SteveB wrote:

We bought a property that has some fruit trees. A couple of peaches, a
nectarine, an apple, a couple of apricots, and a couple of almonds.

The trees were neglected. One that was near a spigot that was slightly
leaking had gotten regular watering from the seepage, and we got five of the
fruit boxes FULL of baseball sized peaches. The best I ever tasted. We got
just a few nectarines. Lots of good apricots, and a quart or two of
almonds.

The apple tree was full of apples one week, hundreds. The next week, it was
stripped except some at the top. No people tracks. No animal tracks, and
no half eaten cores on the ground. It was as if aliens came down in a space
ship and sucked them up. We were traveling at the time. At the time of
disappearance, they were hard and not ripe.

Sounds like you found some nice trees. One problem is that you probably
don't
know what varieties you have, but it should not prevent you from enjoying the
fruit.



My questions a

Give me some pointers on watering, fertilizing, and care to get a good crop
this year. I am good at pruning, and these need some pruning, but not a
lot.

Not sure where you are located, but probably your trees are dropping their
leaves and going into dormancy.



Tell me the difference between winter watering schedules, spring, and
summer.

Fruit trees are not all that different from other types of deciduous trees,
in this respect.
I would give them a good watering before the ground freezes. The idea is to
keep the
trees evenly watered. This may require watering more often in the hot
weather. Layers
of mulch at the tree bases will hold down the evaporation to some extent.
You can
check the trees periodically by carefully digging down near their bases to
check if the
ground is dry, or not.

Is it good to make a moat and fill it, or slow water?

You want to water heavily, but not too frequently. This encourages good root
development.
You can put an earthen ring around the tree to hold in the water during
irrigation so that the
water does not run off before it can be absorbed by the trees.

We have PVC
system. Winter, how often to water?

Once the ground freezes, no need to water.

Spring and summer, same question.

Answered above.



When to fertilize and with what?

I like to use a slow release fertilizer, like composted cow manure. I give
the
bases of the trees a coating just before winter, so they are ready to jump
off
the next spring. I also cover the area (inside the drip line) with
composted mulch.
You can rake these two materials into the top few inches inside the drip
line. Be
careful not to damage any roots, as some fruit trees (like dwarfs) tend to
have a
shallow root system.

Tilled in? Spread around the drip line
and watered in? Around the drip line and raked in? Put in the moat and let
dissolve?

I know I can get all these answers from books, and from Google. It's just
that I don't like to sift through that much information, and like the direct
quick answers here.

The thing you didn't mention was pest control. That's more complicated.
Start
thinking of giving them a spray of dormant oil just before spring. If the
fruit you
picked was not attacked by insects, you don't need an agressive spray
schedule.
Pruning is also complex, but you should do that while the trees are dormant,
or
you will just encourage more growth. Cut out ingrowing and crossing
branches,
for starters.

Hope this helps,

Sherwin



Thanks in advance.

Steve

We bought a property that has some fruit trees. A couple of peaches, a
nectarine, an apple, a couple of apricots, and a couple of almonds.

The trees were neglected. One that was near a spigot that was slightly
leaking had gotten regular watering from the seepage, and we got five of the
fruit boxes FULL of baseball sized peaches. The best I ever tasted. We got
just a few nectarines. Lots of good apricots, and a quart or two of
almonds.

The apple tree was full of apples one week, hundreds. The next week, it was
stripped except some at the top. No people tracks. No animal tracks, and
no half eaten cores on the ground. It was as if aliens came down in a space
ship and sucked them up. We were traveling at the time. At the time of
disappearance, they were hard and not ripe.

My questions a

Give me some pointers on watering, fertilizing, and care to get a good crop
this year. I am good at pruning, and these need some pruning, but not a
lot.

Tell me the difference between winter watering schedules, spring, and
summer. Is it good to make a moat and fill it, or slow water? We have PVC
system. Winter, how often to water? Spring and summer, same question.

When to fertilize and with what? Tilled in? Spread around the drip line
and watered in? Around the drip line and raked in? Put in the moat and let
dissolve?

