Plot and Orchard work pics

[WesternNY]

I thought I would share some of plot and orchard work with you guys.

The corn is just under 4 acres... I have an acre of clover planted along the west edge, the south end near the orchard and planted a 40 yd by 25 yd strip in front of a stand in the corn...

The Noth end of the corn

The southern end and orchard enclosure.. 21 apple trees on b118 and emla 7 roots stalks.

A picture looking from the N to the south

the strip of clover in front of a stand

This clover was planted this spring.... the drought has not done it any favors and I have some grasses growing but I sprayed them today.

The corn was planted by broadcasting it... I have planted corn with this method 3 times now.. last year I did soybeans to give the soil a break. I prefer this method for corn when it comes to plots

[WesternNY]

Here is a close up of my orchard

These trees were planted in 2009 and 2010 all have apples, and I should be able to take the fence down in 2 maybe 3 years. I have alot of apple experience.... I highly recommend them for folks wanting to improve their property. It is alot to learn and they are high maintenance but well worth it.

This is a liberty apple...

these trees are loaded.. I hand thinned them this early summer but will still have about a bushel for us to enjoyl.

Here is a liberty apple tree

it is in its fourth year meaning I planted it in 2009.

[WesternNY]

Here is a plot in the middle of my woods on the W side of my property about 1/2 acre I cleared it in 2011 and planted oats that year... no draw really except at initial green up. This spring I spread a ton of lime hit it with 0-20-20 heavy and planted clover chicory.... despite the drought it looks great deer use it daily.

in 2011

early green up 2011

Spring 2012 working the soil

I still have to grind the stumps out next spring to make easier to do plot maintenance.. I should get 5 years out of this clover... I will do a soil sample this fall, apply 150 pound of 0-20-20 and parhaps more lime depending on the soil test

Here is the plot in clover chicory from about a week or 2 ago

a close up of the nice lush growth

[landtracdeerhunter]

All looks very good. A lot of work there. Very lucky to have apples. Trees here are very spotty.

[SplitG2]

Western, corn looks great! I love your apple trees.

[WesternNY]

Thanks Guys!

I had 3 days after bloom in the 20's but my elevation goes from 1800 ft to 1200 feet and then drops quickly off my boundry line... I feel the thermals caused by this makes the colder air drop into the valleys and makes my farm have a little frost protection.

Orchards along lake Ontario were hit hard by the frost this year.

[WesternNY]

Here is what my corn plot looked before I turned the dirt in 2008/09

I have done a large scale scrag timber cut on this side of the property... I have another 37 acres lined up with a logger.... that has helped a ton... and made some cash for me... though not alot. But selling aspen and scrag maple is better than doing just plain tsi and leaving in the woods.

all those tops makes great cover and provided alot of browse

[Lawdwaz]

Not much spare time on YOUR hands!!

I bet your single!

[WesternNY]

Nope Family and a full time career! I bet you know what my primary hobby is though!

[burmjohn]

Wow, just wow! Now how hard was it clearing that newer field? I wish we could find a logger we can trust. All of them seem so freaking shady!

[WesternNY]

BrumJohn the one with the dozer??? I had the logger clear cut a section I taped off, told him to take what he wanted, any hardwood he skidded to my firewood landing, the rest the dozer pushed... it took probably about 5 hours for the half acre...

I had the dozer guy push the debri on the down wind side... the only can enter the plot from the West basically...

an excavator could have dug the stumps out and saved a little soil..... but it was cheap for the dozer as he was here excavating my pole barn site that I put up in 2011.

I figure a weekend with a high end stump grinder rental I should have it pretty clear next spring...

[mighty six]

Great work i especially love the apple trees and want to do something similiar do you or does anyone know people who i could hire who would assist with apple tree planting im in the watertown area

[WesternNY]

MIght six....I don't know anyone you could hire... but feel to email me any questions you might have...

Apples for deer you should plant disease resistant trees

here are some disease resitant varities

Akane

Alkmene

ANTONOVKA KAMENICHKA

Chehalis

Crimson Gold

Crimson Topaz

Dayton

Enterprise

Florina Querina

Freedom

Galarina

Goldrush

Hardy Cumberland

Initial

Liberty

Lib Del

Murray

Novaeasygro

Novaspy

Ny 75414-1

Priam

Prima

Pristine

Redfree

Richelieu

Scarlett O'Hara

Sir prize

Williams' Pride

Wolf River

For rootstock you want to make sure NOT to get a dwarfing rootstock.. I like b118 first and foremost ... it is a rootstock that is about 95% size of a full size tree, and bears fruit earlier than other full type stock.

M111 is great too, just longer to bear apples, emla 7 is great early bearing and tops off around 20 feet high.

Order early... some nurseries sell out very quickly.. guys planting for 2013 have already purchased their trees, but there are nurseries with trees available just have to search a bit. Buy in quanity.. you will save. Go in with an order with Buddies. The next time I make a big order... I will consider offering some trees to guys who are interested...

You must cage your trees...

Training and pruining are the hardest and most time consuming but it pays off. Spraying... get disease resistant trees and if they are for deer... you might be able to get away without spraying....

some apple pics from today..

enterprise

and a honey crisp

A little rain and the fruit is growing very quickly!

