A Nest for All Seasons

23 May 2013

Want fruit? Scrape and Wack the Tree!

After hard pruning, heavy fertilizing and spraying insecticidal soap, there is one more step to revitalizing our old apple trees.

SCRAPE and WACK.

Sounds mean, but the old books say it works. We are going to try it, but we are going to try it gently. No use killing the trees after all the work we've put into them, now is there?

First things first, we need to gently scrape the bark. Some recommend chicken wire, some recommend an old hoe. Basically, get something metal and gently scrape away some of the oldest bark. Why? You are ridding the tree of little insects and eggs that have built up over time. If you start to get to the white or green living flesh of the tree, you've gone too far. Just give it a scraping or rubbing like you would a kid after playing on the beach. You don't want to rub their skin raw, but you want to get as much sand off as possible.

Secondly, you get to hit the tree. You know how you kind of wack your kids to get the sand off of them? Ok, no? Well, you know how in Scandinavia they make you jump into ice cold water then hit you all over with branches to get your blood moving and "invigorate" your skin? Still no?

OK, well they do and that is what you are going to do for your old apple tree.

Give it a good whacking along the trunk with a stick. Wake that old girl up and get her ready to produce some fruit!

Want to make homemade applesauce? Click HERE!

Want to see how to use apple blossoms in floral arrangements? Click HERE!

Need to learn the best time to prune your apple tree into a vase? Click HERE!

Want to learn the best time to spray apple trees? Click HERE!

Questions? Just ask!

22 May 2013

Need to Spray? Wait until a RAIN! | How to Revive an Ancient Apple Tree

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Yesterday, we talked about pruning your apple trees to create a vase. Today we are going to talk about how to make apples look like this:

...instead of this:

Those green apples were the result of our first year of apple tree reviving. We were able to actually GET apples and they WERE edible (perfect for homemade applesauce!), but they had lots of dimples and brown spot and many, MANY of the apples on the tree shriveled up into little brown balls and were very sad indeed. The problem? Pests and disease. Fruit trees are one of the most susceptible plants to both pests AND disease and so even in organic gardens, they often need the most help via chemicals. The first step is to try a basic insectcidal soap to coat the tree with oil, killing soft bodied pests and minimizing disease, but some times stronger chemicals might be necessary, especially in fighting off problems in an old apple tree.

Aside from spraying, we continually round up any of those little brown apples and diseased bits and throw them in the TRASH (not the compost). Removing them is the very best thing we can do for our tree!

If you DO need to spray, the best time for insecticidal soap and horticultural oil is AFTER a rain when the leaves have water inside and the air is moist outside. The oils work best when they DRY SLOWLY, so humid and cloudy conditions are best. HOWEVER, rain itself will wash the oil away, so DO NOT spray BEFORE a rain. Sunny days are also a no-no because the spray will evaporate before it is able to do the work it needs to do.

So WAIT for the rain and spray AFTER it comes!

Wait until the rain has ceased, but the humidity still hangs in the air.
For this reason, it is best to spray in the morning or evening when the sun's drying rays are not around.

Want to make homemade applesauce? Click HERE!

Want to see how to use apple blossoms in floral arrangements? Click HERE!

Need to learn the best time to prune your apple tree into a vase? Click HERE!

Want to know why you should hit your apple trees? Click HERE!

Questions? Just ask!

21 May 2013

Want Apples? You Need a Vase! | How to Revive an Ancient Apple Tree

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Yesterday, I brought out my good old-fashioned method for making applesauce, but there is a journey to actually getting those apple trees to PRODUCE said apples. Over the next few days, I will be sharing you my best tips for growing apple trees and share a little of our experience over several years reviving two ancient apple trees.

First things first -- old fruit trees won't produce very well unless the are pruned and have good air circulation. Ideally, the best time to prune an apple tree is in late winter/early spring, but if you are dealing with an old tree that has a bunch of clustered branches crossing in the interior of the tree, late spring will work! That tree needs to BREATHE!

When we first moved into our home, we had two old apple trees that were literally just masses of branches. The apples that year were weak to say the least. Over the next two years, pruning was top of our to-do list. This year, we are almost there with this tree closest to the house. We have taken out 3-4 medium-large branches each year and now we have a nice open middle of the tree -- the "vase". Pruning more than this might have harmed the tree, so be ruthless with pruning, but stretch it out if the tree is really bad!

See the 6 branches that all face outwards, forming a vase?

Every branch in the tree now grows outwards so the leaves can get to the sun and apples will grow!

Bring on the blossoms!