SilverSalmon586

I've been grafting for 5 years - first apples last year on a seedling tree. I have had good takes some years, bad others. Be careful and not store your scion wood with apples in the fridge the ethelyne gas will kill them. Planted out 20 of my disease resistant deer packs today from Waflers. I'm taking an acre back from our farmer. The trees were 3 years old, almost need to be rootballed. Think Waflers donated trees to the qdma dinner next weekend in ROC. I will graft some of my other trees in a week or 2. Want to do it when the maiden tree just starts to push, assuming up you had already cut/stored your wood. If you haven't stored scion wood, then now is the time and hope the graft takes before it dries out (wax/tar)...

Waflers has some 3 yr trees left over - close to 2" caliper(huge - like 8') All disease resistant. I like em' tall so at least the central leader is above browse height. I think they will ship bf 4/1 if u ask. Agree I liked millers, got a lot at their half off sale the Friday before Memorial Day. Have a bunch of liberty, Freedom and jonafree on m7 RS from the and they've all made it and are producing fruit.

Blake's pride is a fire blight resistant pear. Stick with Elma 111 or b118 RS for your apples, tall trees but esp with 118 pretty precocious, u should get fruit yr 2, 3rd for sure and it's a tall tree. Waflers, cummins and Adams county are good too

Check out Waflers in Wolcott, they sell deer specific packs http://www.waflernursery.com/wildlife.php Bill Pitts really knows his stuff. They grow 500,000 plus apple and pear trees a year, but he's a hunter so he likes to provide trees for hunters too. Close enough to drive up and the packs are designed to produce (10 diff varieties) from late summer through gun season. I've been ordering for years and highly recommend them!

We have a 150 tree home orchard. Rootstocks m106, 111 and b118 are best. Get disease resistant apples. Waflers in Wolcott sells deer packs at 10 for $150. They'll be 2 year trees, averaging 6-7' tall and will bear the 2nd or third year. Bill Pitts is the guy, he's a hunter so he knows what he's doing. I buy 10 every year in establishing my "other wild orchard". Killed a doe in bow season under my 3 year old producing Rome tree. Get mouse guards and tree tubes, trust me!

I too have had marginal luck and have started to do my archery deer. Since brauns retired in Macedon it's tough. I have taken mine to whitetail on Haley in walworth/Ontario - not bad ok overall. Nice people... Most of these guys just aren't reliable and I get more meat doing my own. Wish there was someone like the Brauns around if anyone remembers them.

I too have had marginal luck and have started to do my archery deer. Since brauns retired in Macedon it's tough. I have taken mine to whitetail on Haley in walworth/Ontario - not bad ok overall. Most of these guys just aren't reliable and I get more meat doing my own. Wish there was someone like the Brauns around if anyone remembers them.

1 Buck - Bow 8J 1 Doe - Bow 8J

For those thinking of apples, Wafler's in Wolcott (http://www.waflernursery.com/inventory.php) offer a "deer pack" of 10 various trees. I have 140 trees planted at our roadside orchard and 40 from Wafler's in my wild plantings. They never offered a disease resistant pack before this year so the 40 I have (planted over the past 4 years) are standard. I tried to eat a golden russett, crispin or Spitzenberg on the way to my stand each time this year (the 3 and 4 year old wildlife trees had a good crop this year) . They have them on good rootstocks (B118 - precocious, but grow out of browse height quick). Bill, the nursery guy, is a big time hunter (don't think the cummins guys are from my past orders with them) so he has his packs with early ripening apples, mid season and then a lot of late season apples to keep the deer around. One piece of advice, think about fencing them in, and mouse guards (spiral) are not an option - must have. I have switched (some by grafting, some by replanting) a lot of my older orchard trees to disease resistant trees - I only have to spray for bugs, not fungicides (or much reduced). They have Crabs too, mostly (I think) for pollination, but if you want a really good pollinator Winter Banana (late ripener, regular apple, not a crab) is a good one. HoneyGold sticks on the tree and is really cold resistant so it's a good one too...