[WesternNY]

I love enterprise and liberty.... liberty is easy to grow IMO

You want to look at ripening charts... ussually an apple will hang 2 weeks past prime ripening stage.. but some will hang well into Jan.

Try to plant some that will drop from Sept through... your hunting season!

[WesternNY]

Some Loaded Goldrush trees.... these are 4 year old trees..

I hand thinned these about a month and half ago

a view from a stand on the south side of the orchard... I almost didn't want to leave this stand today,.. nice cool summer day

[Pav2704]

Western... your food plots look great!!! I didn't realize that you could broadcast the corn seed??? Squirels and other wildlife dont find the seed??? Do you drag the corn after you broadcast it?

This is my favorite part of this website!! I really enjoy seeing the pictures of everyones hard work!!!!

Edited August 12, 2012 by Pav2704

[WesternNY]

Thanks Pav!

I had my mind set on a corn planter until I tried this method 4 years ago... it works great.

I get the soil worked up very well.... spread my Fertilizer, usually 19-19-19 and then I spread 20 pounds per acre... I mark off 1/2 acre sections and put 10 pounds of seed in my spreader.

I then use a drag with the harrows all the way down. Corn likes to be between an inch and 2 inches deep.

At week 4 to 6 I spray Gly ( I use RR Corn) and then spread a high dose of urea before a heavy rain.

I am sure I lose some seed from crows, etc and some doesn't germinate, a few seeds dont get covered... you use more seed by broadcasting than a planter but it works great. I have alot of rocks so this is another reason to avoid a planter.

When winter arrives and the corn is gone and the snow is low enough I will brushhog it down and let it break down until I plow down again in Late May.

[WesternNY]

This is how the soil looks before I seed and after I seed, fert and then redrag

When the corn started

Corn is a great draw, it is expensive, and I would plant as much as you can.... but come October it will be insane to hunt around the plot.

[WesternNY]

This is the new upper plot that is in it's first year of clover chicory, last yr it was oats.

This is after mowing for the first time Thursday eve... since I have gotten 1.5 inches of rain... I try to never cut my clover below 6 inches and never when it is hot and dry.

[ncountry]

Alrighty! .. I try to learn at least one new thing everyday and this is it for today..Next year I will have corn . lol.

[WesternNY]

Get a soil test........ you can do it now for May planting if you want... I use mossy oak biologic soil testing. even though I dont use their seed.

Here is a link

http://www.plantbiologic.com/images/document/soiltest.pdf

They give you easy to understand results... it is alot better unless you have soil science or farming in your background.

You want to collect 6 small samples with in your field, about 1 inch wide and 6 inches deep, mix them all in a clean bucket and send the soil in dry, but let it air dry. You only need to send about a 1/2 cup.

They will email a pdf to you in 3 days after receiving it.

Here is an example of page 1 of the report.

Page two has fertilizer recomendations based in the soil data from p 1. It offers several options so you can use what you can find in your area.

I used triple 19, so I did some math.. it is easy really.

19-19-19 represents N P K of the bag in percetage so a 50 pound bag of triple 19 has 9.5 pounds of each, look at page one it gives you the actual poundage of each. I also only use about 50% of p2 recommendations... otherwise I couldn't afford corn plots.

Corn only needs a little N to start, it needs P and K though. Around week 4 it really needs nitrogen so I then broadcast before heavy rain Urea, urea is 36-0-0 so it has 18 pounds of pure N per 50 pound bag. I put down 200 pounds or Urea per acre for this plot. Urea is around $17 per bag, triple 19 around $16.

I think I put down either 150 pounds or 200 pounds per acre of triple 19 at seed planting... it is expensive!!!

RR seed is around $150 a bag, a bag is around 45 pounds of seed. Generic Round Up,( Gly) is cheap now.

The corn you run over spraying and spreading urea generally rebounds... I just calibrate everything so I can make only one pass for the area I am treating.

Here is a chart showing N uptake needed by corn

[WesternNY]

Another good thing to do is to plant corn over your legume plots. Legumes produce their own N, part of my corn plot this year is in an old clover field that was starting year 5, it was fine for clover but getting grassy and more corn is better.

The area where the clover was has outgrown any other section of the 4 acres of corn even though they got the same Fert rates...

Make sure you work on getting your PH above 6, 6.5 preferred. Good Luck!

[Fantail]

Appriciate you sharring the apple tree info. They look great for being only a few years growing! Do you run into any Japanese Bettle or tent catipilar problems?

[WesternNY]

Thanks Fantail... and no problem with sharing info... I will help anyway I can.

I have had to battle both... each year it is different.... for the weekend warrior I would get seven and read the lable.

Every habitat manager should add soft mass!!!!!

[growalot]

Excellent job!!...I've been broad cast planting corn for a couple of years now and it works great...I can't believe the ear production I get...but...I won't spend the money on RR corn....I use the 11.00 bag of feed corn from T/C farms...and well tested ..it is from the mid west...mostly every thing out there is RR...so the gene is passed on in the seed...but I plant thick enough that weeds are not a problem in an established Field..the corn grows quickly and smothers the weeds...You done a great job on your place...