New Trees

Today I talked with Adam from Hilltop trees in Lawton, Mi about our tree order for 2008. I want to get several rows of McIntosh planted this spring. We have McIntosh planted on the home farm and on Jim’s home farm but most are on the larger rootstock so picking requires ladders. The larger trees are a real headache when it comes to u-pick Mac’s. The top of the tree has the best color and people are inclined to reach for those, but Macs fall off readily when they are ripe so any disturbance causes apples to fall. I hope that by planting fully dwarfing trees I can have u-pick work more easily. We manage the height and bearing branches on the dwarfing trees so that the fruit colors more evenly and the apples in the top are the same as the apples at eye level. Also the tree is only a few feet across from outside to outside so most of the apples can be reached from the ground without disturbing the apples that we don’t want to pick yet.

We plant the trees on dwarfing rootstocks close together. The trees I ordered today are on M-9 rootstock and we will plant them 3 1/2 feet apart in rows 14 feet apart. Trees on M-9 can not stand up on their own so we will tie the tree to a bamboo stake and then tie the bamboo to a trellis for support. On the plus side the trees on M-9 root grow large apples and start bearing in the year following planting. We hope for full production by the 5th year!!

I am going to plant these Macs in a block near the M-88 market right next to some rows of Northern Spy, Mutsu, Gala, and Honeycrisp. I hope to encourage u-pick apples.

John