4 ms·
> We planted a bunch of apple trees. For that we used an auger attached to a sub-compact tractor to get holes. This was pretty rough with the rocks and clay esp
by Fiahil 4y ago
> We planted a bunch of apple trees. For that we used an auger attached to a sub-compact tractor to get holes. This was pretty rough with the rocks and clay especially because the auger does not have reverse. Which meant that every time it got stuck we had to disassemble it, drill a 2x4 into the side and spit it out by hand.
While planting trees was absolutely the best choice, you could have avoided most of the physical efforts, the auger and the disassembly, by just planting younger trees. Most trees develop their full strength after a year. You can grow them from seeds, wait a year or two, then delicately plant them with a mix of clay and compost in a small hole. You would have traded physical efforts for patience, but trees fare better when they are not transplanted.
Also, roots grow thicker and stronger in compacted soil (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-011-5696-7_11 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-011-5696-7_...) this often leads to a better anchorage.
- Broken_Hippo 4y agoApple trees are not good candidates for starting from seed - not if you want to eat the apples afterwards. Most apple trees are started from cuttings (cloning!). Otherwise, you might just wind up with apples that aren't good for much but cider (the alcoholic sort). Johnny Appleseed, a figure from American history that has been mythologized, realistically went around spreading apples for alcohol. This is the same reason folks could "find" or own a prized apple tree: The apples tasted delicious. It is quite possible that another variety of fruit tree produces better results when growing from trees, but I don't know. I only know the apple bit because my father tried starting an apple orchard before his health started deteriorating.
- elhudy 4y agoWait - apple trees started from seed have high odds of not growing apples like those that they came from? What are the odds of such a mutation?
- formerkrogemp 4y agoIt varies based on the plant. The phrase you're looking for is called 'true to seed.'. For some plants it's odds of 1:100,000 and for others it varies an order of magnitude in either direction. Don't try growing avocados from seed either. You'll get some disgusting fruit, most probably, in this little genetic lottery after 5-10 years. You can buy presorted seeds that'll grow good fruit, but they're awfully expensive and take roughly a decade to grow. Most fruit trees are just grown via cloning/grafting.
- elhudy 4y agoJeez here i thought i knew a lot about gardening / ag. I would never have guessed nature worked that way! That said i wouldn’t mind a few apple trees for cider myself.
- formerkrogemp 4y agoI really don't know that much either. I just took up a little bit of gardening last year. I just learned all of that from a few short videos on YouTube. I'm sure we'll both learn more given time. Best of luck.
- Fiahil 4y agoApple trees _are_ good candidates for starting from seeds. Especially because the kind you eat often have poor adaptability to a fresh, harsh, environment. So you start with strong, healthy, local seeds, let them grow a bit, and graft the kind you want to eat after 3 years. Same thing for cherries, pears, peaches, and others. This is also used for growing grapes in France and about everywhere in the world : roots and trunks are east american because of their resilience to a particularly nasty pest, but the right variety of grape is grafted on it. So we still use the original variety to make wine ! That’s also why almost every vineyard is at most 200 years old, despite the fact that wine was already there under the earliest roman empire.