I know I can get all these answers from books, and from Google. It's just
that I don't like to sift through that much information, and like the direct
quick answers here.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
We bought a property that has some fruit trees. A couple of peaches, a
nectarine, an apple, a couple of apricots, and a couple of almonds.

The trees were neglected. One that was near a spigot that was slightly
leaking had gotten regular watering from the seepage, and we got five of
the
fruit boxes FULL of baseball sized peaches. The best I ever tasted. We
got
just a few nectarines. Lots of good apricots, and a quart or two of
almonds.

The apple tree was full of apples one week, hundreds. The next week, it
was
stripped except some at the top. No people tracks.

You got someone in there who picked them. There's sites like the following:

http://www.urbanedibles.org

where people track neglected fruit trees. The former property owners almost
certainly didn't pick the trees either, as a result some years back the
trees started
dropping fruit.

I will tell you this - think what you will of me - but I am very much a
supporter
of people going out there and picking fruit off trees on private property if
there
is dropped fruit under the tree - with or without permission. Particularly
in
urban areas.

Dropped fruit on the ground is a magnet for rats, and will support quite a
lot of them. Until you have had to fight the beasts chewing holes in your
basement, foundations, and God knows where else, you will not appreciate
how incredibly irresponsible it is for people in an urban area to leave food
sources available of that magnitude. It is bad enough for people to use
crappy-designed bird feeders that allow birds to dump seed all over the
place, but at least, birdseed isn't going to support 10-20 rats. Dropped
fruit, by contrast, definitely will. And, when the fruit season is finally
over,
the rats will move into the homes of every house in the vicinity - yours and
your neighbors, and it can take up to a year to trap them out - and trapping
ultimately will hit the law of diminishing returns, and then you have to
resort to poison.

There's nothing like one of your neighbors having to fish a stinky dead rat
corpse out of their wall to get your neglected fruit trees girdled.

No animal tracks, and
no half eaten cores on the ground. It was as if aliens came down in a
space
ship and sucked them up. We were traveling at the time. At the time of
disappearance, they were hard and not ripe.


What tends to happen with these trees over the years is that the longer
they are neglected, as word
gets around, people show up earlier and earlier in the season to get
the jump on other pickers. Your not going to stop it unless you start
posting Do Not Pick signs, and keep a close eye on the trees. You
probably will have to confront a few people during the season as well.
And be prepared for them to complain that the former owners let them
pick the fruit - very likely, the former owners were well aware that
this was happening and were welcoming it - because they didn't then
have to go to the bother of picking the trees themselves.

My questions a

Give me some pointers on watering, fertilizing, and care to get a good
crop
this year. I am good at pruning, and these need some pruning, but not a
lot.


Contact your local county extension office or state land grant university
extension office, they have people who are paid to answer these kinds
of question tailored for your trees and location.

Ted

but each different fruit needs different cultural conditions and combine that with
where you are located you are expecting a great deal from someone to basically sit
down and DO your search for you and write it all up. few people have that
information on the top of their heads and/or the time to write it all down for you.

look around for an orchard group in your area, and talking on the phone is much
easier than writing all that out.

On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 23:53:06 -0800, "SteveB" wrote:
Give me some pointers on watering, fertilizing, and care to get a good crop
this year. I am good at pruning, and these need some pruning, but not a
lot.

Tell me the difference between winter watering schedules, spring, and
summer. Is it good to make a moat and fill it, or slow water? We have PVC
system. Winter, how often to water? Spring and summer, same question.

When to fertilize and with what? Tilled in? Spread around the drip line
and watered in? Around the drip line and raked in? Put in the moat and let
dissolve?

I know I can get all these answers from books, and from Google. It's just
that I don't like to sift through that much information, and like the direct
quick answers here.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

rats, mice, opossums, raccoons, quite a few vermin.

and that is not even including the dropped fruit is breeding ground for all the pests
that destroy the fruit and the trees in the area. we moved in with two neglected
huge "shade" apple trees on either side of us. I didnt even bother thinking about
getting some dwarf apples as I would be spraying them constantly. At least the new
people on each side make some attempt to pick up the rotting stinking fruit. one
side finally cut it to the ground, the other has so butchered their tree I am sure it
will die soon, at least it is unlikely to fruit at all for a while. Ingrid

On Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:39:45 -0800, "Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote:
You got someone in there who picked them. There's sites like the following:
http://www.urbanedibles.org
Dropped fruit on the ground is a magnet for rats,

"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote in message
...

