Hi Randy: I have had several trellising trials and I can tell you that it is difficult to keep the trees growing upright and to keep them from snapping at the graft union (especially Gala), if you use a single wire. The only possibility is to use a vigorous rootstock in the M.26 size. Use a 10' metal conduit, place the wire at a height (6' to 7') so that you can walk under the wire when trees are still young and insert the rest of the conduit in the ground. It did a fair job for us in Central Illinois because we have a very rich soil that makes trees on M.26 almost as big as on M.7. I would be hesitant to recommend it on sandy type soils or on M.9 or smaller rootstocks. Hope this helps, Mosbah
Mosbah M. Kushad Food Crops Extension Specialist and Postharvest Physiologist University of Illinois 1201 West Gregory Drive Urbana, Illinois 61801 phone (217)244-5691 From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Randy Steffens Jr Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 8:43 AM To: Apple-crop discussion list Subject: Re: [apple-crop] Vertical Scaffold Spacing For those who have high-density orchards, do you find trellising with one wire at about 9 feet provides sufficient support, if a bamboo stake or the like is placed at each tree? Randy Steffens Jr Shepherd's Valley Orchards Middle Tennessee On Feb 28, 2011, at 6:55 AM, Con.Traas wrote: I agree with Terence and Dave, Their experience and concerns have been borne out here in Ireland over the past number of years, where it has been survival of the more dense (orchards rather than orchardists). Obviously there are limits, but in our own case, for our single line orchards we have opted for 4 ft. x 11ft., and we have found this a good spacing for the more vigorous Elstar variety (more vigorous than Golden Delicious or Jonagold at least). We do not grow the trees as high as at lower latitudes (more mutual shading from taller trees when you come this far North), and have found that a limit of about 5 ½ to 6 feet height of cropping wall works well. In practice, this wall commences about 2 feet above the ground, and finishes at 7.5 feet, facilitating all harvesting and pruning from ground level. Con Traas _______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list [email protected] http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
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