Cultivating Resilience In An Apple Orchard

     I suspected something in the soil was killing our young apple trees.  Between 2002 and 2003 we planted 120 trees.  In 2004 they started dying…seemed to be in somewhat of a pattern, so I called the  County Extension service- they sent out a field rep to help identify the problem.  We took soil samples, even sent one of the dead trees to the Iowa State Lab to have it tested.  They could find nothing conclusive. We lost 40 trees over the next two years.  I replanted in 2005 thinking maybe it was a one time disease.  The new trees started dying by the end of the Summer….The trees evidenced  an early “leaf drop”.  They would start withering  prematurely and in some cases, while the tree didn’t completely die,  certain branches would.    One person suspected it was the  walnut trees, because they are not compatible with certain plants.  Iowa State said no, plus  that didn’t really make sense , because there were certain portions of the orchard that used to have a large concentration of walnut trees..and the trees in that area were fine. 

     I have Christian friends who would  take that as a “sign” there is  not supposed to be apple trees in that area and I should do something different.   Well, I’m not them.

     I’m of the persuasion that God gave me jurisdiction over my little corner of this earth and   nice orderly rows of apple trees look a lot better than partial rows with large blocks of nothing.  If plan A doesn’t work..then  go to plan B…if plan B doesn’t pan out…go to plan C.  If I couldn’t identify the specific disease or micro organism that was living in  the soil, then by golly, we’ll  just remove  the top 3 foot of soil and replace it.   We live on 4 -1/2 acres…so getting different soil was not a problem.  I was building an addition in our area last Summer so I asked my excavator to schedule a couple of days to do a “dirt swap”.. just shuffle dirt from behind the barn into the orchard and vise versa.

     The dirt swap took longer than it should have.  The guy was giving me a break on rates, but his truck was old..it leaked oil like a sieve and took forever to  dump.  I had figured between $500 and $1000  to move the dirt.   40 trees producing 2 to 3 bushel of apples a year when mature.  At $40 to $60 per bushel that = $3200 to  $7200 per year gross income so I could justify spending the $1000.  Well, his bill was $1500, plus I had to hire a second smaller hoe to dig around the septic field..so by the end of the dirt swap we’d spent $2000 and only moved 1/2 of the dirt I wanted to move…told him, let’s see what happens before we move any more.   

        Last summer I was visiting with a neighbor who  told me that on their property, they had an underground swimming pool that would fill up with water after a good rain.  A tree root had  worked itself through the pool wall and  would suck 500 gallons of water  within just a couple of days draining the pool..    Ding. 

       A light-bulb went on. 

   There were mature trees twenty  feet outside the orchard.. if the  root system of those trees is a large as their branches above ground..then they were syphoning the water away from the small trees, whose root systems couldn’t compete- even though we’d watered them weekly like we were supposed to.

    So, we’re going to try it again.  I have another 40 apple trees on order from Adams Nursery. 

   Are you doing anything the first week of April?   I would love   some help planting the new trees…we’ll feed you, and I’ll personally show you how to start  a new tree.  Think about it.