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Managing Old Apple Trees

Many of the better hunting properties available today were once farms. Often the area around an old farmstead becomes overgrown and almost jungle-like, and the fields and old pastures are in planted pine or CRP grass. Unless the old farmhouse is good enough for a camp, the farmstead is often ignored, sometimes for years, until the landowner wants to spend the money to have the area cleaned up and planted with something that produces cash.

Old, overgrown farmsteads can be a paradise for mature bucks. First, if the land is grown up in weeds and brush, with old dilapidated buildings around, it offers a lot of cover and is often a favorite whitetail bedding area. This is especially true if the area is ignored by humans. Second, if there was a smokehouse or outdoor toilet at the farm, chances are good there is a saltlick at that site. Third, and perhaps most important, many of these old farms had an orchard that contained a few apples tree, some of which may be wild.

Wild apple trees usually become established in clearings or on the edge of fields. Most of the time these old apple trees are still alive and may be bearing a little fruit each year. If so, they can be improved to produce more fruit; if they are not bearing fruit, with a little work they can be brought into production. Do this and you have a food plot smack in the middle of a prime buck area.


Step One: Tree Selection

Examine each of the apple trees wherever they are – around the old farmstead or growing wild.

Apples grow on new wood, so the goal in restoring old apple trees is to manage and prune for new growth.

• Is the trunk of the tree sound with no major holes or a rotted center?
• Does the tree appear to be healthy with minimal limb dieback or signs of disease?
• Does the tree have a history of producing fruit?

You may find apple trees in other parts of the old yard, as they were often grown in several areas of a farmstead. Select and mark with surveyors’ tape the healthiest trees. Remember, apples require cross-pollination to bear fruit, so there must be an apple tree of another variety nearby. Also, they will cross-pollinate with a crabapple. Leave as many apple trees as you can for this reason.



Step Two: Clear the Area

To manage an old apple tree you will need the following tools:

• Lightweight chain saw	• Pruning shears
• Tree pruning saw with 10-foot handle	• Ladder
• Eye protection	• Gloves

Apple trees require lots of direct sunlight to produce fruit and they don’t do well when there is a lot of competition from shrubs and trees growing under and near the tree. Using a chain saw, remove all shrubs and trees that are growing next to, under, or over-shadowing the apple trees. The more open the apple tree, the better it will do.

	This old non-productive apple tree was discovered growing in a farm fence row. With some care, it was turned into a deer magnet within three years.

Step Three: Pruning and Fertilizing, Year One

Apples are produced on young fruiting wood, and old unmanaged trees have lots of limbs and branches that are not fruit producers. Pruning will be necessary to reduce the amount of old wood, encourage the growth of new wood, and get sunlight into the tree. It’s well worth the effort, since apple trees that have been managed for four or five years will produce three to four times the fruit of an unmanaged tree.

Always plan on doing your annual pruning in the early spring, after the last frost but before the tree blooms. Most county Cooperative Extension Service offices (county agent) have on hand illustrated instructions that will show you exactly how to prune apple, pear, and crabapple trees. It’s free and will be a big help when you discover that overlooked fruit tree where you hunt.

Start your pruning by removing all the dead and diseased branches and limbs from the tree. Using a pruning saw and/or pruning shears, cut the dead limbs as close to the living tissue as possible. All diseased and insect-infested wood should be burned to prevent reinfestation.

Next, in the tree’s canopy, remove no more than one-third of the limbs to reduce the tree’s height and to let more sunlight into the tree. Prune more heavily in the upper part of the tree than the lower. This way, sunlight will spread more evenly throughout the tree, helping to maintain the productivity of the lower limbs.

Fertilize the tree with three pounds of 6-24-24 fertilizer in a band spread around the drip line. It is important that you do this each year.

A rejuvenated apple tree that produces a lot of fruit annually, attracting a lot of deer.

Step Four: Annual Pruning, Year Two

In the second year, inspect your pruning and remove most of the large, vigorous new shoots that have arisen at the top of the tree. Just leave a few minor shoots that do not create much shade. If you see new shoots developing lower down in the tree, especially off the main trunk, leave them alone; you are trying to get the tree to start producing new fruit wood in the lower canopy. During the second dormant pruning period, you should decide on the desired final height for the tree. You probably won’t be able to reduce the height more than another two feet from the previous year without hurting your tree and yield potential. Continue to thin out shoots in the upper half of the tree, trying to space the main limbs and distribute the new fruiting wood uniformly. Limbs around the outside of the tree should be shortened to allow better light exposure to the lowest new limbs. Help train new shoots off the trunk to go outward, not straight up.

Open up thick clusters of small branches by pruning out those that are rubbing against one another, growing into one another, or have died. Never remove more than one-third of the live growth of the tree. And remember to fertilize the soil.


Step Five: Annual Pruning, Year Three

During the third year, return to the top of your tree and remove about half of the new shoots that have once again arisen near your heaviest pruning cuts. Remove the most vigorous shoots first. When the third dormant period comes, continue to shape your tree by shortening the outer branches by a foot or two. Spread the new fruiting wood evenly over the entire tree from the lowest limbs to the upper limbs. Your tree should now allow very good light and air penetration to all the limbs. Due to the work you’ve done, all areas of your tree should now be easily accessible from your ladder for thinning.

* * * * * * * * *

Rejuvenated apple trees are an important food plant for a wide variety of wildlife beyond deer. The apples they produce are relished by black bear, ruffed grouse, rabbits, squirrels, and fox. The trees also provide good habitat for woodcock, bluebirds, robins, mourning doves and flycatchers.

There are a lot of old apple trees out there just waiting for a good steward to come along and bring them back into production. The rewards are many, including the potential of a huge buck.

 

J. Wayne Fears, the Food Plot Doctor, is one of the pioneers who helped develop food plot practices that are common today. Now, his decades of experience are available to Whitetails Unlimited members. J. Wayne uses questions from our readers as the basis for his column as the Food Plot Doctor. Just email your questions to . The Food Plot Doctor columns will be archived on the WTU website, so you can go back to them for reference in the future. Unfortunately, J. Wayne will not be able to respond to emails individually, but will find common themes from your questions to write about. So get busy, find that thing that's been driving you crazy, or that one topic on which everyone else seems to have directly opposite opinions, and let J. Wayne give you the straight scoop.

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