hi Michael,

I googled "maypolling" and didn't find what you were referring to. But I am interested in what you meant by that. I have 17 bud 9 trees, most of which I have permanently staked with 6' metal green painted "t-posts", burying 2 feet of it, including the "t" into the ground 8" from the tree during planting. 4' of the post should be enough to support the main trunk of the bud 9 tree. These instructions were given to me by Lee Calhoun. I figured that was good enough for me.

8 of my bud 9 trees are on a trellis. Supposedly the trellis offers much better support but requires a bit more initial effort. I'm sure you know all this, I just thought I'd throw in a little of what I've learned.

We had quite a storm (from Isabel) come through shortly after my first trees were established from one-year's growth. The stakes did their job and we suffered no loss. We had sustained winds of 60 mph. Not sure if that compares to your storm situation but, at least its an idea.

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You have described a staking system associated with British gardeners. It is complicated but would be effective I think for your tree if you want to keep yours in the normal tree shape, as opposed to a trellised or espalier support. Al

Hi Thomis: Somewhere in the dark empty cavity in my head comes the memory of maypolling from some web site that is not in my favorites. The site had enough pictures to almost fully inform me as to how to do it. The only other things I remember is that it may have involved extending a permanent support stake. The extension was used as described in my original post. Pretty strange to find the term doesn't show up anything horticultural in a web search.

I was planning to plant just the one tree on bud9 and another on G11 this spring until my wife, in her own loving way, convinced me to include another apple. The wife's apple will be grafted from a very lagre, old tree near here that nobody has done anything with for decades. I discovered the tree last year while it was flowering, it fruited and boy are they good fresh and canned. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures of the fruit THIS YEAR to post for possible I.D.. The flavor was very unique and complex and the apples weren't especially juicy or sweet. Now if I can just figure out how to graft the scions/buds to the 10 - G11 liners I just ordered.

Thanks for the pics and ideas,
Michael

Maypolling is where you have a tall center stake, and strings are run from this down to branches to help support them when they're heavy with fruit, instead of propping sticks under them like we do in the USA. Commercial orchards actually do the opposite, having different methods of tying the branches down past horizontal to dwarf the growth and increase bearing.

In the above photos I'd plant another Bud 9 tree in between each of the existing trees.

Tell C. Lee Calhoun hi for me.

Applenut

Applenut, thats interesting that you say to plant another bud 9 tree in between the existing ones. They are already five feet apart and I thought I was "pushing" it by having them that close. what do you do about all the overlapping limbs on the trellis? If I planted more in between they'd be 2.5 feet apart!

Thomis, are there any problems with the T-post abrasion of the trunks? Are the trellised trees supported with any post when first planted? Tom

Tom,
I planted the t-posts about 6-8" away from the young trees, in the same planting hole. The few trees that rub up against the t-posts, I wedge a piece of wood in there and tie it in place with a piece of manila twine. I've had to do that on a few of them, but it hasn't been much of an issue.

When I planted the trees for the trellis, I didn't support them right away. Partly b/c I knew I was going to head them back to the height of the first wire which was to be about 24" off the ground. This photo was taken right before I headed them all back to 24". I can't remember why I had the one stake on the second tree from the right. Who knows.

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Thomis. There are videos on youtube.com from the UMASS Fruit advisor. He has a specific video on Bud9 rootstock growing Honey Crisp apple trees. It kinda struck me to to tell you about it after Fruitnut said plant more trees. I cant look at the video at work, but it seems to me, they planted thier trees much closer. I believe the guys name to be John Clements. You can search for the videos easily on the website.

Sorry to be off topic, but I didnt weant to lose the thought.

Joey

Yep, just watched them. Pretty cool. They were planted about 3' apart. I may have to add another row of trellis... thanks for sharing
thomis

I have a little more time...

I also wanted to comment on the use of stone for mulch. I do the same with my trees because of the nutrients in the stone.

I worked in a rock quarry for a few years when I was young and we discovered back then, ANYTHING will grow in rock dust becuase of the natural nutrients in the stone.

I now use it in my home orchard in WVA. My primary use is for watering. I live too far away to manage the weeds and grass, so I decided to bore holes maybe two feet from the trees and filled eadch with 1" stone. So now when I go out (about every two or three weeks) I fill the holes with rainwater from my collection tank. The water goes directly to the roots instead of just watering the grass, and the water is not evaporated by the sun. It works better than I hoped.

Glad you found the videos.

Cheers!

Thanks thomis: I'm only planting one Bud9 tree and figured why bother with a trellis if a single pole structure would work. But now that you mention it...maybe I'll trellis it instead. I was only going to have 2 apples and 2 pears in my wee orchard starting 5 years ago. I now have 3 pears and 7 apples with 2 more on the way. Having run out of room on my property, I asked the city council if I could plant the 5 (soon to be 7) apples across the street from my house on the city's mostly vacant block. Where will it all end? BTW, just discovered that deer do make it in to town as far as my apple trees yesterday, OH GREAT! That reminds me, why are the 4x4 posts in your fence so much taller than the top rail?

joeyoso, I never thought about the stone as adding nutrients but it makes good sense. That just adds another good reason to use it. Here are my initial reasons for using it:
I like how it looks
It prevents weeds
It deters voles from tunneling near the trunk and roots
It evenly dissipates water when poured from the 5-gallon buckets
and now...
It leaches nutrients into the soil. thanks!

Michael357, I think if I could do it over again, I would have planted all the bud 9 trees using a trellis system. I am kind of stubborn, and I often have to learn things on my own but... I had some really good advice during my early planning stages from some very experienced local orchardists here. Most of which was to forget the semi-dwarfs, which I was really keen on, and to plant all dwarfs using espalier. I chose to listen only in part, and I liked more the idea of having most of the dwarfs spaced further apart and individually staked. After watching the trees on the trellis grow that first season (2008) I realized I should have taken the advice. They are so cool and much easier on the trellis. Its not too late, though. I could and very well may, turn that entire row of nine bud-9 trees spaced 9 feet apart and individually staked, to a long 3-post trellis system and plant more bud-9 trees in between, thus turning the nine-tree row into a 18-tree trellis wonderland. The wifey likes the trellis better too. And one day late last year we were out walking around the trees and she said "...and why didn't you grow them all on the trellis?" and I just kind of went, "uh..."

As for the 4x6 posts reaching up to 8' tall.. We only wanted the boards to go up to 5' tall due to making it look better since its right by the road. My rope just arrived last night. I bought 600'! So I am going to string two rows of rope, one at 6.5' tall and one at 7.5' tall. So above the top boards will be two rows of manila rope all the way around. Hopefully this will deter the deer from trying to jump in when I have apples.

There is also the financial aspect. If I had allowed the fence builder to add the boards all the way up to 8', it would have cost another grand, whereas, 600' of natural manila rope costs $100 drop shipped.

Thomis: Don't you just hate it when they ask questions like that? I think I'm gonna try the maypole thing for the novelty of it, the KS wind will probably shred it the first fruiting season. My only hesitation (aside from cost and effort) with espalier is the extreme heat (100+) and intense sun combination we get here every summer. Come to think of it though, we visited a commercial orchard in SE KS last fall that was all trellised apples. Bet my wife will be asking me the same question yours asked you in a year or 2.