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
We bought a property that has some fruit trees. A couple of peaches, a
nectarine, an apple, a couple of apricots, and a couple of almonds.

The trees were neglected. One that was near a spigot that was slightly
leaking had gotten regular watering from the seepage, and we got five of
the
fruit boxes FULL of baseball sized peaches. The best I ever tasted. We
got
just a few nectarines. Lots of good apricots, and a quart or two of
almonds.

The apple tree was full of apples one week, hundreds. The next week, it
was
stripped except some at the top. No people tracks.

You got someone in there who picked them. There's sites like the
following:

http://www.urbanedibles.org

where people track neglected fruit trees. The former property owners
almost
certainly didn't pick the trees either, as a result some years back the
trees started
dropping fruit.

I will tell you this - think what you will of me - but I am very much a
supporter
of people going out there and picking fruit off trees on private property
if
there
is dropped fruit under the tree - with or without permission.
Particularly
in
urban areas.

Dropped fruit on the ground is a magnet for rats, and will support quite a
lot of them. Until you have had to fight the beasts chewing holes in your
basement, foundations, and God knows where else, you will not appreciate
how incredibly irresponsible it is for people in an urban area to leave
food
sources available of that magnitude. It is bad enough for people to use
crappy-designed bird feeders that allow birds to dump seed all over the
place, but at least, birdseed isn't going to support 10-20 rats. Dropped
fruit, by contrast, definitely will. And, when the fruit season is
finally
over,
the rats will move into the homes of every house in the vicinity - yours
and
your neighbors, and it can take up to a year to trap them out - and
trapping
ultimately will hit the law of diminishing returns, and then you have to
resort to poison.

There's nothing like one of your neighbors having to fish a stinky dead
rat
corpse out of their wall to get your neglected fruit trees girdled.

No animal tracks, and
no half eaten cores on the ground. It was as if aliens came down in a
space
ship and sucked them up. We were traveling at the time. At the time of
disappearance, they were hard and not ripe.


What tends to happen with these trees over the years is that the longer
they are neglected, as word
gets around, people show up earlier and earlier in the season to get
the jump on other pickers. Your not going to stop it unless you start
posting Do Not Pick signs, and keep a close eye on the trees. You
probably will have to confront a few people during the season as well.
And be prepared for them to complain that the former owners let them
pick the fruit - very likely, the former owners were well aware that
this was happening and were welcoming it - because they didn't then
have to go to the bother of picking the trees themselves.

My questions a

Give me some pointers on watering, fertilizing, and care to get a good
crop
this year. I am good at pruning, and these need some pruning, but not a
lot.


Contact your local county extension office or state land grant university
extension office, they have people who are paid to answer these kinds
of question tailored for your trees and location.

Ted

Good grief, man. You prattle on and on endlessly about the rights of people
to trespass, and then don't even answer the original questions. You're
something.

Steve

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote in article
...

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
We bought a property that has some fruit trees. A couple of peaches, a
nectarine, an apple, a couple of apricots, and a couple of almonds.

The trees were neglected. One that was near a spigot that was slightly
leaking had gotten regular watering from the seepage, and we got five
of
the
fruit boxes FULL of baseball sized peaches. The best I ever tasted.
We
got
just a few nectarines. Lots of good apricots, and a quart or two of
almonds.

The apple tree was full of apples one week, hundreds. The next week,
it
was
stripped except some at the top. No people tracks.

You got someone in there who picked them. There's sites like the
following:

http://www.urbanedibles.org

where people track neglected fruit trees. The former property owners
almost
certainly didn't pick the trees either, as a result some years back the
trees started
dropping fruit.

