Rye, I do not know the answer to your question as a certainty, But . . . . . . I had my first planting 2 years ago and one of the trees/nursery stock had a similar experience while we were planting. I took some of the spagnum the trees came packed in and fashioned a splint from some soft wood lying about. Then I wrapped the break with old torn cotton "T" shirt strips and taped it top and bottom about 2 inches above and below the seperation/break.
The tree did the same as you describe yours . . . that is it leafed in about 3 to 4 days along with the others in the planting. It grew splendidly and wintered well. Last year the tree had a fine bloom and masses of blossoms. I selectively pinched all but 6 formed apples and had FANTASTIC yield of sweet, crisp Honey Crisp Apples from it. I just finished pruning the Orchard last week preparing for spring. The tree is doing well and seems sturdy. I have NOT taken the splint and cotton cloth wrapper off yet. I plan to leave it on until next spring ( 2012). A great experiment if nothing else. Good luck with yours. On 3/10/11, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hello all, > > Hoping I could pick your brains on a couple of things: > > 1) I sort of abused a couple trees while pulling them out of the soaking > barrel, I think I had them over-crowded in there. One tiny tree (3/16 > caliber) I snapped at the graft union (scion 3/4 separated from the > rootstock). I wrapped it back together as soon as I noticed, before > planting I could wiggle the scion and the rootstock would wiggle in the > ground so it's fairly tight. It was leafing before I got it home from the > nursery. It's been in the ground 3 days now and the leaves are still green. > > a) What are the chances it will pull through? > b) Or is it just living on the water it stored from the barrel? > c) If it makes it, how long before I should unwrap it? > > 2) Another abused tree I tore most of the roots off pulling it out of the > barrel, by the time I put it in the ground it had two skinny roots barely > more than 1 inch long. Caliber was 1/4 so it was pretty small to begin > with, will it pull through? Anything I should do differently? Like maybe > pot it for a while? > > 3) How soon after planting is it good to head the trees at the bottom > (trellis) wire? Is it immediately? Or better to wait a few days? > > 4) A few of the trees were leafing right out of the nursery, is it still ok > to head them at the wire being that they are "awake"? > > 5) I have some gravenstein trees in the ground since last year, which are > early-bloom, a tree has a flower before any new leaves this season. None of > the others are showing any kind of action yet. Is the flower just a fluke > or is that what early bloom is? If this is not typical, does it mean > anything? > > Thanks, > Rye Hefley > Future Farmers Marketer > So. Cal. > > > -- Michael D. Vaughn Owner / Manager Pie-In-the-Sky Orchards _______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list [email protected] http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