You won't have a true Crabapple - or at least the same as your original tree. The only way to have an "exact" match is to graft onto another tree or rootstock. It was pollinated by another apple or crab - it may ripen early, midseason, or late, just depends on it's "genetics". If you want to give it a shot it needs a certain # of "chill hours". With a crab it's probably 700 or so. That means taking the seeds and placing them in a frige (between 32-40) for at least a month. Then you'll want to plant them in a pot and transplant to single them to other pots. It'll take a few years - you won't be transplanting them into the field for 2-3 years. Good luck -

Great advice by all. The rootstocks (in my home orchard and experience) that are more tolerant to wet/dry soil are M111 and B118. M7 is ok as is G30, G30 will get you apples by the 2nd but neither gets too big - a problem for browsing deer. M26 and M106 are extremely sensitive to "wet feet" so stay away from them (collar rot). Again, M111 and B118 are great for drought or moderately wet soil (not standing water). You have to have sun exposure for at least part of the day - i look for west exposure. B118 will simply fruit quicker (3 years vs. 5 years for M111). Again, that's just my experience. I totally agree with Doc, you'll need at LEAST 2 varieties, that's why the deer packs are so good they will give you 5 or more varieties so they can cross pollinate and also so you can get the deer patterned before the season. Doc, i agree too, I eat an apple on the way to the stand every time i venture out - I figure they taste good and might mask some breath issues!

Hunt 6246, you should see a color circle spray painted where the rootstock meets the apple graft, that's Wafler's signature coding. They grow them for Schlabach's. End of May is late, but not crazy. The fact that we didn't have any rain for 2 months was the killer, sounds like all things considered you made out great. I usually try and get mine in the ground 4/1. I agree, I have 120 other apple trees for an eventual roadside stand (our son) and you should prune them before they're planted. I hate doing it to wild plantings because I want to make sure they're above browsing height. What I usually do is prune back or out some of the side branches and let the central leader go - just my 2 cents. With our home plantings I take out any branches lower than about 20 inches above the ground and also any branches growing vertical. The best rootstock I've found for wild plantings is B118, it grows almost standard size but is much more quicker in bearing than M111 (same size). Both are pretty drought resistant once established. Anything smaller needs TLC (M7, G30, M106 - I wouldn't go any smaller than M7 or G30). Again, just my 2 cents from a guy who grows trees for fun and also has 40 out there for the deer. It was really cool seeing the deer eating my "wild" Golden Russets this fall when in the stand.

Wolcott, NY - they are the biggest commercial grower east of the Mississippi (half a million trees a year) but their nursery manager is a guy (Bill) who has become a friend since he's helped me so much. He's a big time hunter so he knows both ends. I think the web site is Waflernursery.com. They started doing deer packs a few years ago (10 to a pack) and that's when I started getting 10/year. So far so good...

The beauty of the deer packs (assuming the amish place is slaubaugh's - if so they get their trees from Wafler's I asked them) is the trees they pick are ones that keep their apples until January. Some from July - January, I have Golden Russet's too - an old heirloom variety - really sweet. They seem to be some of the best besides the disease resistant ones.

New to the site, but we have 40 apple trees that I purchased from Waflers over the past few years (i've bought 10 every year for the past 4 years). They raise some trees especially for wild plantings. They're all disease resistant (no scab, mildew, etc.) bugs are another issue. They have them on special rootstock (Russian?) that grows fast (past browse height) but also produce fruit quick too - had some on my 2nd year trees last year and many more this year. Some of the types I got were Liberty, GoldRush, Sundance, Enterprise, Freedom, HoneyGold, Pristine (really early, but brings them in). They really have this thought out, i believe they charge $150 for 10 trees (all disease resistant includes their royalty fees for new varieties- the non-disease resistant trees are less). Adams County charges $27 per tree (shipping included) out of PA. Millers is about $24 per tree but they're on M7 rootstock so they're not as productive as Wafler's. I think their # is 8773970874 their nursery manager (who hunts big time) is named Bill. They grow about a half a million trees for commercial growers, make sure you ask for the deer packs. Good luck. Make sure you remember tree guards, had a couple of mine girdled by voles the first year...