Recommendation for Apple Trees and Paw Paw

I bought some apple trees (don't remember what kinds, some tags fell off anyways) and they've never done really well. They put on fruit the first year, which was last year, but the apples soon fell off unripe. Their second year, this year, we had waves of cicadas which were soon replaced by japanese beetles. I guess they just never catch a break.

Can some one recommend any fertilizer that would give them a boost for next year? I don't mind if there's more leaf than fruit as long as they fill out a bit. I'm going to try some superthrive as well and see if it helps.


Second, supossing my newly planted paw paw plants come back next year, should I fertilize or just leave them alone?

TY

PawPaws naturally grow in rich organic soil along creek banks. I planted ours where we had a leaf pile for several years and they are doing well. They are within several feet of a large black walnut tree. I find the one propogated from the root system has done the best for us.

I have no idea what mine were made from. All I know is I bought them for 3 or 4 dollars and that was good enough for me!

I'd do the leaf pile compost things but weeds are everywhere, I read recently that they like to be hit with cow manure their first year. I think I'll try that for all the fruit trees.

Young apple trees often produce no fruit or very small fruits at first...the tree seems to know it needs to develop more strength in its trunk and limbs to carry the load. My young trees (semi-dwarfs) had a nice crop in 2003 when they had been in place four years, but even then the fruits weren't quite full sized. In 2004 the crop was zilch because of weather problems at blossom time. Of course, apples are marginal for an area such as this where the recommended 600 hours of winter chill don't always occur.

As a rough estimate, apples need about a pound per year of age of a fetilizer that is about a 5-10-10 mix annually. If what you have as avilable, as we do, of a 10-20-20 formulation, then cut the amount per year of age to half a pound and apply annually.

Spread the fertilizer in the fall or winter (preferably when the ground is not frozen, or at least not frozen deeply) or in the earliest spring, as you do not want the solution to run off--you want it to sink into the soil profile.

Judicious pruning is essential in young trees--as well as older ones. Ideally, a tree that ends up roughly triangular--like a Christmas tree, but with three to five limbs that spiral up the trunk, beginning about 24"-30" above the ground level, and spaced several inches apart on the trunk, both vertically and several degrees apart radially on the trunk will be the one most productive and well balanced. One-fifth of 360 degrees would be at about 70 to 75 degrees or so apart.

It is also very important the union of the limb branch to the trunk is at an angle--on the order of 45 degrees to the vertical. Too close, the bark is compressed between the trunk and the limb and eventually the joint breaks, splitting the tree. Too wide, the limb will end up drooping to low and be overwhelmed by higher limbs.

It is good to train the tree several times a year, removing growing bud tips or small branchlets rather than making large cuts in late winter. The more the tree is guided into maximizing its natural form, the more quickly you will have a fruit-producing tree.

In this day and age, a fully dwarf-sized tree is about right for a back yard, unless you have plenty of room. If you do, a semi-dwarf that will eventually reach a height of 12 feet or so tends to be much better rooted, require less support, and although slower to begin producing, will live a longer, healthier life.

Spur-type apple trees, available for most apple varieties, produce earlier, and require far fewer leaves per fruit than those that are non-spur varieties. The contrast is a bit of a shock--five to seven leaves are adequate to produce one apple on a spur-type variety. It takes closer to fifty leaves to do the same on a standard, non-spur type. The energy on the standard type is used to make useless wood, unless your purpose is to produce fire wood, not apples.

Spur-type apples on semi-dwarf rootstalks also are shorter, more compact and more fun to grow.

Some varieties, such as Delicious in its various forms, require a pollenizer. Even though the pollen of Delicious is perfectly fertile, the varieties of Delicious (the red ones) are self sterile. Most good nurseries that sell fruit trees will know which varieties are best suited for your area and can advise (if they know what they think they know about apples) which ones do and which do not require a pollenizer second variety. Golden Delicious is fully self-fertile, for example, but is highly susceptible to a bacterial infection that causes the apple to form rough, scaly spots around all the lenticels (pores) on the skin of the fruit. This is true in humid areas, and does not apply in the irrigated desert West. That is why those waxy, clean and beautiful Golden or Yellow Delicious come from the state of Washington--they are grown in the inland, semi-desert areas only.

Best of luck in your venture!

Neil Mogensen (I grew among orchards and grew apples commercially for more than the first half of my life)

Wow! You DO know alot about apple trees. I'll have to print this out and get to those trees in the spring.

I know that these trees are full sized, they're growing in our orchard. So far all we planted were these apple trees, then I planted the paw paws last year (since now it's 2005) and we'll be looking into cherries, maybe pear and who knows what else.

Paw paws are very slow growers. A pair I planted in 1998 finally bloomed in'03 and one of them set fruit last year, altho it did not mature. I've heard they like slightly acidic conditions, so I save spent tea leaves to scratch into the soil periodically. Somewhere I've seen an article on paw paws - I'll try to find it again.

I'd appreciate it. Your tea leaf idea is good. I don't like those store amendments for acidifying soil b/c they always leave crystals behind.

I also planted a bunch of evergreens, I have to go and buy big bags of pine mulch for all of them. We have sweet soil.

There are two references to Asimina triloba in Plant Files. Another good reference from Purdue University is http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-220.pdf and Kentucky State University is home to the PawPaw Foundation - http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/