Cold climate, irrigation free, deer proof, poor soil, survive or die, tree planting method.

When planting in the wet areas I would dig less deep than shown in the below photos and would make a higher and wider raised mound with compost. I also pick root stocks that do not mind being a bit wet. For me this is Bud118 for apples (fireblight and crown rot resistant, cold hardy) and OHxF87/97 for pears (fireblight and soil disease resistant, cold hardy). Yes these CAN be big trees but with heavy bearing, branch bending and appropriate pruning you can keep them to whatever size you want.

You also want the vigor of these larger rootstocks for surviving our winters and short growing seasons and to bounce back if damaged/diseased. Dwarfing root stocks die from things that these semi standard/full size root stocks can bounce back from.

I have tried Antonovka but it seems to grow 1/2 the speed of Bud118 and some papers have shown it to have more variable cold hardiness than BUD118 as they are not 100% true to seed. 

For stone fruits I found Myrobalan to be better than Marianna 26 however I have been trialing a new rootstock, Mustang, and so far I like it MUCH better.  Way less suckers, more upright, tree like trunk growth, and seems both cold hardy, heavy clay tolerant and drought tolerant.

I have trialed dwarfing rootstock like Bud9, M9, M26 and none have done well over the years. When (not if) they get an apple borer strike or some other injury they would not be able to bounce back and I found they would slowly die, or break at the injury site during windstorms (despite being staked), or just never be as productive.

Finally I like bare root trees, NOT potted trees so the roots are not lazy and fight through my soil instead of being used to the pot soil. I also plant 1-2 year old whips NOT larger trees. I find larger trees get much of their roots cut for shipping and have larger trunk/canopy to support with small roots and I do not irrigate.

Instead the 1 or 2 year old trees do just fine and establish excellent roots. I find that 5 years down the road the 1-2 year old trees are larger and doing better than when I planted 3-4 year old larger trees. Your experience in warmer climates or areas you can baby your trees might be different.

 NOTE: This is not necessarily feasible with higher density plantings. I plant on 20’ x 20’ spacing as I want large trees for protecting against deer, not needing to irrigate and for maximum hardiness/disease prevention as well as easy mowing and tractor usage. This gives me a theoretical 109 trees per acre but it really works out to less than this. That said, aggressive pruning, even vigorous roostocks can do well in higher density plantings.

 Equipment needed.

• Your tree

• Shovel

• Compost (I like 2 bags per tree and generally use sheep or shrimp compost)

• Mulch (cedar is ok, the worries about acidity is overblown – I like 2 bags per tree)

• Weedbarrier (cardboard ok but only lasts 2 years, I use heavy landscape fabric even though weeds do still grow through but less. You can also lift up edges to break the roots in later years)

If you have deer add:

• 6-8’ metal T post

• T post driver

• 1/2 inch galvanized hardware cloth. 36’ wide. Cut to 5’ lengths

1) Site preparation.

Remove the grass but keep the sod to the side, you will replace it back UPSIDE down. At least 2-3 feet by 2-3 feet. Bigger is better as competition from grass is bad to newly planted trees.

2) Planting

In the northern hemisphere you want to ideally plant in rows running North/South so you get good east/south/west sun and the general western wind will help dry morning dew quickly.

In groupings, you want the tallest trees first to the North, then to the East to not shade the South and West sun. So very tallest tree would be in North-East corner. I also like to stagger my plantings so that while you have a row of trees from North to South, the rows East to West are offset to avoid shading.

So if you have 3 rows planted at 20’ apart, then trees in row 1 and 3 would be in line East to West but trees in Row 2 would be offset by 10’.

Choose your planting distances based on your rootstock for tree size as well as for ease of mowing/week wacking. Even a dwarf apple tree on Bud9 will send out branches that are 5-6’ long so even planted 10’ apart the 2 trees will have branches touching making mowing around them near impossible and easier disease transfer.

I am no irrigation, cold climate with high deer pressure so I use semi-standard trees I keep to 12’ tall and plant 20’ apart within and between rows.

The below image is 20′ in row and 20′ between rows but even and odd rows are offset so that there is actually 40′ between trees in even vs odd rows to allow for better airflow and sun exposure.

Look at where the graft union is. You want this to be a couple inches ABOVE the ground even after you add the compost. If it is touching or below the ground it can root, making your tree full size and losing any disease benefits of the rootstock.

Also, if your variety is disease susceptible or not cold hardy enough if it dies, the root stock may still live and send up new shoots you can graft onto.

 Dig the appropriate sized hole in the middle and then plant the tree, trying to spread the roots out. Most rootstocks will have roots coming from each node a couple inches apart. So I cover the lowest roots, then fan the upper roots over the new dirt, cover those, then fan out the upper roots.

 *** DO NOT add anything to the hole. You want the soil to be identical to the surrounding soil so the roots are not lazy and stay local but instead spread out. Especially if you have clay soil that roots can become rootbound if your hole is nice and easy soil while the surrounding is hard to penetrate clay.   Also, different soils expand/shrink differently. When I was starting I dug huge holes and amended the soil and ended up with a full 1/2 inch air gap where my hole was vs the surrounding clay during a bad drought.

3) Return sod

Replace sod UPSIDE down so the grass ends up dying. Probably ideally would be to just replace top with compost instead of the sod but who has money for that?!

4) Compost

Cover the upside down sod with your compost. Again making sure your graft union is high enough. Do not worry, the worms will come up and drag the compost down to the roots and improve the soil at the same time.

5) Weed barrier.

Add your weed barrier. Plastic free heavy cardboard will survive about 2 years before needing to be replaced. With a large number of trees I use DeWitt 20 year woven landscape fabric. Weeds STILL get through but less and 2-3 times a summer I walk the rows with a weedeater and pull up the edges and weedeat the side. Probably after 4-5 years I will remove and just mulch but we will see.

6) Mulch

Add 2-3” of mulch on TOP of the weed barrier. Keep it from touching your trunk or you risk rot or roots. This mulch helps keeps weeds controlled but more importantly it insulates the ground and helps keep the ground from drying out. Even in 2-3 week periods without rain the ground can be moist underneath while the surrounding land is bone dry in the sun.

7) Deer/vole/rabbit protection

Your fruit trees are the tastiest things around. My backyard planting is popular but my farm land in the bush is crazy filled with animals looking for a smorgasbord. Once they find your trees they can destroy then in a single night.

 I drive a 6’ (cheaper) or 8’ metal T most a couple inches away from the trunk. I then attach a 5’ tall tube I made out of 1/2”, 36” wide galvanized hardware cloth. I let the tree grow up and only allow larger branches to form above the protection at 5’. These branches will still be attacked when weighed down with fruit but less so than if the branches were lower. This also protects trunks from being girdled by rabbits/voles in winter. I have tested adding spiral white plastic protectors each fall vs not and so far it seems voles can’t get in though the 1/2” squares.

 I then add 2 wire hooks to hold the cage closed but still provide easy access when I want to get inside to weed or prune.

8) Avoiding tree damage from fencing

While trees are younger and the trunk is less stiff, they will move in the wind. Less of an issue while fully inside the cage, once the tree gets above the cage it can rub against the top causing damage to the trunk. I now put in an aluminum wire support to hold the trunk centered but you can use other things like wood braces and the like.

Done!  Deer and rabbit proof fenced trees for much cheaper than fencing whole acres.  ***ALERT***  Fricking BEARS will break trees if you let fruit form before the trunks can support a fat bear climbing!