalkin in reply to Anonymous [original] on Thu, 09/20/2007 - 16:06

Thank you KimmSr. I will certainly follow up on your advice, I never thought to do that, silly me.

I'm also adding five or six apple trees to my very small orchard so I'd best get cracking on learning to take care of them.

Kit

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by toobeeman in reply to Anonymous [original] on Mon, 09/24/2007 - 01:44

You could do a Google search for pruning. There is a mass of information sites for all types of trees and fruit.
Regards toobeeman

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by BeeJay in reply to Anonymous [original] on Fri, 09/28/2007 - 02:41

David Doud was our orchard man. If you go to "pruning apples" in the archives you shoulg find some help in pruning the apple trees.

Gardening, cooking and woodworking in South'n Murlyn'

Renovating Inherited Apple Trees