Planting Apple Trees - Wisconsin Garden Video Blog 490

Описание: How to dig a hole for planting apple trees is pretty basic but very important. Make sure to call Digger's Hotline where possible to prevent some potentially dangerous hazards. Today we're planting several Honeycrisp apple trees along with several McIntosh and a new dual-twisted apple trees that self-pollinate. We haven't seen these available until this year. These would be great for anyone with very limited garden space.

Now that the weather is warmer, it's great to be outside playing in the garden. One of the perks is that you get to see your neighbors again. In the middle of our planting, Maria, a former teacher saw us planting our trees and stopped by to chat. It gave Rick a break and time to play, toss the bunny with 5 year old Zach, which went on non-stop. Talk about endless energy. After an hour's break we got back to work and finished just in time for supper.

We're excited to have two dual-twisted apple tree combos, Honeycrisp with Mcintosh, and Fuji with Haralson. They appear to be about 2-3 years old and could possibly produce fruit very soon. Fuji apples are known for their delightful aroma while the Haralson are crisp and juicy. Honeycrisp is one of our favorites because they are so crispy and Mcintosh has their distinct, tart flavor.

Typically, dwarf apple trees can begin producing fruit after 2-4 years and can be at full capacity in another year or two. Semi dwarf take a little longer before producing their first fruit usually somewhere around 4-5 years and again another 2 years before starting to reach their full capacity.

Digging a hole for trees is pretty basic but very important. Simply dig a hole 2-3 times as wide and deep as the tree ball or container. Keep the bottom of the hole filled half way with rich loose soil mixed well with some starter fertilizer such as aged compost, worm castings, and perlite or vermiculite to the base soil. Center the root ball in the hole so that when refilled the root ball remains 2-3 inches above ground level. We initially add a liquid root hormone for the first watering, and give each tree a good watering each day for the first week and every other day for a month and then as needed.

Sadly, the rabbits have completely destroyed the bark around our 25 year old apple tree. They completely girdled the bark off the base of our tree that had been covered by 2-3 feet of snow all winter. It truly was a sad and sickening sight to discover and our main reason for planting 8 new apple trees here in our Wisconsin garden. One of our next tasks will be to tree wrap and wire cage all of our trees at least 3-4 feet and hope for the best. The alternative would be to start setting up rabbit traps. Hey it's Easter. We'll just have to find creative ways to protect our trees and leave a lot of carrots out during the winter months hopefully as a distraction.

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