I will tell you this - think what you will of me - but I am very much a
supporter
of people going out there and picking fruit off trees on private property
if
there
is dropped fruit under the tree - with or without permission.
Particularly
in
urban areas.

Uh, I believe this is known as theft and if the value of the fruit is high
enough; it could be a felony.
Not to mention trespassing.......

"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote

I will tell you this - think what you will of me - but I am very much a
supporter
of people going out there and picking fruit off trees on private property
if
there
is dropped fruit under the tree - with or without permission.

Think what you will of me. I go out there with my shotgun and explain
briefly about the dangers of trespassing on my property as I escort them off
at gunpoint.

Steve

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
We bought a property that has some fruit trees. A couple of peaches, a
nectarine, an apple, a couple of apricots, and a couple of almonds.

The trees were neglected. One that was near a spigot that was slightly
leaking had gotten regular watering from the seepage, and we got five of
the
fruit boxes FULL of baseball sized peaches. The best I ever tasted. We
got
just a few nectarines. Lots of good apricots, and a quart or two of
almonds.

The apple tree was full of apples one week, hundreds. The next week, it
was
stripped except some at the top. No people tracks.

You got someone in there who picked them. There's sites like the following:

http://www.urbanedibles.org

where people track neglected fruit trees.

Fruit on the ground is not necessarily indicative of neglect of the trees. I
like to
keep my fruit on the trees as long as possible to maximize the sugar transfer
to
the fruit. I even put ziplock bags on my fruit, so that the critters will
have a hard
time munching on it whenever it falls.

The former property owners almost
certainly didn't pick the trees either, as a result some years back the
trees started
dropping fruit.

Fruit will drop for many reasons, including too many fruits on the tree. It
is
commonly known as June drop. Almost all fruit will eventually drop from the

trees, if left on.



I will tell you this - think what you will of me - but I am very much a
supporter
of people going out there and picking fruit off trees on private property if
there
is dropped fruit under the tree - with or without permission. Particularly
in
urban areas.

Stay away from my yard, or you may get an unpleasant surprise.



Dropped fruit on the ground is a magnet for rats, and will support quite a
lot of them. Until you have had to fight the beasts chewing holes in your
basement, foundations, and God knows where else, you will not appreciate
how incredibly irresponsible it is for people in an urban area to leave food
sources available of that magnitude. It is bad enough for people to use
crappy-designed bird feeders that allow birds to dump seed all over the
place, but at least, birdseed isn't going to support 10-20 rats. Dropped
fruit, by contrast, definitely will. And, when the fruit season is finally
over,
the rats will move into the homes of every house in the vicinity - yours and
your neighbors, and it can take up to a year to trap them out - and trapping
ultimately will hit the law of diminishing returns, and then you have to
resort to poison.

There's nothing like one of your neighbors having to fish a stinky dead rat
corpse out of their wall to get your neglected fruit trees girdled.

No animal tracks, and
no half eaten cores on the ground. It was as if aliens came down in a
space
ship and sucked them up. We were traveling at the time. At the time of
disappearance, they were hard and not ripe.


So you are justifying tresspassing on private property to invoke your brand
of justice. We don't need no stinkin vigilantees patrolling our orchards.



What tends to happen with these trees over the years is that the longer
they are neglected, as word
gets around, people show up earlier and earlier in the season to get
the jump on other pickers. Your not going to stop it unless you start
posting Do Not Pick signs, and keep a close eye on the trees. You
probably will have to confront a few people during the season as well.
And be prepared for them to complain that the former owners let them
pick the fruit - very likely, the former owners were well aware that
this was happening and were welcoming it - because they didn't then
have to go to the bother of picking the trees themselves.

I think a call to the police would be in order.



My questions a

Give me some pointers on watering, fertilizing, and care to get a good
crop
this year. I am good at pruning, and these need some pruning, but not a
lot.


Contact your local county extension office or state land grant university
extension office, they have people who are paid to answer these kinds
of question tailored for your trees and location.

Well, that's a big help. Why did he bother to post the question on a
gardening forum, just to get sluffed off.

Sherwin



Ted