Staking advice on natural regeneration fruit trees...in Bulgaria

[bearfodder]

Hoping for some wise words! (I'm an arborist by trade, but looking to gain more fruit and forest management experience) I've been working on a long ago abandoned fruit orchard and small wooded area. Trees present are plum, cherry, dogwood trees!, walnut, turkish oaks, hawthorn, elm (ulmus minor), quince, apple and pear (plus one 5 inch high lime and a 2ft high ash). I've taken out most, though not all, moribund trees and dead trees out (but left some standing dead-wood). The false acacia's were taking over, and apart from two false acacias along the perimeter, they will be persistently removed.

 

The question, shall i stake all the saplings - even if they are only 2 ft high and very skinny? The winters here are harsh (lots of snow, wind and rain to come soon!). Some of the trees are on flat ground and some are on a steep embankment leading to a gulley into the forest. Because they have grown amongst a lot of undergrowth, they are feeble and very thinned stemmed. I wondered if i stake them, are they liable to snap under heavy, potentially drifting snow. Or, would it be better to leave them to be flattened by the snow, in the hope they will 'spring up' and self-right when the winter subsides.

 

Also, another potentially silly question; people lyme the stems of their fruit trees. Should I do the same? If so, at what high?

 

Any reflections/lessons gratefully accepted!!

[agg221]

Pictures would help.

 

You mention fruit trees and a wooded area. Unless you only want the fruit trees for decorative effect, I would treat these differently.

 

The wooded area will regenerate by competition between the trees. They will be spindly and upright, with the trees around the edges probably leaning. Individually they would blow over, but their collective bulk will keep them upright.

 

Fruit trees are 'designed' (pruned) to get a crop, by getting light and air to the crown. They are spaced further apart so they don't get drawn upwards. Most fruit trees are grafted onto rootstocks. The stock controls the size, the scion controls the variety. Seedlings are likely to grow very vigorously, take a very long time to crop and be really dissapointing when they do. If you want them for reliable fruit, propagation of whatever the locals grow onto stock of the size you want will make for a more productive orchard, unless you want it purely for decoration.

 

There is one exception to the above on fruit trees. In the UK if you go back a very long way in rural areas it used to be common practice to propagate certain fruits, particularly some apples and cherries, from seed. They didn't come true in the sense of being identical, but they had dominant genetic characteristics which tended to come through. This is a bit like growing vegetables of a particular variety from a packet of seed. The plants are not genetically identical but will be similar enough in the ways that matter. It is just possible that this practice has survived where you are but you would need to do some asking around to find out.

 

Alec

[bearfodder]

Wow, thanks Alec! That was my first post =) Yeah, pictures would help - i've been thinking about buying one for about a decade...reckon i might just do that this year!

 

Forgot to say too...I don't live here, just on holiday - my dad lives here but he's not much of a gardener. So yes, the fruit trees are largely decorative, but i was hoping for some crop. I have done quite a few things I would have ideally done at another time of year (like pruning!) and I would have preferred to have done more over a longer period of time, ie gradually. I thought it was only really the pear and apples that would need to be propagated by cuttings (if they wanted tasty ones)...never thought about the cherries!

 

It's on a hillside and the 'garden' is essentially in two parts. The top bit is largely a plum orchard...which i've thinned out heavily (I left some old ones which i dead wooded) and I left more to be thinned out in the future - it is a little more exposed than the other bit.

 

The other bit (the most interesting bit!) slopes downward into the forest and is quite well sheltered from the wind. It gets good light in the summer...but this bit has the most diverse selection of trees. Once i removed the brambles, clematis and dead trees...there was not a great deal left except for tiny saplings and a few older trees (on these I pruned out dead wood, clematis and reshaped some of them (pear, apple, plum and one healthy walnut). To be honest, I wanted some fruit but I'm more interested in ensuring retaining diversity of tree in this section...and a lot of these trees are tiny a spindly, and on a steep slope...I was largely worried the winter would kill them, or the undergrowth will simply out compete them. Does it sound like i'm helping them?? I guess, you helped me realise, I'm mostly worried about the wee saplings on the steep slope... I'm beginning to suspect I should now forget the stakes and leave nature to do her thing????

[Cherry Picker]

Just found this website there may be useful info on there

 

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good luck and let us know what happens.

[daveatdave]

for the saplings try tree guards they provide protection from the Weather and animals