Especially for Jon Clements, but others as well:
Are your initial Honeycrisp/Bud 9 Tall Spindle trials, where you cropped starting in 2nd leaf, agreeing with Mike's experience? Looking at these trials subsequently, what happened to production? I have a 1,000 tree Honeycrisp/Bud 9 Tall Spindle planting planned for 2015 and this discussion has taken a very interesting turn. I noticed this year that with my 2nd leaf Snowsweet Tall Spindle on Bud 9, the trees that were fully cropped hardly grew (but produced huge fruit); however, the trees that had no fruit (spotty pollination in southern Maine with nearly continuous rain during bloom) also grew very little. Not one Snowsweet is even close to the top wire, located ~8.5'. We did have four periods of drought-induced stress this year, and the Bud 9 varieties were clearly the most checked. I will have Uniram drip with fertigation for all trees starting in 2014, and I anticipate that this will help ameliorate. Steven Bibula Plowshares Community Farm 236 Sebago Lake Road Gorham ME 04038 207.239.0442 www.plowsharesmaine.com From: apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net [mailto:apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net] On Behalf Of Mike Fargione Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 9:42 AM To: jon.cleme...@umass.edu; Apple-crop discussion list Subject: Re: [apple-crop] M9-Nic29 winter hardiness Some growers in NY's Hudson Valley prefer to plant Honeycrisp on B9 because they feel these trees are less prone to biennial bearing and can be cropped more heavily each year compared with Honeycrisp on M9. Our experience is that planting Honeycrisp/B9 at higher density and not cropping in years 1 & 2 can produce a very productive orchard. Mike From: apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net [mailto:apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net] On Behalf Of Jon Clements Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2013 6:26 PM To: Apple-crop discussion list Subject: Re: [apple-crop] M9-Nic29 winter hardiness Simple solution -- pre-order and plant them 2 ft. X 10 ft. Will make you, and the nursery, happy...:-) Jon
_______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list apple-crop@virtualorchard.net http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
